Posted on 03/08/2012 6:44:09 AM PST by SeekAndFind
To hear the president and Democrats talk, you'd think that Big Oil was sucking the Treasury dry with huge subsidies. Almost a year ago I wrote about the federal government's "subsidies" to Big Oil. I said then, "They are all tax 'breaks'... about $4.3 billion per year -- about 0.2% of this year's deficit and enough to fund about 10 hours of current US government spending." I was wrong.
The tax breaks for all fossil fuels was not $4.3B in 2011. It was only $2.5B -- about 0.19% of that year's deficit, and enough to fund only six hours of U.S. government spending. The source for such heresy? The Congressional Budget Office.
Just to be clear, that $2.5B was not just for Big Oil, but also for Big Coal and Big Gas: all fossil fuels. Here, more exactly, are those subsidies, in the CBO's words.
"Expensing of exploration and development costs for oil and natural gas." ($0.8B) "Option to expense 50% of qualified property used to refine liquid fuels." ($0.8B) "Option to expense investment costs on the basis of gross income rather than on production." ($0.9B) I can't say I understand those "subsidies." Is exploration not supposed to be a cost of doing business for an oil company? Who is to say these expenses are not legitimate costs? But let's take the CBO's word for it that these are, for some reason, "subsidies."
Let's compare those subsidies to other energy subsidies. The CBO has a chart.
(Excerpt) Read more at americanthinker.com ...
They can put a sign up saying anything they want but Dems will keep repeating the oil companies recent profit numbers in the 10s of billions as prices go up and up. That is what they did in 2007 and 2008 and we got that crappy energy bill.
“Oil companies pay HUGE amounts of taxes, unlike many who got the Obama tax credit.”
EXACTLY!
i dont know why they dont do it then...truth is the counter to the demagougery...*if* the dumbasses see that the government pisses away more than the oil company makes on every gallon, it might sink in that the screwjob is coming from the statists, not the oil guys who actually supply a product for the money...
Ky/In just signed a mutual toll agreement on their two massively congested bridges to finance another bridge, one that theyve both raked in taxes and fed subsidies for and talked about for at least 20 yrs...
so wheres all that cash ???
the *profit* of the oil company can readily be seen by the fact that when i pull into the station, they have product that comes out of the pump...
Now Obama wants the fed to investigate the traders.....what a joke. Oil trader s look at the next 6 months to a year on the oil supply, then bid accordingly. Obama won’t let us drill, or put the XL pipe line together.....then he says he has nothing to do with the price of oil. He has EVERYTHING to do with it!
You are just brainwashed by the greedy oil companies. They put a chemical in the gasoline to do that.
The gubmt should *take*, errr tax, err fine, every single dollar of oil company profits and use it to fund algae.
Algae: Fuel of the Future? (And do we need government subsidies?)
I swear this algae idea reminds me of the 1973 movie Soylant Green. In the remake the star will discover that what we thought was algae fuel was really made from the victim's bodies of the Obama-care death panels, with a few dead fetuses thrown in.
Have you noticed that the speculators are not bidding up the prices of algae, solar panels, windmills and Volts?
An oil company conspiracy?
Actually the Volts are already expensive, just no-one will buy them at those prices.
” I swear this algae idea reminds me of the 1973 movie Soylant Green. In the remake the star will discover that what we thought was algae fuel was really made from the victim’s bodies of the Obama-care death panels, with a few dead fetuses thrown in. “
What Obama fails to mention, is that even if this worked, it is at least 10 years away. Just like his press conference
the other day. He says you can now refinance to a much lower mortgage(what he left out, is if you have late payments, or your income is too high, you CAN’T get the loan!!!! Which means 80% are disqualified right out of the gate.
” Have you noticed that the speculators are not bidding up the prices of algae, solar panels, windmills and Volts? “
LOL.....speculators deal in REALITY, or they go broke.
” Does it really matter to us who Obama hates? We are far beyond liking him.
What is really important to get more voters to dislike him.”
Don’t look to the GOP House & Senate......they have been hiding since 2009.
What’’s nice about taking 10 years is it wont go bankrupt in Obama’s election year and make him look bad like Solyndra. He will be long out of office by the time it's shown to be a failure.
BTW : Obama says drilling takes too long to work so we should invest in algae instead. We need energy RIGHT NOW just like his jobs plan and algae is the way to go. I am investing in algae now before the greedy speculators drive up the prices.
” BTW : Obama says drilling takes too long to work so we should invest in algae instead. We need energy RIGHT NOW just like his jobs plan and algae is the way to go”
See.....the Republicans should be calling Obama a PSYCHOPATH
and a LIAR......every freaking day!!
not only making the price at the pump tolerable, but buttoning up a HUGE security issue weve faced since the jimmah carter days...
the day after the hostages were snatched in 79', we coulda/shoulda uncorked ALL our energy sources and began dominating the world with fuel supplies...its only a position of power that we threw away at every opportunity then and since...
i await the next appropriations to begin funding the flux capacitor...
I agree, providing they give examples.
In fact I’d like to see him called on a lot of things, with clear examples.
” i await the next appropriations to begin funding the flux capacitor...”
Why? When we have algae biodiesel at $33.00 a gallon??
” In fact I’d like to see him called on a lot of things, with clear examples.”
There must be 80-100 Obama atrocities.....ALL with clear examples. 2 per week, and Obama would likely lose the election.
I agree.
Right now he’s spewing the lies often enough, so people begin to believe them. Interesting new tactic. /s We’ve smelled that before too.
in fairness, once milk and bread get into the hundred trillion/wheelbarrow full ‘o money range, $33/gal will be a bargain...bwahahahah...
: )
O’Reilly is a ratings “slut”
Havent watched him in 10 years.
I heard he BoR was VERY friendly with the women employees over at FNC. Some say a bit too friendly.
When Cain got in trouble he called BoR for advise on how to conduct a ‘clean-up operation’, he called Hillary too because she ran a full time clean-up for WJC.
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