I Ain’t No Fortunate Son
“Some folks are born silver spoon in hand,
Lord, don’t they help themselves, oh.
But when the taxman comes to the door,
Lord, the house looks like a rummage sale
It ain’t me, it ain’t me,
I ain’t no millionaire’s son, no.”

Fortunate Son by Rock and Roll Hall of Famer John Fogerty

Fogerty was protesting the Vietnam War in this classic song written with his group Creedence Clear Water Revival. Fogerty was angry about being drafted. He was angry that the rich and the privileged escaped service in a war that the wealthy had supported. His lyrics ring just as true today as they did in 1969. Only now these words represent current injustices like Big Oil Executives testifying to Congress on their record profits.

Recently pressure has been put upon politicians because of record profits put into the bank accounts of Oil Companies. Due to the pressure from the public congress called meetings to discuss these windfalls.

Lee Raymond, chairman of ExxonMobil Corp., the world's largest publicly traded oil company, acknowledged the high gasoline and home heating prices "have put a strain on Americans' household budgets," but he defended his company's profits by saying Petroleum earnings "go up and down" from year to year and are in line with other industries when compared with the industry's enormous revenues. First off why didn’t the senators require these executives to go under oath? The republicans seem to be the ones bucking against this but then a simple check into who the biggest donors to these republicans campaigns found big oil as the big spenders it was no surprise. . Second, I would just like to know what other industry is this joker talking about. Is Raymond comparing his business to Wal-Mart to Microsoft? What other business was so opportunistic with a monopoly that has such a huge impact upon our nations economy? This little stunt could easily put the brakes on our economy causing a massive recession all because oil companies could line their pockets with cash. The bottom-line is these business leaders just fleeced America. America’s reliance upon cheap oil is also our Achilles heal. When there is a sharp rise in gas the average American is not able to stop purchasing gas.

The US Congress is thinking of imposing a windfall tax as a punishment to such reckless price gauging. The oil companies don’t believe this is fair and Raymond basically threatened Congress by saying “It would be a mistake to impose punitive damages and would probably result in less investment in refineries and oil exploration” when pressed on the issue. Oil companies are now saying without record profits that they will not invest more in oil exploration and refinery capacity. I see this as a threat. These companies are playing hardball to avoid a tax on ill-gotten gains. These same clowns expect that Congress to help them circumvent environmental law that restricts the expansion of refining and oil exploration. While I am no eco-nazi by any stretch, why should congress play ball with these guys who are just exploiting John Q. Public. Maybe we should restrict their future profits by imposing price controls on gasoline based upon the cost of a barrel of oil.

But then again… It ain’t me, It ain’t me I ain’t no Senators Son, No!!!