HR 3784 Windfall profits tax

The class-warfare, economic illiterates in Congress have propose H.R. 3784, "the Gas Price Spike Act, which would place a "windfall" profits tax on gasoline to prevent oil companies from overcharging for gas"

Let's put aside, for now, the absurd idea that government has any business deciding what is and is not an appropriate profit of a private business and instead look at what those profits actually are:

From CA.gov's Energy Almanac, here is the breakdown of the cost of a gallon of gas:

		Branded
		Distribution Costs, Marketing Costs and Profits	Crude Oil Costs	Refinery Cost and Profit	State Underground Storage Tank Fee	State and Local Tax	State Excise Tax	Federal Excise Tax	Retail Price
Jan 16		$0.20	$2.65	$0.21	$0.02	$0.08	$0.36	$0.18	$3.70
Jan 09		$0.21	$2.64	$0.22	$0.02	$0.08	$0.36	$0.18	$3.71
Jan 02		$0.19	$2.62	$0.19	$0.02	$0.08	$0.36	$0.18	$3.64

Hmmm, let's see, they bundle profits in with distribution, marketing and refinery costs, but out of the total of $3.70, at most 41 cents is profit, if distribution, marketing and refinery costs are 0, but more likely south of 20 cents. Out of $3.70 sale price, that is about 6%. As a comparison, Apple's profit margin is on the order of 40%. On the other hand state, local and federal taxes add up to 62 cents. So various government entities make more than 3x what the oil and refinery companies do. And there is also no legislation pending to punish evil Apple for reaping such huge profits.