renovation

DAM BIG oil companies -
Appearing before a House committee, the executives were pressed to explain why they should continue to get billions of dollars in tax breaks when they made $123 billion last year and motorists are paying record gasoline prices at the pump.

"On April Fool's Day, the biggest joke of all is being played on American families by Big Oil," Rep. Edward Markey, D-Mass., said, aiming his remarks at the five executives sitting shoulder-to-shoulder in a congressional hearing room. the american puplic and its all legal
http://apnews.excite.com/article/200...D8VPFI0G0.html

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WhiskeyPapa

Good thing my mutual funds own plenty of oil stocks.

I'm more concerned about DAMN BIG education, DAMN BIG welfare and DAMN BIG government.

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LPMiller

Why? Why are you more concerned about things that actually can help people, and aren't concerned with the clear waste of money it is to give PROFITABLE companies taxpayer money that serves the people not at all? How it is worse to pay for something that has a lot a shot of serving the american people over paying for something that doesn't gives us any benefit at all?

Sure, you can argue how effective those programs are or whatever, but it isn't the point. One is at least an attempt to do something positive with tax money, the other is supporting companies that in fact don't need it. I'm all for tax breaks for companies on the edge, especially where it might serve the american interests to have those companies around. But ones that can pay their bills AND show a VERY healthy profit?

No, I can't see being more concerned about welfare over billion dollar tax breaks for oil companies.

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DarkFury

You forget LP... those programs don't help him directly. His stock portfolio does.

This is the core of many folk's mentalities that support certain political perspectives that don't want any changes to the current system.

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Jihforce

Bah, at the end of the day, there will be no reform because politician's pockets are filled with Big Oil money. Its all for show in my opinion, they make it news, but at the end of the day, nothing will get done.

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Daedalus

If that's not for show I don't know what is. They're dickering over $18B over 10 years, and we spend $2B on Iraq each week. I don't see how it matters to the public anyway. If the oil companies lost the tax breaks would the cost of my gasoline go down? Heck no.

DarkFury

More likely, it would go up even more as they'd try to recoup that lost funding with more revenue from consumers.

Daedalus

Gasoline is a fungible commodity product. Branded gas will always command a small premium, but prices are tied to the floor set by the open market. People will pay more for Chevron and Mobil than for AM/PM, but not much more. The point is they seem to be wasting time, though it's an improvement over them getting involved with performance enhancers and baseball. Congress could cut $2B in tax breaks per year to the oil cos and reduce gas taxes by just over a penny per gallon, and the govt would break even. I personally would save about $6 per year. Whoopdyfriggindoo.

LPMiller

but, that 2 billion could go a long ways towards alternative energy research. it's 2 billion we ain't spending there now. And frankly, that's better then welfare for corporations that do not need it. or hell, we could even just...not spend it. Yeah, I know, crazy.

We get mad over welfare cheats to the point we assume everyone on welfare is a cheat. But we are ok with giving billions of dollars to companies that already make billions of dollars. That is insane to me.

johnnymk

It's peanuts, and if you mess with the oil companies, it will come back and bite you big time. Besides, if there are solutions for alternative energy, it will probably come from some backyard inventor, not a giant corporation.

Leave them alone! This is a political tool that is bandied about by ignorant politicians every time the price of gas goes up. And many Americans buy into it.

And if those idiots in Congress are concerned about waste, get rid of the %*$^** ethanol subsidies.

ShawnLee

I'm not defending them cause I can't, I don't know the details. But at the same time, the numbers don't tell the whole story.

I'm not a fan of corporate welfare anymore than I am a fan of individual. But my question is "What does the gov't (and therefore the people of our country) get out of this?"

See, I'm with WP because we see exactly what's going into the behemoth gov't bureacracies and we see the failure in what we're getting out. I'd like an article that described where this money is being wasted.

How much of the monies spent on different companies is being used to public benefit?
This article is meaningless to describe that.

As for what this article IS talking about? Gas companies have as much say on the price of gas as we the consumers do. OPEC largely controls the supply market - how then are we supposed to argue against the FOR PROFIT companies because they made a profit? Just because they're American?

What no one mentions here is that one of the most expensive parts of the price of consumer gas is gov't tax. Ever read the chart on how much of your gas cost is sent to the gov't?
Everyone mentions windfall income on the part of the oil companies, ignoring the effect of a huge market with a huge demand, but ignores how much money the gov't takes in.

You want to make gas cheaper? Tell Congress to loosen their grips on our wallet too.

Honestly though, now that I live in a foreign country where gas is about 2 bucks per LITER, I miss the old days where I paid 3 bucks per gallon. Maybe we're complaining a little too loudly about the price of gas - maybe we just need to get used to what the worldwide market on gas is.

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LPMiller

to me, it doesn't matter what that money is used for. If a company is profitable, much less wildly profitable like the oil companies are right now, it is ridiculous they'd get tax money or grant at all.

cheapie

exactly.

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VTGreg

Personally, I have a problem with both of the handouts. With that said, it was grandstanding representative.

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