The difference between a demagogue (interestingly, ye olde Thesaurus has the word “politician” as a synonym) and a leader: the first yammers on and blamestorms, the latter comes up with a real world plan to address the issue and attempts to resolve it. Guess which one Obama is?
After the worst recession since the Great Depression, our economy is growing again, and we’ve gained almost 2 million private sector jobs over the last 13 months. But I also know that a lot of folks aren’t feeling as positive as some of those statistics might suggest. It’s still too hard to find a job. And even if you have a job, chances are you’re having a tougher time paying the rising costs of everything from groceries to gas. In some places, gas is now more than $4 a gallon, meaning that you could be paying upwards of $50 or $60 to fill up your tank.
Of course, while rising gas prices mean real pain for our families at the pump, they also mean bigger profits for oil companies. This week, the largest oil companies announced that they’d made more than $25 billion in the first few months of 2011 – up about 30 percent from last year.
Up partially due to the anti-oil policies Team Obama has put in place.
Now, I don’t have a problem with any company or industry being rewarded for their success.
But, he just told us that he had a problem, and is about to tell us what he wants to do to magically lower gas prices
The incentive of healthy profits is what fuels entrepreneurialism and helps drives our economy forward. But I do have a problem with the unwarranted taxpayer subsidies we’ve been handing out to oil and gas companies – to the tune of $4 billion a year. When oil companies are making huge profits and you’re struggling at the pump, and we’re scouring the federal budget for spending we can afford to do without, these tax giveaways aren’t right. They aren’t smart. And we need to end them.
And that will solve the rising gas prices how, exactly? Show your work, Mr. Obama. Let’s see the plan, and we need to see concrete cost decreases included. Just a quick PowerPoint SMART plan, which includes the action steps, who’s in charge of each step, when each step is due, and the predicted outcomes.
That’s why, earlier this week, I renewed my call to Congress to stop subsidizing the oil and gas industries. Understand, I’m not opposed to producing oil (ROTFLOL!). I believe that if we’re serious about meeting our energy challenge, we need to operate on all cylinders, and that means pursuing a broad range of energy policies, including safe and responsible oil production here at home. In fact, last year, America’s oil production reached its highest level since 2003.
OK, what say we cut the subsidies on all energy, including “green”? Oh, wait, sorry, Chump has a different idea
But I also believe that instead of subsidizing yesterday’s energy, we should invest in tomorrow’s – and that’s what we’ve been doing. Already, we’ve seen how the investments we’re making in clean energy can lead to new jobs and new businesses. I’ve seen some of them myself – small businesses that are making the most of solar and wind power, and energy-efficient technologies; big companies that are making fuel-efficient cars and trucks part of their vehicle fleets. And to promote these kinds of vehicles, we implemented historic new fuel-economy standards, which could save you as much as $3,000 at the pump.
Let’s see, subsidizing vs “investing”. He’s talking about where we should go with energy, but, are not even close to being there. One day we will. Yet, we aren’t there yet, and replacing oil, coal, and natural gas with what is mostly fictional means that prices on what most people use goes way up. Furthermore, those “historic” fuel standards (because no other administration has ever implements fuel standards) might save you $3k at the pump, but cost you $7k more for the vehicle.
Now, I know that in this tough fiscal environment, it’s tempting for some in Washington to want to cut our investments in clean energy. And I absolutely agree that the only way we’ll be able to afford the things we need is if we cut the things we don’t, and live within our means. But I refuse to cut things like clean energy that will help America win the future by growing our economy and creating good-paying jobs; that will help make America more secure; and that will help clean up our planet in the process. An investment in clean energy today is an investment in a better tomorrow. And I think that’s an investment worth making. Thanks for listening, and have a great weekend.
A better tomorrow. Fantastic. Most people don’t give two shits about that when they are suffering NOW. None of what he is yammering on about will help the plight of Americans now. But, now he’s off to the White House Correspondents Dinner. And I’m waiting for someone, usually CBS News’ Mark Knoller, to report that Obama’s playing golf again, having driven over to the links in his behemoth limo with motorcade, using $4 gasoline paid for by you, the taxpayer.
Crossed at Right Wing News and Stop The ACLU.
Once again Obama chooses to demonize an industry in hopes of creating a war between the company and people. He wanted to be known as the person who brought the country together and in fact is the person who through rhetoric and attacks has divided the country more than at any time in history.
Yes, the oil industry does get subsidies in to form of tax breaks. But none of these tax breaks are oil specific. In other words, any company can take advantage of the tax break. The so called “problem” is that the oil industry crosses so many supporting industries that they have access to more of the tax breaks.
Yes, the oil companies got 4 billion in tax breaks. They also paid over $280 billion in taxes. The CBO claims that the oil industry pays less taxes than most companies. That is true is and only if you look at certain parts of the business. Overall, the oil industry pays a higher percentage of taxes than other businesses.
It is not that I am for tax subsidies. That is not the point. The point is that once again Obama goes after a legal company doing what any company or person would do. (Look at the taxes Joe Biden paid, for example. He took advantage of every possible tax break.)
If the president wants to eliminate tax breaks, that is fine. But he doesn’t. What he wants to do is eliminate a tax break for one industry and leave that same codified tax break in place for other industries.
Obama thinks the business world is like his NCAA picks. He thinks that he can and should control businesses rather than letting the businesses play out on the field of competition.
The biggest tax break that oil gets is the depreciation allowance. This is the loss of their assets as a result of taking the substance out of the ground and selling it. All businesses employ a similar depreciation in their accounting. If you but a computer, you depreciate the computer as an expense. So the oil companies are not doing a thing that is not common, legitimate, honest practice. In fact, I have heard that they may be having some difficulty with profits.
The real reason for the increase in oil is the fact that the dollars in your pocket are worth nothing. That is the consequence of O’s economic program. The other reason is that we have limited the supply of oil by refusing to allow drilling. So If you are hurting, as we all are, blame O.
According to Exxon (and as a publicly traded company this would be easy to verify) for every gallon of gas they sold, they made a little over 2 cents in profit.
Contrast that with the fact that for every gallon of gas sold, the government (local, state and federal) take an average of 48 cents in taxes per gallon.
In other words, the government and others are happy telling Exxon that two cents is excessive profits while they demand 24 times that amount from us.
As the Wall Street Journal noted, removing the tax subsidy oil companies receive won’t lower gas prices. All it will do is to drive prices higher. At the same time, Obama will throw the money at “green” energy programs that hurt fuel economy such as ethanol which means that middle class Americans will be paying more to go the same distance or at wind and solar that don’t affect gas prices at all.
I talked to a number of oil men this weekend and was told that the new thing is Obama’s concern over some lizard. This is resulting in the closing of one of the major fields in Texas. Now it seems that they are still allowing the farmers to continue their work, so I can’t understand how limiting drilling will effect the lizard. The oil guys think that it is an effort to hurt the independents. They also get the sense that O is trying to nationalize the oil indurstry like he did autos, financials, and health care.
I really don’t think that elections are going to change any of this, something else is going to be necessary.
[…] Chumps Weekly Address: Hey, Let’s Blame Oil Companies For High Prices! The difference between a demagogue (interestingly, ye olde Thesaurus has the word “politician†as a synonym) and a leader: the first yammers on and blamestorms, the latter comes up with a real world plan to address the issue and attempts to resolve it. Guess which one Obama is? […]