The Senate Loves Big Oil

Posted on March 30, 2012 at 9:41 am by Bob Cesca

Oil subsidies will continue thanks to the Senate Republicans and several conservadems:

The Senate on Thursday thwarted Democratic plans to strip billions of dollars in tax breaks from the largest oil companies, just an hour or so after President Obama urged the chamber to kill off the deductions.

Lawmakers voted 51-47 to block Sen. Robert Menendez’s (D-N.J.) bill. Sixty votes were needed to advance the measure.

Two Republicans — Sens. Susan Collins and Olympia Snow, both from Maine — crossed party lines and voted to repeal the tax breaks. Four Democrats — Sens. Mark Begich (Alaska), Mary Landrieu (La.), Ben Nelson (Neb.) and Jim Webb (Va.) — voted against the bill.

But they’ll slash the hell out of social programs because it’s “fiscally responsible.” $4 billion in oil subsidies every year for companies earning record profits that could go towards reducing the budget or making sure people have healthcare. Good people.

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  • morningsky

    Just makes you want to pull the waste can over and puke in it!

  • eljefejeff

    McConnell made some bullshit argument about this wouldn’t help gas prices, and he’s right. But that’s beside the point. They continue to make record profits while the rest of us go broke just driving to work.

  • morningsky
  • http://www.facebook.com/people/Michael-Norris/1597765442 Michael Norris

    Brought to you by the same people who believe that an individual mandate to buy healthcare insurance is unconstitutional. But drug testing welfare recipients is not. And of course, shoving a probe into a woman who is seeking an abortion is certainly constitutional under this kind of thinking. Good people indeed…and smart too!

  • trgahan

    Can they pass a bill that anyone who votes against ending subsidies for a profitable industry can’t campaign on a platform of fiscal responsibility; portray themselves as “self made”; claim ANY libertarian leanings; or make any speeches about average Americans needing to “pull themselves up by their bootstraps.”
    They ended most subsidies for alternative energy in 2011 on the argument “If it needs federal subsidies, it’s not a viable industry and should be allowed to fail. That’s free market capitalism!” So…?

  • agrazingmoose

    And, god forbid we lend some money to the struggling auto industry.

  • http://www.facebook.com/apocooter Mike Edinger

    But Begich, Landrieu, Nelson, and Webb are all Democrats. We HAVE to support them!

  • mnpollio

    Not remotely surprising in the least. And if there are any Republicans that defect you can rest assured that it will usually be Snowe and Collins. Ditto, that if there is a list of defecting “Democrats” on a big oil issue, the names Landrieu and Nelson will surely be there. Landrieu has been especially unapologetically vocal about being in their bag for some time now.

  • http://www.politicalruminations.com/ nicole

    Not surprising. They are, after all, first and foremost corporate shills, and I guarantee you that a vast majority of the Senate Republicans reaps a larger share of their income from damn lobbyists than from Uncle Sam.

    Consider too, that the House GOP voted to end Medicare yesterday. This, if nothing else, should hurt them BIGTIME in November if we beat the drums loud enough.

    Adding…. 47 senators – cost to big oil $24 million

  • http://www.facebook.com/rycarson Ryan Carson

    And the filibuster strikes again…