“Today, members of Congress have a simple choice to make,” Obama said. “They can stand with the big oil companies, or they can stand with the American people.”
The legislation, authored by Sen. Robert Menendez (D-N.J.), is expected to fail, amid opposition from Republicans and oil-state Democrats. But Obama and Senate Democrats have rallied around the bill as gas prices are soaring, reaching a national average of $3.92 per gallon on Thursday.
“Right now, the biggest oil companies are raking in record profits –- profits that go up every time folks pull up into a gas station. But on top of these record profits, oil companies are also getting billions a year, billions a year in taxpayer subsidies, a subsidy that they’ve enjoyed year after year for the last century,” Obama said.
“Think about that. It’s like hitting the American people twice. You’re already paying a premium at the pump right now. And on top of that, Congress, up until this point, has thought it was a good idea to send billions of dollars more in tax dollars to the oil industry.”
Obama’s remarks touched on common themes repeated in a slew of recent energy speeches...
Common themes of class warfare, anti-capitalism, etc. But past the rhetoric for a moment, let's look at the illogic: Let’s lower gas prices by raising taxes on Big Oil. Who thinks that's going to lower gas prices (aside from liberal drones)? Certainly not the average American feeling the pain at the pump, particularly those who have the common sense to understand how taxes on any product are passed down to the consumer. And thankfully, not the U.S. Senate either, as they voted to defeat the bill an hour later...
Lawmakers voted 51-47 to block Sen. Robert Menendez’s (D-N.J.) bill. Sixty votes were needed to advance the measure.
Two Republicans — Sens. Susan Collins and Olympia Snowe, both from Maine — crossed party lines and voted to repeal the tax breaks. Four Democrats — Sens. Mark Begich (Alaska), Mary Landrieu (La.), Ben Nelson (Neb.) and Jim Webb (Va.) — voted against the bill.
The outcome of the vote was not a surprise, given that a similar plan failed 52-48 last May. But the decision to take another shot at passing the bill— and the decision by the White House to wade into the fight — underscore the political salience of rising gasoline prices in an election year.
Predictable for the RINO Maine twins, but seemingly a moment of clarity with the four Democrats (or political expediency, but we'll take it in this instance). Aside from those political alignments, let's now factor Obama's rhetoric back into the way this argument is being framed...and SayAnythingBlog has framed it quite clearly:
First, saying that oil companies “receive” subsidies from the federal government is just plain inaccurate. We can argue about whether or not it’s good policy, or whether it’s policy that is overly friendly to the oil industry, but letting the oil industry keep more of their own money is not the same thing as giving them other people’s money.
Second, however you want to characterize these “subsidies” (or, more accurately, tax deductions), eliminating them is only going to raise the cost of doing business for oil companies. That means less development, fewer jobs and higher prices for the products they provide, most notably gasoline.
A president can’t both declare a policy war on the oil industry and claim he wants to make the prices of the goods that industry provides cheaper.
Indeed.
ADDENDUM: The Menendez bill is the same junk that they tried last year...with one exception: back then, they openly admitted that their tax hikes would have no impact on gasoline prices!
