The American Spectator

You think that is a bad deal? Do you think that you are likely to get more gasoline for next weekend if you give that $0.30 to ExxonMobil, or to Chuck Schumer? ExxonMobil, producing about 3 percent of world oil, is an enormous private enterprise, with revenues over $300 billion per year. The U.S. government spends that much every 6 weeks. Every 6 weeks. Do you think that we get our money’s worth out of that compared to what we get from ExxonMobil?

p>Where does Chuck Schumer come off being so staggered at $8 billion for one quarter’s earnings? That is tip money in Washington — wouldn’t pay for doughnuts for a week. Yet in private hands, in ExxonMobil’s hands, it supports our standard of living. br> — Greg Richards /p>

I have a friend that will not stop at an ExxonMobil station because she thinks they are gouging. I always laugh at her. I don’t care who is selling the gasoline; I stop at the cheapest station. I mean, after all there is a station on almost every corner. In Cleveland, Texas on the west side of Highway 59 there is a Chevron that is always 15 cents higher than the Shamrock on the east side and the funny thing is there are always cars at that Chevron. Go figure.

p>Thanks Ben for another good article. br> — Elaine Kyle /p>

Oil companies don’t set prices, they just eliminate competition. When Exxon and Mobil merged the story they gave America was that they “couldn’t compete” on a world stage without the merger which eliminated tens of thousands of jobs. The bigger the lie, the more likely it is that people will fall for it.

p>Without competition, where is their incentive to explore and find more oil? Why should they be interested in building more refineries or increasing the supply of crude when they are showing not only record profits, but obscene profits? The answer is that competition does not exist on the supply side because of that merger and others like it (i.e., Shell/Texaco). br> — unsigned /p>