As reelection looms for Obama, is Big Oil in or out?

My latest on Pajamas Media:

Energy industry advocates were pleasantly surprised when President Obama finally bowed to the public clamor to do something — anything — about high gas prices. In an announcement last week, the president promised to speed up lease approval in Alaska and open up a number of new leasing areas in the Gulf of Mexico. Perhaps he’s seen the light?

Not so fast. Consider this breathless excerpt from an “Obama for America” e-mail sent out by campaign manager Jim Messina:

The CEOs from the five major oil companies — which together booked $36 billion in profits in the first quarter of 2011 alone — went to the Senate on Thursday to try to justify the $4 billion in tax giveaways they’re receiving this year.

(continued at Pajamas Media…)

Author: Michael

It's me from my laptop computer.

3 thoughts on “As reelection looms for Obama, is Big Oil in or out?”

  1. I don’t feel like oil companies should get any special treatment beyond what other companies get, but I also don’t see why they shouldn’t be entitled to similar treatment.

    If we’re going to reform corporate welfare we should do it wholesale and not industry-by-industry.

    But I am curious why we would seek to go after the oil companies now. NOW? Really? Do they think this will help the situation? Are they that backwards?

  2. One salient point that President Obama and his Socialist legions keep seeming to miss (since they never worked in the private sector for the most part) is that these are not “tax giveaways”.

    They are credits, meaning that manufacturers (including oil companies) must first spend the money on R&D and exploration, then get credits after the fact. And the credits are not on a 1:1 basis, meaning they don’t get a $1 for each $1 spent.

    Unlike, for example, stimulus funding.

    So a word to to the Progressives and Leftists who keep whining about this, including Maryland’s own homunculus Ben Cardin: STFU.

  3. It would be nice for Cardin and his associates to clarify what kind of tax breaks they are actually talking about when they propose getting rid of them.

    They always talk about closing loopholes. Always.

    I guess they must do a really terrible job crafting laws the first time around…

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