Specter suggests tax on oil companies amid big profits

Winston-Salem Journal

WASHINGTON - The government should consider a tax on oil companies if they make excessive profits amid rising gasoline prices, a leading Republican senator said yesterday.

Sen. Arlen Specter of Pennsylvania, the chairman of the Senate Judiciary Committee, said that a windfall-profits tax, along with measures to stem concentration of market power among a few select oil companies, could offer eventual relief to consumers hurting at the gas pump.

"I believe that we have allowed too many companies to get together to reduce competition," Specter said. "They get together, reduce the supply of oil, and that drives up prices."

A politician is addicted to taxes like a druggie is addicted to crack.