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Related: Editorials & Other Articles, Issue Forums, Alliance Forums, Region ForumsSen. Rand Paul: When Big Oil Screws Americans At The Gas Pump, ‘You Should Want To Encourage Them’
By Rebecca Leber
The top five oil companies in the United States have already made $5.8 billion in windfall profits from spiking gasoline prices this year. Yesterday, Senate Republicans agreed to debate a bill that repeals $2 billion in annual tax breaks for these super-wealthy oil giants. The move was purely a political calculation dont expect the GOP to end taxpayer welfare for their Big Oil allies. GOP senators like Rand Paul (R-KY) and Jon Kyl (R-AZ) have used their time on the Senate floor today to push error-riddled arguments coming straight from their oil industry donors.
Paul argued Big Oil deserves even more favors from government, because theyre doing such a good job extracting wealth from American families:
Watch it:
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We as a society need to glorify those who make a profit, Paul concluded.
In his floor speech, Kyl claimed that ending the tax breaks would be discriminatory.
The five major oil companies are some of the largest and most profitable corporations in the world, increasingly at the expense of the rest of humanity. The big five companies enjoyed record levels of $137 billion profits last year, while paying absurdly low tax rates. Exxon is the most profitable, making $1300 per second in 2011, but it only paid a 13 percent tax rate, according to a Reuters analysis. The oil industry claims it pays a higher tax rate but it counts foreign taxes and deferred taxes.
- more -
http://thinkprogress.org/green/2012/03/27/452825/sen-rand-paul-when-big-oil-screws-americans-at-the-gas-pump-you-should-want-to-encourage-them/
opihimoimoi
(52,426 posts)Initech
(100,104 posts)Yeah let's give an addict the keys to the liquor cabinet - right. Is he a fucking idiot or what?
libinnyandia
(1,374 posts)Initech
(100,104 posts)liberal N proud
(60,346 posts)MrSlayer
(22,143 posts)I've often wondered why they were complaining about things that they actually want. Rand is keeping it consistent and telling the truth about how they should feel.
hifiguy
(33,688 posts)who should be locked behind secure doors and a tall barbed wire fence.
MindMover
(5,016 posts)[url=http://www.flickr.com/photos/41483660@N04/6657578499/][img][/img][/url]
[url=http://www.flickr.com/photos/41483660@N04/6657578499/]libertarianism-anarchy-for-rich-people[/url] by [url=http://www.flickr.com/people/41483660@N04/]pbmus[/url], on Flickr
hifiguy
(33,688 posts)Angry Dragon
(36,693 posts)gratuitous
(82,849 posts)It doesn't matter how they get it, the only thing that matters is that they've got money, right? I suppose Rand might finally gain a modicum of understanding if he had to fill his tank with the actual blood and bones of Big Oil's victims. But as long as those fat campaign donations kept coming, he'd not only learn to tolerate it, he'd learn to love it.
We used to have a word for people like that.