Oddly, this does make sense....

"Windfall" Profits

I'd say that John Cole is right and a "windfall profits" tax on oil companies is a pretty bad idea -- it doesn't really make sense to say that we're going to try to pass laws explaining exactly how profitable different kinds of companies should be. Now, "windfall profits tax to raise revenue" (Obama) is a better idea than "windfall profits tax to finance gas tax cut" (Clinton) or "gas tax cut paid for by magic" (McCain) but if you're really willing to hurt the oil companies in the name of the public interest what you really should be doing is raising the gas tax and rebating about half of the revenues to taxpayers.