In a time in America’s history where there are record job losses, home foreclosures, and bankruptcies, oil companies are earning record profits. Gas prices have soared. The skyrocketing gas prices have had an impact on the prices of other products including but not limited to food. In response to questions being raised about the necessity of oil company subsides, the former CEO of
Shell Oil, John Hoffmeister, recently said,“Big Oil doesn’t need subsidies in the face of sustained high oil prices.”[i] The largest oil companies, between 2005 and 2009, have made a combined
485 billion dollars in profits. That’s almost half a Trillion dollars.”[ii]
“While the U.S. House of Representatives was working on a stopgap funding bill to avert a government shutdown, House Democrats offered a motion that would have taken away tax subsidies from the five largest oil companies, saving tens of billions of taxpayer dollars. The motion was defeated with every Republican voting against it.”[iii]This will blog post discuss the importance of Congress taking a close look at its mandate to serve the public good.
When looking at the federal budget proposals coming out of the House of Representatives cutting programs for indigent infants, children, youth, the elderly, and students while maintaining tax breaks for the most able to pay taxes (i.e. corporations and affluent persons), it makes one wonder whether or not the government is operating in keeping with the public good. The importance
of this question is highlighted when looking at the big oil company subsides in a period of budget crisis.
The high cost of gas has caused many drivers to utilize alternative modes of transportation for travel to and from work. Where possible, some former personal car drivers have elected to utilize public transportation, scooter, or a bicycle to travel to work. The afore-referenced alternative modes of traveling to and from work for some drivers simply are not viable. There are many portions of the
country where public transportation is not available for traveling to and from work. Like public transportation, a scooter or bicycle are not viable options for traveling to work for many workers. For these drivers, the high cost of gas has caused them to have to cut other portions of their personal budgets in order to continue work. Personal car drivers have been reported cutting their
food, utilities, entertainment (cable, Netflix, movies), and vacation travel budget items in order to be able to travel to their places of employment.
Voters are calling out to their elected officials in Washington, DC for “shared sacrifice” when looking at the federal budget. Voters are telephoning, emailing, faxing their elected officials in Washington, DC, to request that Congress cut the multi-billion dollar subsides to oil companies. Like the hard
working citizen’s in the United States, many voters assert that corporations and wealthy Americans must pay their fair share of the tax burden.
In May of this year, President Obama heard the voters’ cries for shared sacrifice and urged Congress to take immediate action to eliminate the oil company subsides and use the dollars to invest in clean energy[iv]. Congressman John Boehner is reported to having said to ABC News that, “cutting the subsidies to oil companies is certainly something we should be looking at.”[v] “We are in at time when the federal government short on revenues. We need to control spending, but we need to have revenues to get the government moving,”[vi] Boehner said. Boehner went on to say that, “They ought to be paying their fair share.”[vii]
Last month, the President sent a letter to Congressional Leaders, saying he was heartened by House Speaker John Boehner’s statement that he was willing to consider cutting multibillion dollar subsidies to oil companies, and urging lawmakers to act.[viii] We, as a nation, cannot address our long-standing fiscal challenges by cutting very necessary programs and services for the most vulnerable members of our state such as WIC, SNAP, Medicare, and Medicaid while corporations receive tax breaks. Instead of cutting necessary program and services, we must raise taxes on
corporations and the wealthiest members of society. There must be shared sacrifice.
If the federal budget crisis is important to you, it is imperative that you let your elected officials know your position on this issue. To find the name and contact information for your: US Senator, you can visit the Senate Information at website .senate.gov/…/contact_information/senators_cfm.cfm;
and for the House of Representatives you can visit this website www.writerep.house.gov. Get involved in the federal budget process.
Sources: www.chattanooga.com “Republicans Chose To Keep Big Oil Subsidies, Costing Americans Billions Of Dollars”, March 2, 2011. www.abcnews.go.com/Politics/obama-urges-congress.
Photo credit Microsoft Clip Art.
[i]
www.chattanooga.com. “Republicans Chose To Keep Big Oil Subsidies, Costing Americans Billions Of Dollars”, March 2, 2011.
[ii] www.chattanooga.com. “Republicans Chose To Keep Big Oil Subsidies, Costing Americans Billions Of Dollars”, March 2, 2011.
[iii] Ibid.
[v] Ibid.
[vi] Ibid.
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