Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid is calling out the Republican bluff on cutting the federal budget. If you really want to save taxpayers money, he says, kill government tax giveaways to big oil.
In a smart article by Scott Nance,
The Democrats say that ending giveaways for oil companies would save at least $20 billion over 10 years.
"This is just one example of a wasteful item in the budget that could be cut in order to make a down payment toward reducing nation's deficit. If the House chooses to adopt this suggestion, it would represent a good first step towards cutting spending in a bipartisan way," the senators write.
Oil companies have posted record profits in recent years. Last month, Exxon reported a 53 percent boost in profits, making it the company's best quarter in years. And Chevron's fourth quarter income jumped 72 percent.
The oil companies receive billions in breaks from the federal government.
This makes perfect sense and beats the living hell out of cutting the Women, Infants and Children program that provides milk, juice and cheese to women and children under age 5 who are either low-weight or have known health problems.
Nance writes that Bernie Sanders proposed cutting oil subsidies last year and was stopped cold by a clique of Democrats and Republicans.
Sanders argued such taxpayer-funded giveaways to the oil companies were foolish while the energy giants had reported $750 billion in profit in the last decade.
A New Jersey senator has climbed on the band wagon too.
Sen. Robert Menendez (D-N.J.) reintroduced his Close Big Oil Tax Loopholes Act, legislation to close a number of corporate tax breaks that allow oil companies to avoid paying billions of dollars in taxes.
$750 billion in profit over the last decade? Thank you, President Oily Bush.
Can we now stop hearing proposals to starve underweight children and begin extracting excess profits from petro-bosses?