Props to Rick Brown and his recent blog post about a letter he received from Rep. Mike Rogers' (MI-08), defending subsidies for oil companies.
Rick's point was that Rogers' logic, specifically his characterization of the elimination of oil subsidies as a "tax", was laughably childish, especially when we're talking about paying up to $52 billion a year to an industry that has made over a trillion dollars in the last decade alone.
But Rogers' disconnect from reality becomes more apparent when you keep on reading.
The rest of Rogers' letter indicates a serious disconnect from reality, not to mention the original topic of discussion:
We all feel the price squeeze when we fill up our tanks, and as a country, we spend an incredible amount of money, over $1 billion a day, buying oil from overseas. In fact, almost one quarter of our trade deficit is because of foreign oil. Oil imports cost jobs and make us dependent on countries with erratic behavior. Please know that I will continue to fight to bring jobs to Michigan and make America energy independent in an environmentally responsible way.
Thanks Mike! Does this mean you opposed the war in Iraq, which was, at least in part,
about oil?
No? Does this mean you oppose projects like the Keystone Pipeline, which would apparently
not create as many jobs as we have been led to believe?
No? Then how about opposing Keystone look-alike projects because one of them, the Enbridge pipeline which
runs through your own district, ruptured two years ago, spilling 800,00 gallons of tar sands oil into the Kalamazoo River,
creating an environmental disaster that has still yet to be completely cleaned up? That would be the "environmentally responsible" thing to do.
No? Well, then, Mike, I have to ask: What the fuck are you talking about? A constituent asked you a legitimate question. They deserve more than unsubstantiated hot air.