Taxing Oil Profits

Democrats have proposed taxes on oil companies’ profits and rollbacks on industry tax breaks in an attempt to cut back the high prices of oil. They proposed a 25 percent profits tax on earnings above what would be considered reasonable, which would expire after two years. Additionally they want to suspend deliveries to the government’s Strategic Petroleum Reserve, which Republicans also support, but Bush opposes.
Though this will probably not happen, it seems like a great idea. Other than the tax proposal it is the same as previous energy proposals that have never had enough support to make it through congress. Republicans argue it will do nothing to lower gas prices, and call it typical tax and bureaucracy. Republicans suggestion is to increase domestic oil production through offshore waters and drilling an Artic wildlife refuge in Alaska.
The Democrats plan makes a lot of sense. Why should the oil company make huge profits while the rest of America loses financially? Allowing the government to tax a business seemingly just because their profits are too high may seem unreasonable at first glance, but when weighing all of the facts and the uniqueness of this problem I believe it is completely justified. The Republicans seems to be focused just on protecting corporate profits, and drilling protected areas while the Democrats are concerned with the issues of cost on Americans and energy problems.
Both sides need to focus more on sustainable energy and reducing American gasoline consumption and CO2 emissions. The high prices may seem to offer a better solution to this, but also put an unreasonable strain on the transportation needs of working Americans. There are better ways to solve this issues that are not motivated by excessive corporate profit. The needs of Americans should outweigh the desire of the oil industry to maintain or increase insane profits. If Americans are expected to sacrifice and conserve, the oil industry should take and even larger responsibility and sacrifice as well, not profit from it.