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As the November 2006 elections gave Democrats control of the U.S. House of Representatives (and at least equal standing in the Senate), members of that party began discussing potential means of raising revenue from the recent record profits of oil companies, including the possibility of enacting a windfall profits tax on the oil industry. Representative Nancy Pelosi of California, the House Democratic Leader who became Speaker of the House just after that election, went on record as supporting the repeal of tax breaks and subsidies of up to $33 billion from energy and oil companies: However, the first example reproduced below, quoting Rep. Pelosi as disdaining 2005 and 2006 stock market gains and endorsing a 100% on windfall profits gained from stocks (with the proceeds to be redistributed to the poor and working class) does not correspond to anything she actually said or proposed. It's a parody based on extremes of Democratic stereotypes — expressing scorn for corporate profits, favoring huge tax rates for high-income earners, wanting to confiscate money from the rich to give to illegal immigrants and unemployed minorities — that was written as a bit of pre-election satire and falsely attributed to a pair of New York Times reporters. The following year, someone reworked the piece (shown in the second example below) to insert the equally false claim that Rep. Pelosi's non-existent windfall tax proposal would include retirement income as well as stock market profits. Examples: Surprisingly, it was billionaire investor Warren Buffett who, back in 1987, put forward the notion of slapping a 100% tax on the profits from some stock sales:
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