Oil and Gas Industry Pushes Back on Obama Tax Plan

[ProSense]

Oil and Gas Industry Pushes Back on Obama Tax Plan

By Kate Ackley
Roll Call Staff

One day after the Obama administration unveiled a sweeping corporate tax reform plan, the oil and gas industry’s top lobbyist went on the attack against the president’s proposal.

Calling it “discriminatory,” Jack Gerard, president and CEO of the American Petroleum Institute...said that the proposal would cost his sector about $85 billion — a tab, he added, that would ultimately cost the country in jobs and investment.

<...>

Gerard also challenged the notion that oil and gas companies receive subsidies specific to them. “The industry receives not one subsidy,” he said. And he called the sector one of the largest contributors of revenue to the federal government. “We pay one of the highest effective tax rates,” he said, estimating it at more than 40 percent.

But Brian Siu, a policy analyst for the Natural Resources Defense Council, said he found it odd that API says its industry doesn’t benefit from subsidies.

- more -

http://www.rollcall.com/news/oil_and_gas_industry_pushes_back_on_obama_tax_plan-212595-1.html

[villager]

1. Of course. Whether Obama holds fast will be one of the tests to gauge "change" in a second term

By which I mean: actual change.

[ProSense]

3. Frankly,

Jared Berstein called it: http://www.democraticunderground.com/1002340586

Corporations and their allies will balk at closing the loopholes.

[villager]

4. Balk!? Hell -- they'll rig elections and do whatever they have to...

...and our incumbent President better be ready for the shitstorm they're going to throw at him, which will preclude -- in most instances -- "meeting in the middle..."

[safeinOhio]

2. Big oil co. pays zero taxes.........

ttp://www.treehugger.com/corporate-responsibility/its-tax-day-but-not-for-exxon-which-pays-0-in-federal-taxes.html
Rep. Ed Markey (D-MA) is taking the opportunity of tax day to shine a light on tax-dodging polluters like Exxon. His office released a statement that began with the following:

Today is tax day. American individuals and businesses have counted up their credits and deductions and sent in their 1040 forms in the hope of getting a refund from Uncle Sam. Many will need every last dollar of those refunds to help repair their household budgets that are eroding thanks to gasoline prices that are pushing $4 per gallon around the country.

Meanwhile, the most profitable companies in the world may or may not pay a single dime in federal income taxes this year. As ExxonMobil demonstrated in 2009, it is possible for a company to earn $19 billion in profits in a single year and not pay a dime in U.S. income taxes. While American consumers struggle to stay afloat, Big Oil is set to enjoy another decade of huge taxpayer subsidies and world record profits.