Time for a Rant – Big Oil and Federal Spending
I have been pondering a number of topics and photo-related tales I might share next but current events have brought me to that place I wondered about when this blog was revived. I noted at the outset that I might sound off on a topic that doesn’t relate to photography - the 'and More' part. At the risk of losing some of you, I’m afraid it’s time to turn to the dark side. My environmental / political / energy persona was jogged this week. We’ll return to images in the next post.
Yesterday, the Senate Finance Committee invited five Big Oil chiefs to discuss their wonderful good fortune of late AND why it is still necessary that they continue to be subsidized with special tax breaks when our government is in a hole up to its ears.
All we hear from the right is that government spending is out of control…but no elected Republican believes we should trim corporate welfare, even for businesses that are doing quite well, thank you.
A ConocoPhillips press release actually said it was ‘Un-American’ to consider such a proposal. In a perverse way, I guess they’re correct. It has always been the American way to favor the rich and powerful…certainly in Congress…ESPECIALLY now when an elected official has to concentrate on raising money 24/7. It’s the Golden Rule – He who has the gold makes the rules.
There is some buzz out there that wants to blame someone, the president or Big Oil, for these pesky high gasoline prices. The price of gasoline is high largely because 2.5 billion Asians are making money and they also want to live like us. They have bid up the price of this commodity and there are only 300 million of us…and most of us aren’t making that kind of scratch anymore. Get used to it.
And another thing. Since we have such short memories, please recall that it was only three years ago at this time when gasoline prices peaked over $4.00 a gallon. I don’t recall so many people blaming the president then or expecting him to do something about it…even though he was an oil man. Maybe it was because he wasn’t a foreign-born, Muslim, Socialist, terrorist, Communist, Nazi, black guy…just a guess.
Millions of people have no jobs. Millions of people are going to have to do without important services that the government funded. If the GOP is serious about all that terrible federal spending, you would think that welfare for companies that are reaping record profits would be an obvious choice to eliminate. But, nooo.
I’ve said it before – there is no problem Republicans can’t fix without giving more money to rich people. Cut Planned Parenthood and more women will be in trouble. Cut Head Start and poor kids will be in trouble. Raise taxes on the rich…and they will still be rich. Please try to remember the Great America that all these right wing nuts fondly recall and miss so much had lots of rich, successful people who paid taxes on close to 90% of their high incomes…and they were still rich. The rest of the country is taking it in the shorts. It’s time for the fat cats to join the rest of us and sacrifice a little to save the country that has allowed them to be so successful. What a radical concept.
[While I could throw in one of my pictures of an oil well or an overweight cat, this 38-year old cartoon works as a reminder that our oil troubles are not new and we have not had an energy policy forever]
Cartoon by Dick Flood, San Jose Mercury News [1973].
Taken from Best Editorial Cartoons of the Year – 1974 Edition, Pelican publishing, LA
posted by Ted Ringger @ 2:09 PM
3 comments
3 Comments:
If you really want to know the answer to why not tax big oil, and for that matter, "the rich", (those making more than $250,000) you'd read more than just the left side of the news, that paint republicans as extremist puppets of the rich and big business.
You're old enough to know that there is more than one side to a story. Even the oil CEO that made the "un-american" comment admitted that it was a mistake.
A rant that narrow-mindedly demonizes an opposing opinion by reiterating one sided talking points, places blame, and makes any criticism of the president into a racist slur ("foreign-born, Muslim, Socialist, terrorist, Communist, Nazi, black guy") closes off any type of intelligent discussion toward solving problems that we all face.
I suggest that you try looking at the pros and cons of solutions that take into account all sides of an argument instead of just shutting out dissenting opinion as evil, misguided or wrong.
Your old neighbor and friend,
Tom
Tom,
The only narrow-minded demonizing rant attempting to shut down dissenting opinion that I can see here is your own.
Can you deny that US oil companies receive around $2 trillion in tax breaks that are peculiar to only their industry?
Can you deny that on the list of largest corporate earnings of all time that 14 of the top 15 are all oil companies from the last ten years?
Can you deny that the richest 1% of our population are presently enjoying the lowest tax rate on incomes since 1932?
Can you deny that the previous presidential and congressional elections were the most expensive on record?
Can you deny that the GOP is at the forefront of the movement to cut the deficit right now yet have said nothing about cutting defense spending or reining in taxpayer's subsidies to agribusiness while steadfastly refusing to even consider raising taxes?
These questions don't come from the left or the right side of the newspaper. They come from facts and data, pure and simple.
This quote came to mind after reading your comment:
"Everyone is entitled to his own opinion, but not his own facts."
- Daniel Patrick Moynihan (1927-2003) or maybe James R. Schlesinger (1929-)
If you really want to have an intelligent discussion about what Ted had to say, I suggest you try again.
Jack Vest
Tom –
Good to hear from you, neighbor and friend [I hope still; Don't mean to pile on since I didn't know someone would jump in ahead of me]. It’s interesting how the first rant brings out a different selection of my modest readership. Thanks for weighing in. Everyone is due a position and, if I might, I will comment further.
I DO want to know why Big Oil and the rich should not be taxed. And we’re not talking about a tax here…just stopping their four billion dollar gift from the Treasury. My rant took up the GOP position that there is too much government spending…and removing a subsidy for an industry that is making record profits seems to be a better approach that cutting programs that help the poor…again. I could have mentioned that Sen. Wyden, at that hearing, showed a little video clip from 2005 where Big Oil chiefs said they didn’t need subsidies because crude was trading at $55. But at over $100, they still do? Too bad the liberal, ‘lamestream’ media failed to bring up that little gem.
Just because this rant seemed to be ‘leftist’ [I will dispute that, too], doesn’t mean I am not exposed to other sides of the news. Besides, the news is the news…unless you get it from Fox. I get the facts from various sources but today’s Republicans paint themselves as the front for the rich. Why else would they refuse to do anything on the budget until tax breaks for the rich were preserved?
This is the party of Lincoln. There used to be LIBERAL Republicans before they were all run off. Saint Reagan himself would not fit the mold of today’s GOP. I am conservative and voted for many Republicans over the years…no more. The inept Democrats and lapdog media allowed the GOP to move the center so far to the right, I’m a flaming lefty now. Imagine that.
I spun off those whack job Obama adjectives because I’ve seen and heard them too many times…at Tea Party rallies, on right wing talk radio, on web sites…paranoid, racist, conspiracy BS which the GOP leadership refuses to tame. That ‘birther’ nonsense got traction simply because he is black. And I’m not shutting out other opinions. After all, polls show a near-majority of Republican voters believe our president was born outside the United States. To be fair, you had a chance to offer another position on the corporate welfare issue and chose to criticize my style instead.
I also want to solve our problems and was terribly dismayed that the GOP got its new majority simply by saying ‘no’ to anything Obama suggested…even changing their minds when he tried to adopt a GOP position. I’m still waiting for that side to be serious about representing the entire nation. I’m waiting for some GOP flack to say something other than ‘small businesses and job creation’ because that trickle down nonsense never worked…and hedge fund billionaires pay lower tax rates than their secretaries. I’m also still waiting for that side to acknowledge that a lot of people are hurting and we’re all being asked to sacrifice more while the rich are excused. It’s not right.
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