A little over two weeks ago, John Boehner dropped a bit of a bombshell, telling ABC News he was open to ending tax subsidies for big oil. Within 24 hours, his office was already backing off his comments, and as of today, he's completely reversed course, saying Democratic proposals to repeal tax subsidies for big oil shouldn't even be on the table.
It's a non-starter for Boehner, who sees ending a subsidy as a tax hike.
"Our goal is to increase the supply of American energy to lower costs, reduce our dependence on foreign oil and create American jobs," said Boehner spokesman Michael Steel. "This tax hike would make prices at the pump even higher. That simply doesn't make any sense."
Obviously, it's absurd to argue that tax subsidies for big oil are lowering gas prices. Does anybody really think that oil companies aren't already charging as much as they possibly can?
Did anyone ever believe that Republicans would abandon Big Oil when it really counted? John Boehner just loves him some oil.
Cornered like rats over the last few weeks, Republican congressmen who take legalistic bribes from Big Oil-- like John Boehner, Daniel Webster and Paul Ryan-- have publicly promised their constituents to make Big Oil pay their fair share. Given the opportunity to do just that by the Democrats in the House, they all danced away from their promises and voted for tens of billions in tax dollar subsidies to go to the most profitable corporations in history. Why? Simple, Big Oil cuts them in on the plunder. They pay "protection money" (billions) to Republican and Blue Dog politicians in return for our tax dollars flowing their way; it's the scam of the century.
Yesterday Greg Sargent reported on a CNN poll showing that the public overwhelmingly (61%) blames high gas prices on Big Oil. 59% of Americans blame Wall Street speculators "a great deal" and another 31% blame Wall Street speculators "somewhat." These are the Wall Street speculators that were enabled by a Republican filibuster in the Senate that would have brought they outrageous predatory activities under control.
You may not hear or read this in the American media-- which has interlocking directorships with Big Oil-- but yesterday's Guardian reported on a landmark study that shows efforts being willfully suppressed by Big Oil and their right-wing allies could give us a world in our lifetimes where clean energy meets 80% of our needs.
Big Oil gets what it pays for and Americans are slowly wising up to that fact. Blue Dog Democrats that support Big Oil should be primaried. Rep. Paul Ryan will always side with those that pay his bills like Wall Street and Big Oil.
Remember, Rep. Joe Barton's apology to BP because America was shaking them down in his eyes and then it wasn't an apology?
And then we have this: Stewart: GOP called BP fund a 'shakedown' before they didn't
Don't forget Rep. Joe Barton was the same man that also held up a bill that would have helped children of Autism back in 2006 called the Combating Autism Act"
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