In case anyone is wondering what happens when a really bright person who actually cares about the people who elected her gets sent to Congress, just watch Katie Porter in action.
Rep. Porter chairs the House Natural Resources Oversight Committee and at a hearing on Tuesday, an oil industry exec tried to skate past a question about taxes oil companies pay (or don’t pay) on certain drilling costs by claiming the industry is treated the same as every other business and receives no special treatment. (Pssst...dude, you know that before being elected to Congress, Katie Porter was a highly respected law school professor who would never ask a question she didn’t already know the answer to, right? Big mistake.)
Well, as you can imagine, when this patronizing prick slung his load of b.s. over the transom, Professor Porter declared “Class in session” and schooled the guy. Gym Jordan, Madison Cawthorn, Marjorie Taylor Greene, Lauren Boebert, Ted Cruz, Josh Hawley, Ron Johnson and every other self-aggrandizing elected Republican tool, watch and see how it’s done.
Rep. Porter: How much of those intangible drilling costs do you get to deduct right away from your taxes?
Mark Murphy, president of Strata Production company: We get to deduct all of those just like any other business. There seems to be a misconception out there that you’re operating from that somehow the oil and gas industry benefits from some special sort of tax structure. We don’t.
Rep. Porter: You do benefit from special rules. There’s a special tax rule for intangible drilling costs that does not apply to other kinds of expenses that businesses have. You get to deduct 70 percent of your costs immediately, and other businesses have to amortize their expenses over their entire profit stream, so please don’t patronize me by telling me that the oil and gas industry doesn’t have any special tax provisions. Because if you would like that to be the rule, I would be happy to have Congress deliver.
Class dismissed.