Posted on 04/25/2011 3:46:37 PM PDT by Qbert
At a time of skyrocketing gas prices and near-record profits for oil companies, House Speaker John Boehner made a major concession today: Congress should consider cutting multi-billion dollar subsidies to oil companies.
"Everybody wants to go after the oil companies and, frankly, they've got some part of this to blame," the Ohio Republican told ABC News today.
Blame aside, what about the cold, hard cash -- the billions of dollars in tax breaks and other subsidies big oil receives every year? President Obama has proposed doing away with many of them, which he says would save $45 billion over the next 10 years.
"It's certainly something we should be looking at," Boehner said. "We're in a time when the federal government's short on revenues. They ought to be paying their fair share."
That is a major departure for the speaker on an issue that Republicans have long defended as necessary to encourage domestic oil production.
The speaker said that while he wanted to "take a look" at oil subsidies. He also wanted to "see all the facts" first.
(Excerpt) Read more at abcnews.go.com ...
I don’t even know if he knows what “subsidies” he’s talking about. What good is a supposed subsidy if you can’t use it because you’re not allowed to drill?
Typical “political finger pointing” BS......Sixteen hundred is hitting on both “speculators” and the “Oil Companies” today.......All without mentioning its inside the Beltway regulations are issued and policys are formulated creating decades of “energy crises” not merely the latest.....Or that most of the “blame” for the current gas spiral can be traced to reckless monetary polices driven by federal fiscal ikrresponsibility and the “One’s” incredible spending spree.... >PS
“$45 billion over 10 years? So we’re talking $4.5 billion per year? That’s what — less than one DAY’s worth of deficit spending?”
Good point.
And who first to predict that the Republicans would jump on the anti-BIG OIL band wagon?
I WAS!
Of course, the fact that they have only done that a dozen times since the 70s made it an easy prediction.
“they’ve got some part of this to blame”
This is outrage. I understand the business bashing from dems and dailykos, but the GOP speaker of the House joining this is disgusting.
Oil companies are private companies. They try to drill oil as much as possible (prevented doing so by the Imperial Obama Goverment). They operate on normal free market basis. What the heck they have been doing wrong?
As for subsidies, my understanding is that they are normal business or research credits (e.g. renewable energy) and it is not possible to single out one industry and say that everybody else except oil companies are eligible. If Gov wants to hand out taxmoney for solar BS research, it should not be limited to some leftist fake companies. (Of course, they should be eliminated from every company)
OPEC and government are to blame to for high oil prices. Oil companies have nothing to do with high oil prices.
This guy is so stupid, I’ll bet he’s got someone to wipe his arse cause he could find it on his own!
who thought the orange tan, crybaby politician would be such a puss/weasel? (snark)
Exactly.
All he had to do was say two things: Obama needs to stop destroying the dollar with reckless spending, and to stop the moratorium and expand drilling. Shouldn’t have been that difficult.
I think they should say tax breaks when they mean tax breaks because subsidies sound like direct cash payout to someone. In essence, the tax break for mortgages is a subsidy then. I think when they talk like this they muddy the waters.
Of course, I’m not against getting rid of real subsidies, and I think looking at tax breaks is fine. I just think the language is used pretty loosely and many people are fairly unclear about what they are talking about. Most people don’t consider something like their own tax deductions they might get a subsidy, but using this definition, it is.
I saw the interview on ABC World News Tonight.
While Boehner is an ass, he did say that the smaller oil companies should have the subsidies, otherwise there would be less drilling in the continental U.S.
Boehner claimed that he was contacted by Shell Oil and they told him they didn’t need the subsidies.
Meanwhile, Diane Sawyer sounded breathless while discussing the profits of the big oil companies. And how much oil and gas would the oil companies produce if they were losing money, Diane?
This moron just singlehandedly pissed away the GOP’s best public argument against zero in 2012 - energy prices.
“This is outrage. I understand the business bashing from dems and dailykos, but the GOP speaker of the House joining this is disgusting.”
With “friends” like these...
You have Freepmail... :>)
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