Windfall - (n) - an unexpected gain, piece of good fortune, or the like - Webster's College Dictionary

So, a windfall profit would be an unexpected profit. Applying this concept to corporations, more specifically, the US oil corporations one would expect huge profit margins. But, that isn't the case. On average, the US oil companies have a net profit margin of just over eight percent. Hmmm that's not so impressive compared to other companies. In fact, it seems kind of average.

Apparently that's enough to qualify as windfall for Obama. Part of his new energy policy would be to distribute the windfall profits to all of the citizens. His so-called "emergency engergy rebate".

"Barack Obama will require oil companies to take a reasonable share of their record-breaking windfall profits and use it to provide direct relief worth $500 for an individual and $1,000 for a married couple.....The rebates would be fully paid for with five years of a windfalls profit tax on record oil company profits. This relief would be a down payment on Obama's long-term plan to provide middle-class families with at least $1,000 per year in permanent tax relief." - http://www.barackobama.com/pdf/factsheet_energy_speech_080308.pdf

Ok, so let me get this straight. He's going to force a few companies to "donate" a portion of their profits to the government.  And, he's going to implement it over five years worth of profits? Wealth re-distribution at its finest. That's a very Socialist idea, where do I sign up? Oh yeah, at the polls.

Why stop there? Lots of companies have even more impressive profit margins. For example, he could take profits from Adobe (24.34% profit margin), Oracle (24.61%), Intel (17.79%), Microsoft (29.26%), and Google (24.63%) to name a few, and use the money to buy every person a computer. Or, he could take profits from McDonalds (18.91%) and buy new gym equipment for all the schools since it's the fault of McDonalds that so many kids are disgusting fat bodies. No, wait, an even better idea would be to fund a social program to study why so many kids are fat and then help them overcome the issues that are holding them back.

I guess the $1,000 per year in permanent tax relief is how he will accomplish his tax cut for 85% of the country. What about when the oil companies don't have "record-breaking windfall profits?"