From TALKING POINTS MEMO:
Democrats are pushing hard on ending tax breaks for oil companies, linking the issue to the deficit and high gas prices, which have boosted profits in the industry to new heights.
In a floor speech on Tuesday, Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-NV) said the Senate would target $4 billion in benefits for oil companies with the intention of using the savings to help address the nation’s growing debt.
“If we’re serious about reducing the deficit, this is an easy place to start,” Reid said. “It’s a no-brainer. Let’s use the savings from these taxpayer giveaways to drive down the deficit, not drive up oil company profits.”
Democrats had already made attacks on tax breaks for oil companies a central part of their political strategy going into budget talks given the unpopularity of the industry amid high gas prices, but they have stepped up their rhetoric even further since Speaker John Boehner (R-OH) suggested in an interview last month that he might be open to ending the subsidies as part of a deficit reduction plan.
…snip…
Bolstering Reid’s morning speech, a group of Senate Democrats including Bob Menendez, (D-NJ), Claire McCaskill (D-MO), and Sherrod Brown (D-OH), and Jon Tester (D-MT). held a press conference on Tuesday to debut the “Close Big Oil Tax Loopholes Act,” which would end subsidies to the five largest oil companies. All four face competitive re-election contests next year.
…snip…
“It’s bad enough that Ohioans have to pay more than $4.00 a gallon at the gas pump. They shouldn’t need to subsidize the oil industry through the tax code as well,” Sen. Sherrod Brown (D-OH) said in a statement.
Democrats will get another crack at big oil on Thursday, when Sen. Max Baucus (D-MT) holds a Finance Committee hearing on ending industry incentives.
But hold on, kids. From Roll Call:
Boehner indicated during an ABC News interview last month that a review of oil tax subsidies is “certainly something we should be looking at.” But asked Tuesday whether the Speaker would support the Senate Democrats’ plan, [Bronzo the Clown’s spokesperson Michael] Steel said: “He supports looking at any option to lower gas prices. Unfortunately, the Senate’s tax hike would raise gas prices.”
HYSTERICAL RAISINS 
It should be interesting to see the oil puppets in Washington fight for the oil subsidies.
that sounded a lot like norm mcdonald.
Bronzo the Clown will have to get input from the cry baby Koch Brothers, before he makes a decision.
bronzo the clown is so afraid of the teabaggers that he doesn’t know whether to shit or go blind. in each interview, he’s slurring a little bit more. stress, or is he coping with a bit more merlot at lunch? i think it’s hilarious!
Oh for Christ sake. Reducing or taking away the subsidies will raise gas prices? Really? Go ahead then you Rethug scumbags, keep sucking at that big oil teat all the way into 2012. Our prices just jumped from $4.10 to $4.25 in one day in the DC area. I’m sure that protecting these scumbags as they rake in record profits will be a surefire winner in the next election cycle for you.
I wish the Dems would take it further. Eliminate the subsidies and stop letting thes Aholes gouge us with their profiteering tactics and their collusion. Hell, I wouldn’t even mind higher prices if that money was being used for infrastructure renewal or alternative energy research. But the myth that the R’s are peddling for their corporate masters that interfering with big oil’s record profits will stop big oil’s research into alternative energy makes me want spew. They’re just protecting their industry at our expense so grow some cajones and haul these bastards in and let’s have some f—ing accountability!
not just rethugs. some dems, too. mark begich and mary landrieu are the ones i remember off the top of my head. the blue dogs really piss me off. 😡
Mary Landrieu has already made it clear she’s in bed with oil. BP fucking up their coast wasn’t enough to turn her away from the lure of $4 million in donations from oil since she’s been senator. 😡
Like the old saying: “Money Talks!”
When Mary’s bad, she’s really bad.
mary had a little lamb,
its fleece was slick with oil,
and every word that mary says,
makes lib’rals all recoil. 😀
😆 😆 😆
Mary, Mary, quite contrary,
how does your war chest grow?
With BP, Koch, and Mandalay
and other companies I blow.
Hey senator whose name is Mary,
You love oil so damned much that it’s eerie,
With the high price of gas,
You can kiss my fat ass,
And i won’t wipe it first either, dearie.
after citizens united, money screams at the top of its lungs.
With 2012 just around the corner, API will determine the vote.
i think they’ll try, but i think they might have pissed off american voters a little too much this time.
Hey, the oil companies bought and paid for her. She’s just giving them their money’s worth!
i hope she gets an oil-borne std.
Oooooo, nice. 😀
thanks, m’liss. i was kinda proud of that! 😆
I’d like to say something, but I think that Jeb pretty much covered my sentiments.
So, in order to make it look like I had something to say, I’m going to reprise old comments …
I still think that politicians should be required to wear suits that identify their corporate masters, so that when these weasels stand up and defend oil corp subsidies, they do it with great big “Exxon” and “BP” labels stuck on their chests. It might pull down their credibility a tad.
I’m also reminded of the picture you posted some time ago of the Senate chamber all decked out in corporate logos. Again, that level of honesty might be refreshing.
you mean something like this, wken? (scroll down) i made that back in 2007, my early photoshop days.
Yep. That’s pretty much it.
Truth in advertising, and all that.
Looks like the GOP has developed a slogan for the 2012 elections:
Tax cuts for the rich & subsidies for the wealthiest!
They are doing a great job of tying the knot in their own noose.
I can almost hear the spin job now–
Freedom to let the rich make jobs w all that wealth,
and the poor poor oil companies suffer with their billions in profit… it’s such hard work.
Ugh!
i just hope that people are paying attention. no matter how they spin it, only the true believers are going to vote for those who want the subsidies to continue. what a shame that they always show up at the polls.
Dress them up in racecar firesuits. In any form, be it IRL, NASCAR or NHRA you know at a glance who underwrites the team and driver. The smaller sponsers get a patch and those little stickers around the wheel wells. It sure would be swell if I could convince Nonnie to go to the Toyota website and design us a Raisin stock car. That would be so cool! (You could even put 99 on the roof and 99 on the door, Carl Edwards won’t mind) By the way, if you win the design competion, Denny Hamblin will come over and rub your feet.
oooh a raisin stock car! i’ll have to do some googling! of course, the raisin stock car would be electric and environmentally-friendly (with lots and lots of seats for raisinettes). i don’t know who denny hamblin is, but i would welcome anyone who would rub my ugly feet. 😉
Electric, environmentally friendly, and carry lots of raisinettes? It sounds like you’re describing a WW2 submarine on wheels, running on bio-diesel. Then again, maybe there’s your starting point…..
i think a high-speed train would be cooler. we could go from city to city, picking up raisinettes as we go. each raisinette gets their own deluxe car decorated to their liking, and we’ll all meet in the multi-media car and the dining car.
Yeah, but what makes the electricity? Can’t rely on solar or wind, nuke leaves you glowing in the dark, and geothermal’s kinda hard to make work on a moving vehicle. A nice, efficient bio-diesel (or one running on fryer oil) makes your juice, then you turn a generator to charge your batteries. Or to run fast on the surface so you can torpedo those fat Allied convoys so you can bring ze wictory to der Vaterland und der……
Ahem. I’m better now. (Not really, but I’ll behave, until the next flashback.) 😀
i leave all those details to neon vincent. he’s the official raisinette science guy. 🙂
I’m sure you have seen the TV ad where thr housewife looks out front and sees the musclely looking guy washing a car with #11 who says “it’s Denny time” and she has this dreamy fantasy while the roast is burning in the oven. The advertised makins’ for doing your own custom car is at Toyotaracing.com, the place where the little girl makes Kyles #18 Camry all pink with kittens all over it.
i don’t think i’ve seen that commercial. i went over to the toyota site, but i didn’t want to give them my email addy, so i wasn’t allowed to upload any raisin pix. 😦
If you want me to try, I can download it and try to post it here. Or if you trust me, I’ll send it direct to you after I get the stuff from the site. I have a disposable Email – it’ll go away one of these days when the company realises we haven’t paid on the account for 6 months! 😀
is it this one, john?
That’s just the ad. I’m trying to get at the “Design you car” gimmick. Gimme a minute, it’s SLOW.
Um.. I don’t see any need to enter an EMail address, unless it’s to store the design. If you want to go out and design something, and need a throwaway Email, send me an Email on the side to the address I’m subscribed to your blog with, and I can fire you the throwaway Email address back.
don’t worry about it. i played there yesterday, and i wasn’t too excited about it.
Nonnie- Time for me to hit the hay. I should be back on around 10 or so tomorrow, Eastern time (it’s a bit after midnight right now, 0002 for you military types). We can try to work it out then, okay?
G’night, all! 🙂
nite, nite john! 🙂
Hell, they ran on that platform last time.
And won.
Wonder if we’ll get a real candidate on this issue?
Inquiring minds and all that.
Thanks for the reporting!
Tax cuts for the rich & subsidies for the wealthiest!
hey suzan! nice to see you! 😀
do you think people were really listening last time? i think they were pissed off, and they just voted for ‘the other guy.’ when they started attacking the unions and teachers and cops and firefighters, i think they went too far, and the people who voted for them got the worst case of buyer’s (or voter’s) remorese evah.