So the Tesla tax breaks are fine with you?
Personally, I’m against tax breaks or (especially) subsidies for any business or industry in the private sector. I believe that violates the intent and purpose of taxation. And it’s clearly being used to apply primarily to those corporations and organizations that can contribute votes and/or money to campaigns. IMHO it’s using our tax dollars to buy votes.
So the Tesla tax breaks are fine with you?
No…as I said more then once…get rid of all of them. Tax breaks were designed for the needy. Tesla buyers and Billion dollar corporations are NOT needy.
But lets start at the top…the ones that effect the average person the most. The Tesla tax break is $0 effect on my taxes one way or the other. GM bailout, Oil Industry tax breaks will effect my tax burden. It’s absurd.
If only we could get the government to compromise and, say, cut the oil and agri subsidies in half.
Then wait and see what happens.
Proof is in the pudding.
Mike, since you’ve decided we need to veer off topic (from Tesla), fine, let’s talk about what has happened in the US because of the revolution in energy production from US. These technologies were developed by US companies, applied to US oil and gas fields, with money paid to US property owners and US taxing entities (local, state, and federal). The resulting drops in oil and natural gas prices (100% caused by the shale oil and gas revolution in the US) have cut gasoline and diesel prices by at least $1/gallon, saving ALL Americans about $180 Billion/year. On top of that, natural gas prices are about 1/2 of what they normally would be, saving ALL Americans about $80 Billion/year, for a total of about $260 Billion/year. And the energy company tax breaks have a small part of that, encouraging companies (by making it more economic) to drill wells in the US, rather than send that capital overseas to other attractive oil and gas producing areas.
It’s a REALLY bad idea to put in bad tax breaks (like for Tesla) and ignore them because they’re ‘small’. A bad policy is a bad policy, period.
Here’s one reason I think the tax breaks for these exotic cars is good to do. I suspect not many people posting here can afford one of them. In fact, not many people in general can afford them as is the case with any bleeding edge technology. But as they do sell them, the companies making them start to enjoy cost reductions in the form of recapturing their investment, continuous improvements including volume cost reductions etc to the point where the “new” technology becomes mainstream and the average Joe can now afford it. If you didn’t entice people to buy them, that curve would be far longer than it is and may not even come to fruition before the company turned belly up due to lack of income vs investment. How many people could afford PCs when they first came out? Or cell phones? Are you rushing out to buy an OLED TV @ $10k? There are many examples. The calls were the same back then… those rich b@stards!!! 
OLED TV’s are falling in price. I just saw a 55inch version for below 4K at my local electronics store (LG model). To me the picture quality was not much better than my LED TV so it’s not worth the price right now. When they get to the $1500 range…I might pounce on one. I drove down to the store in my Chevy HHR when I heard they had arrived.
“Since you’ve decided we need to veer off topic (from Tesla), fine”
I count at least 9 off topic posts before mine.
I was referring to MikeInNH, sorry for the confusion.
It's a REALLY bad idea to put in bad tax breaks (like for Tesla) and ignore them because they're 'small'. A bad policy is a bad policy, period.
I NEVER said that and you know I NEVER said that. I said several times that ALL tax breaks should be removed…Argue against something I said…not something I didn’t say.
On top of that, natural gas prices are about 1/2 of what they normally would be, saving ALL Americans about $80 Billion/year, for a total of about $260 Billion/year.
That has NOTHING to do with tax cuts. Absolutely NOTHING. If it did then the oil companies wouldn’t be making record profits. They’d be struggling. C for effort. “We made $95 BILLION in profits last year. But we need several BILLION in tax cuts so we can pass that on to the consumer.”
That is the worse argument for keeping big oil tax cuts I ever heard.
Mike, you need a bit of an update. Oil company profits have plummeted, Exxon’s about 1/2 of what it was a year ago. Thousands have been laid off in the US. Several smaller oil and gas companies are facing bankruptcy. No ‘record profits’ to be found, anywhere, and there won’t for years to come. Why? The industry (and world) now knows there’s a huge amount of oil and gas available at less than $100/bbl in the US. No more expectations of $200 oil like there was in the past. Good for consumers? Certainly, but no gusher of profits for industry, that’s certain.
Your right profits have slid for 2015. I feel so bad for them. They’re only in track to make $50 BILLION in profits this year. I guess we should increase the tax cuts then. Looks like they’re about to go under.
Big companies make big money, if they didn’t they’d be a failure. For comparison, Exxon’s profit margin is a bit over 7%, Microsoft’s is about 30%, Apple’s about 23%. And Exxon does better than most oil companies. So who has the outrageous profits?
I have no problem with companies making profits. Where did I ever say that? Show me.
What I have a problem with is these companies that make HUGE profits (like oil) are getting HUGE tax breaks. I have not swayed from that position. And I have not argued anything but that. I don’t know why you keep saying otherwise.
That is an excellent point texases- puts it in perspective…
Why is 7% “huge”?
Keep changing your argument to justify he tax cuts.
I own Exxon stock and I buy Exxon gas. Check your portfolio and I’ll bet there is oil and gas company stock in there. So they make big money (subsidized or not) and what do they do with it? Development, payments to stock holders, it all gets redistributed. That’s the way an economic system works.
I have problems with subsidies that encourage people to do things that wouldn’t make sense otherwise or prop up industries that maybe should not be propped up. I really have trouble finding the rationale for a subsidy for a $70K car with a very small market. OTH I think there are more important things for the feds to work on. I for one am going to replace my dishwasher before I’m forced to buy one that doesn’t wash dishes thanks to the Energy rules. Subsidies are just part of the total DC dysfunction.
Sure, get rid of tax breaks, for ALL industries, as the Exxon head offered to congress. Oil and gas is no worse than most, and the wells drilled in the US in response to those benefits have directly benefitted folks’ wallets. I’m just trying to understand your claim of ‘huge profits’, when the oil industry is making far less than before, and far far less than other equally large industries.
I was talking about Tesla, the benefits to millionaires, and what a waste that is. Which you agree with, it seems. I will respond to misleading posts regarding oil and gas. It’s critical that folks understand the facts.
So they make big money (subsidized or not) and what do they do with it? Development, payments to stock holders, it all gets redistributed.
It gets redistributed to the right people. The VAST majority of people in this country do NOT own stocks (mainly lower income). And that redistribution of Exxon profits also goes to it’s many foreign investors.