HOUSTON — ExxonMobil (XOM), the world’s largest publicly traded oil company, reported income Thursday that shattered its own record for the biggest profit by a U.S. corporation, earning $14.83 billion in the third quarter.

Bolstered by summer’s record crude prices, the company said net income jumped nearly 58% to $2.86 a share in the July-September period. That compares with $9.41 billion, or $1.70 a share, a year ago.

The previous record for U.S. corporate profit was set in the last quarter, when ExxonMobil earned $11.68 billion.

Revenue rose 35% to $137.7 billion.

via ExxonMobil posts biggest quarterly profit ever, $14.8B – USATODAY.com

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A couple things to point out here real quick, first up is the fact that net income (profit) rose 58% while revenue (total income) only went up 35%.  That means that Exxon, already setting records for profits, has been increasing their profit margin over the last year.

When you take a closer look at another article, you can see exactly how that was done.

Despite the surge in profit, Exxon said oil production was down 8% in the third quarter, compared to the same period last year.

So just to set this straight, Exxon made record profits, in the billions, by producing less oil than they did last year.

You know what’s better than working less and making more?  Having an entire political party trying to help you make even more money with less work, and cut your taxes, while you sit on an ever growing pile of cash.

Let’s see what the business response would be to “Drill, Baby, Drill.”…

Big Oil: Sure, we’ll drill, baby.  When we’re good and ready and the price of oil is both high enough and stable enough to ensure a healthy return.  What?  You think you can order us to drill?  HAHAHA!!!  This isn’t socialism, you can’t control industry through democracy.

Now give us those leases, stat!

I keep hearing that the secret to success and energy independence is drilling, working hard, and tax cuts.  Yet I what I see here is something working less, producing less oil, getting tax cuts, and RAKING IN BILLIONS OF DOLLARS of profits.

And speaking of McCain’s tax cuts, meant to reward hard working small businesses, doan’cha know.  Here’s who gets most of ’em.

Straight to the fact check.

Fact check: McCain tax cuts give $200 billion to corporations, $4 billion to oil companies?

The Verdict: True. Obama’s statement accurately reflects two studies of McCain’s tax proposals.

So the idea here is to give Exxon a tax break in order to “motivate” them to work harder…after they’ve already realized, much like OPEC, that they can make more money by producing less.  Nice.  Not bad work if you can find it.

Heck, you even get to party with and bang government officials in order to help keep “taxes” lower.

Guess who else gets to enjoy McCain’s tax cut reward for their hard work?

Oct. 27 (Bloomberg) — Five straight quarters of losses and a 70 percent slide in its stock this year haven’t stopped Merrill Lynch & Co. from allocating about $6.7 billion to pay bonuses.

Goldman Sachs Group Inc. and Morgan Stanley, both still on track for profitable years, have set aside about $13 billion for bonuses after three quarters, down 28 percent from a year ago. Even some employees at Lehman Brothers Holdings Inc., which declared the biggest bankruptcy in U.S. history last month, will get the same bonus they received a year ago.

The worst financial crisis since the Great Depression, a $700 billion taxpayer bailout, public outcry over excessive pay and the demise of three of the biggest securities firms won’t deter Wall Street from offering year-end rewards to employees on top of their salaries, compensation experts say.

[full story]

These are the kind of people that *really* benefit from McCain’s tax cuts, and have enjoyed *tremendous* benefits from Bush’s tax cuts…but I repeat myself.

The City of Dallas recently laid off over 400 teachers because of a $65 million shortfall for the year.  Over the last 90 days Exxon made of profit of about $1,900 a second.   That’s over $150 million a day.  In profit.

Exxon is based in Dallas County.

Doesn’t it seem like, oh, I don’t know…rational public policy…to actually bring in enough money in taxes to pay for public services?

Some might say the market should solve the problem, but I would rather tax Exxon and have Dallas county schools, than cut taxes on Exxon and get Exxon-branded Education Centers.   And DISD isn’t even that good a school district.    It did, however, get shafted like the rest of the country by No Child Left Behind, which was underfunded….BECAUSE OF TAX CUTS.

Giving even more tax cuts to Exxon and Goldman Sachs and their respective execs is not doing to do a damn thing to motivate them to work harder.

Making sure your kids, and your neighbor’s kids, have FREAKING TEACHERS in school trumps “executive compensation” in my humble opinion.

Giving massive tax cuts to folks who squeeze the commodity market and sell bullshit securities, while our schools and fire departments lay off people, doesn’t seem like sound public policy to me.

Maybe my priorities are wrong. Maybe if I believed that the highest ideal a human could strive for was “Profit, baby, profit” I could go along with McCain’s tax policy.

But I don’t, and I can’t.

So I won’t.