Granholm meets the Grumpies

I am a member of the Grumpies, a group of letter writers in the Farmington/Livonia area. We meet monthly to discuss current issues and share our letters. Many times we have guests who have experienced the wrath (or praise) of our pens. In recent weeks we have met with Jerry Zandstra, a candidate for the U.S. Senate; Nolan Finley, editor of The Detroit News editorial page; and on February 3rd, Governor Jennifer Granholm paid a visit. The Observer article describes that visit.

My question to the Governor did not make the cut in the article, but this is what I asked Ms. Granholm:

In your State of the State speech, you propose a windfall tax on oil company profits. From 1977 to 2004, federal and state governments have collected $1.34 trillion dollars in gasoline taxes while the oil companies have earned $640 billion in profits. Of that $640 billion, how much should the government have taken?

Her response (I can't say "answer" because she didn't answer the question):

First she disputed that she called for a windfall tax. She just believes that profits should be capped. Then she deflected the question on to me by asking "You're a free market guy aren't you?" and asked my opinion on free trade. After I re-deflected back to her, she basically stated that since gasoline is a critical necessity, the state should regulate profits like it does for public utilities. Unfortunately I failed to ask if profit caps should be placed on home builders and grocery stores since they provide necessities too.

Economic ignorance is destroying this state.