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| 5/23 |
| 2007/4/24-27 [Politics/Foreign/MiddleEast/Iraq] UID:46439 Activity:moderate |
4/24 http://www.time.com/time/world/article/0,8599,1614000,00.html Iraqi Oil: More Plentiful Than Thought, 215 billion barrels, or double only second to Saudi Arabia, and more than Iran at 136 billion barrels of oil. So much for oil shortage. Time to fulfill your American dream by buying that big house 45 miles away from the city and the SUV you've always dreamed of having! \_ We pumped up 10% of all the oil consumed since the dawn of the age of oil during the first Bush term. During the second Bush term, we will pump up 10% of all known reserves. \_ I suppose you know what the core of the earth is made of too? Or are you citing unnamed sources, or you 'just know'? \_ Do we really want to put more money in the hands of muslims? Let's break the oil habit already, fer chrissake. \_ I just laughed when US was lecturing China about how China shouldn't be dealing with Nigeria and Sudan. \_ Every President from Nixon on has said this. And during the Presidency of every President since Nixon we've gotten more dependent on imports. Actually doing something about it will mean the kind of sacrifices by the American people that will get any politician who actually tries to implement them carried out of town on a rail. So instead the system will collapse and we will elect a constant stream of more and more maniacal tyrants who promise to fix the energy problems. \_ C'mon, a "maniacal tyrant" persuaded us into a war with Iraq, a country which never harmed us. Granted, he did that by lying to us. How hard could it be to persuade us to provide incentives, implemented on a gradual basis, toward moving us to oil-independence? Everyone knows oil is running out. Just look at gas prices. Everyone knows that we're headed for a collapse. I doubt a politician who says, "it's time to prepare for the inevitable--this new gasoline tax will provide incentive to moving to renewable transport fuels. And BTW, to reduce the impact on the poor, we're reducing the income tax, so you shouldn't be paying any more overall." \_ Poor people don't pay income tax. Reduce the payroll tax instead. \_ I read that only 33% of adults pay income tax now. That is scary for those of us who are paying into the system. \_ Where did you read this? I am skeptical. \_ That seems hard to believe. The majority of Americans do pay more in payroll tax than in income tax, however, a fact usually conveniently left out by people who advocate income tax taxcuts. \_ I didn't say 'payroll tax'. However, that just covers entitlements. I read it in that rag called the Wall Street Journal. The article is called "The Taxpaying Minority". http://www.ncpa.org/sub/dpd/index.php?Article_ID=14434 It says something like 40% of taxpayers pay 92% of the taxes. 33% pay none at all and the rest pay so little as to be almost nothing. \_ First you say that only 33% pay payroll tax, now you say that 33% pay none at all. Which one is it??? \_ Huh? \_ "I read that only 33% of adults pay income tax now." "33% pay none at all..." Which one is it? You do understand that these do statements do not say the same thing, right? \_ First one was from memory. Second from the article. Just read it and see. The gist the article makes, from what I remember, is that some people pay more than "none at all" but it is so small as to be almost nothing. \_ Thanks for clarifying. The poor pay a disproportionate amount of sales, gasoline and use taxes as a percentage of income, so only talking about "income" tax is a misapprehension. Actually, when the WSJ does it, it is a deliberate attempt to distort the truth. \_ Sure, they do pay more in proportion, but (except for gasoline) those are state taxes. \_ Ok, 33% pay none at all-- does that include children, old people, and disabled? \_ Obviously. \_ If you look at all taxes we have basically a flat tax, with each quintile paying almost the same percent of their income in taxes. However, since the very top has so much more income than everyone else it makes sense they are paying most of the taxes. That doesn't show the top is being taxed unfairly, it shows that the bottom is getting screwed. \_ I never said it was unfair. I am just saying that the tax base is eroding. \_ As the gap widens between the top tier and the rest of us also-rans, it would be more accurate to say that a smaller number of people are continuing to pay enormous (yet still not necessarily unfair) amounts into the tax base. It's so much eroding as it is becoming proportionately uber-relevant. -!pp |
| 5/23 |
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| www.time.com/time/world/article/0,8599,1614000,00.html Reprints While the war in Iraq stretches into its fifth year, a less bloody battle is raging over what lies beneath the carnage: oil. Last week a Colorado energy consultancy firm, IHS, stunned some of Iraq's politicians and oil engineers by declaring that the country's oil reserves were about 215 billion barrels -- about double the estimates that have held for Iraq for years. That would make Iraq a giant oil power, second only to Saudi Arabia. If the estimates prove true, Iraq's potential would outstrip its other neighbor Iran, which sits atop about 136 billion barrels of oil. The IHS engineers examined 438 undrilled fields and used new technology to recalculate old reservoirs. But for Iraqi politicians the more dramatic news might be where the country's unexpected reserves lie, rather than their size. The report says about 100 billion barrels of oil and a large amount of gas lie in the Sunni-dominated Al-Anbar province. Until now, Sunni politicians have feared economic devastation if Iraq divided into a federation or imploded into disparate ethnic states, since the territory dominated by their ethnic group was thought to be the only one without large reserves of oil. The fact that Sunni areas hold massive reserves could roil the precarious negotiations over Iraq's proposed new oil law, which would effectively end Iraq's nationalized oil industry and hand over substantial power to the regions. The Kurdish north and the Shi'a south are reluctant to allow the central government in Baghdad too much say over their regional oil production, according to sources who have attended the negotiations over the new oil law. Yet a strong role for the central government has helped calm Sunni fears of being left out of oil revenues. The law is crucial for Iraq's economic survival -- and its ability to ease its dependence on US funds -- since no international oil company can begin work without it. Prime Minister Nouri Al-Maliki wants a vote in parliament by the end of May But talks in Dubai last week left even one of the law's authors grim about its prospects. "I can assure you the law will have a very rough ride in parliament," says Tariq Shafiq, an Iraqi petroleum consultant in London after the Dubai meeting. The new Sunni oil potential adds another huge and volatile element to the talks. The Shi'ite cleric Moqtada Al-Sadr, who pulled his 32-man delegation from al-Maliki's shaky coalition last week, has opposed the law. And the Kurdish Regional Government has cooled on the law, arguing that too many of the oil fields will fall under the control of the state-run Iraqi National Oil Company. The KRG's spokesman Khaled Salih says Kurdish politicians told Iraqi officials at the Dubai meeting: "It's not agreed yet." Now, if Sunni areas hold huge untapped oil and gas, it might draw Sunni politicians closer to Baghdad's energy plans since they would have the power to cut regional oil deals. On the other hand, Sunnis -- a minority in a heavily Shi'ite country -- would also be required to hand over most of the revenues from future oil fields in Western Iraq to the central government, under the law's proportional revenue-sharing plan. Even if the government pushes through the law, it will take several years of exploration by big companies in Iraq's vast Western Desert before large-scale production begins. These days, Iraq produces about 2 million barrels of oil a day, down from about 3 million before the war. It's lethally dangerous for oil workers, and virtually no international company dares operate outside Kurdistan. For all its promise, the Sunni-dominated al-Anbar province is where insurgents have waged a vicious fight against American and Iraqi forces. Until now it has seen almost no energy production at all. Decades of war and sanctions have left oil wells in serious disrepair, and Iraqi officials say they will need about $20 billion in repairs to boost its production to about 4 million. But with the new estimates of Iraq's oil reserves, the country could potentially produce far more than that -- perhaps as much as 10 million barrels a day, according to Shafiq. "Iraq is probably one of the last remaining giant oil places yet to be tapped by the international community," says Lothian of Wood Mackenzie. "There will be huge competition among companies to go into Iraq once the law is enacted and security is established." |
| www.ncpa.org/sub/dpd/index.php?Article_ID=14434 Instead of raising taxes and punishing the successful by making them pay even more, says Fleischer, it's time to junk the current system and start anew with a code that fosters economic growth for all, not increased redistribution of income for some. Source: Ari Fleischer, "The Taxpaying Minority," Wall Street Journal, April 16, 2007. |