Let me be perfectly clear: what you are about to read is not satire. It’s entirely real and it’s all happening in Oklahoma. Oklahoma’s Trump lovin’ Governor Mary Fallin is has proclaimed October 13 as Oilfield Prayer Day:
“We're asking churches all over Oklahoma to open their doors, put on a pot of coffee and pray for the oil field, and not only for the oil field but the state, because the economy of our state is so connected to the oil field.”
Jeff Hubbard, with Oilfield Christian Fellowship- Oklahoma City, agreed.
“We have a saying: The oil field trickles down to everyone,” he said
The “oil field trickles down to everyone.” Well, Oklahoma’s wealthiest person is Harold Hamm, an oil billionaire with a nearly $15 billion fortune, most of it from shale oil fracking. Yes, the same oil extraction method responsible for at least 90% of the earthquakes in Oklahoma. Maybe Oklahoma could raise his taxes and encourage him to trickle a little bit more down to the oil field workers? Or how about George Kaiser? Forbes Magazine pegs his net worth at nearly $10 billion. The Sunlight Foundation wrote that he uses Oklahoma as his personal tax haven:
It's unlikely that President Barack Obama will be naming any tax proposals after George B. Kaiser. An investment by the Tulsa billionaire's family foundation in Solyndra, whose bankruptcy may leave taxpayers on the hook for $535 million in federal loans, has raised speculation that the administration acted in part to aid a financial supporter. But the impact on taxpayers of Kaiser's career goes far beyond the $535 million loss. Kaiser has built his fortune in part through shrewdly playing the Internal Revenue Code. In one six year period, during which he increased his net worth enough to land him on the Forbes list of the 400 wealthiest Americans, Kaiser reported taxable income to the Internal Revenue Service just once, totaling $11,699--equivalent to a full-time hourly wage of $5.62.
Maybe Governor Mary Fallin and the Republican-dominated legislature should get off their knees and get to work passing laws to make these oil billionaires pay their fair share. They are literally sucking Oklahoma dry and laughing all the way to the bank.
One last note, Donald Trump’s camp has hinted around that they would name the climate change denying Harold Hamm as energy secretary. Check out the links below to see how you can stop this from happening.
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