Pres Obama just called on congress to end oil subsidies

[Papageorgio]

straight from taxpayer money?

Keeping their own earnings is not 'taxpayer money.'

Apparently you missed my point. I was speaking largely on market distortion.

Is it fair that fossil fuel companies get to keep more of their own money, while other energy sectors get to keep less? You don’t think that gives fossil fuels an unfair advantage? Do powerful industries like Big Oil deserve to pay less in taxes because they can afford to lobby Congress?
.
.

Fair would be allowing everyone to keep their own money. What a freaking concept!!

I'm sick of government deciding to continue to overspend, not make any real cuts in spending and then get some big spending politician pit the people against each other. The oil companies and other companies EARNED THEIR money and now some greedy politician, bucking for re-election is now asking for more in the name of fairness. WTG Obama, screw us some more!

 

[SniperFire]

But the topic right now is the oil industry - it's a good place to start, right?

No, because investment in producing cheap energy is multiplied across the entire economy in GDP. That is why we have done it since, oh, since about when permanent taxation began and we recognized that oil with our economic lifesblood.

Start someplace else.

 

[SniperFire]

As I mentioned to Sniper, I'm fully supportive of ending all tax breaks across the board, even when it comes to green energy.

I'm saying quit distorting the true price of oil.

Please. The US alone spends something like $3 billion per day on oil that we consume.

The 'subsidy' Obama wants to eliminate is $4 billion a year.

Would you like to express that 'distortion' in oil price to us on a per-gallon basis?

You are being a drama queen.

 

[8537]

I love watching so-called Conservatives jumping out of their shoes to defend public welfare for oil companies.

How on earth are tax incentives for any business engaged in production & manufacturing public welfare for oil companies?

These aren't incentives to any business engaged in production and manufacturing. "any business" engaged in those activities can not get, for example, a subsidy for producing oil from marginal sources.

Is it really that difficult to be honest about everything?

 

[Dick Tuck]

He is trying to bring down gas prices while the pubs work to keep prices high.

Just one more reason for the rw's to want to get wealthy Mittens in the white house so our taxes can subsidies going to Big Business.

Idiot gullible dupes.

Wow... so in your little pea-brained world, ending tax breaks, which will be passed on to consumers, wil llower the price of gasoline.

What en economic numbnut you are....

How well did that corporate welfare work with the subsidies? Did big oil work to drive down prices? There is no ethic in capitalism that would have Exxon-Mobile give the US consumer a break. Their ethic is to maximize their profits, and they're showing record profits, even in a sluggish economy.

 

[Dick Tuck]

Make oil exploration more expensive is a way to bring down gas prices?

Economic retard.

LOL

I say end the fuel subsidies.

For those who consider yourself conservative, and say you want less government interference in our markets and in our lives, how can you justify supporting something that works only to distort the true market price of fuel and drive inefficiencies in our economy?

How do you expect new (and possibly better) forms of energy to take hold in the marketplace when fossil fuels receive an unfair $10 billion+/yr advantage, straight from taxpayer money?

I support the President in this initiative, and I think everyone else should too.

Fuel subsidies? Have you seen the taxes that are imposed on fuel? Are you high or something?

Federal taxes on fuel have been pretty static since the mid 1990s.

 

[Jackson]

Clean energy future?

More Solyandras?

You got it.

 

[KevinWestern]

As I mentioned to Sniper, I'm fully supportive of ending all tax breaks across the board, even when it comes to green energy.

I'm saying quit distorting the true price of oil.

Please. The US alone spends something like $3 billion per day on oil that we consume.

The 'subsidy' Obama wants to eliminate is $4 billion a year.

Would you like to express that 'distortion' in oil price to us on a per-gallon basis?

You are being a drama queen.

Drama King

Two things:

1.) If it's such a small amount, then what's the big deal if it's eliminated? Who's being the drama queen there?
2.) I never claimed that the $4 billion alone was the sole reason why I consider gas “artificially cheap” – there’s a lot more that goes into that.

Think about this: when you go to the pump and pay your $4.00/gal, does that price include the cost of all the environmental damage (short and long term) that was done in the process of drilling that oil? Who pays for that exactly? Our grandchildren?

I think that’s part of the rationale behind the Democrat’s argument to limit drilling. The oil companies/many Republicans seem to only be concerned about short term costs (which is a valid argument), the Democrats on the other hand seem more concerned about the long-term costs (which is valid as well).

 

[Decepticon]

What you subsidize you get more of.

I wonder if the the horse-whip manufacturers and buggy makers tried to keep the automobile from becoming widespread too, despite all the HORSE SHIT everywhere?

 

[Caroljo]

He is trying to bring down gas prices while the pubs work to keep prices high.

Just one more reason for the rw's to want to get wealthy Mittens in the white house so our taxes can subsidies going to Big Business.

Idiot gullible dupes.

That's right...it's all the RW's fault...

"Industry officials and many Republicans in Congress have argued that cutting the tax breaks would lead to higher fuel prices, raising costs on oil companies and affecting their investments in exploration and production. The measure is considered a long shot in Congress, given that Obama couldn't end the subsidies when Democrats controlled Congress earlier in his term."
http://news.yahoo.com/obama-seeks-halt-tax-subsidies-oil-industry-100325515.html

He could get this past his own Democrat Congress...and now his democrat Senate has turned it down. What does that tell you about how smart he is?

 

[ScreamingEagle]

What you subsidize you get more of.

I wonder if the the horse-whip manufacturers and buggy makers tried to keep the automobile from becoming widespread too, despite all the HORSE SHIT everywhere?

yes......and we could use more oil.....

however today Obama could probably have ended the subsidies to big oil IF the Dimwits had agreed with the republicans amendments to the bill.... which included a proposal to expand offshore drilling.....but Harry Reid SACKED that idea....

now WHY THE HELL would Obama and his Dimmies OPPOSE expanding offshore drilling when Obama has recently said he WILL SUPPORT drilling anywhere he can......?

talk about HORSE SHIT....

 

[Katzndogz]

As I mentioned to Sniper, I'm fully supportive of ending all tax breaks across the board, even when it comes to green energy.

I'm saying quit distorting the true price of oil.

Please. The US alone spends something like $3 billion per day on oil that we consume.

The 'subsidy' Obama wants to eliminate is $4 billion a year.

Would you like to express that 'distortion' in oil price to us on a per-gallon basis?

You are being a drama queen.

Are you certain that the subsidy loss won't be passed on to the consumer? Are you positive that the increased taxes the government gets from ending the subsidy will be well spent on more Solyandra like projects?

 

[KevinWestern]

Are you certain that the subsidy loss won't be passed on to the consumer? Are you positive that the increased taxes the government gets from ending the subsidy will be well spent on more Solyandra like projects?

First of all, let the Solyndra thing go. If you want to talk about the Government wasting money you can start with Iraq, because that thing will end up costing us 3,000 times the amount that Solyndra did. I’m so sick of hearing about Solyndra. It's getting tired, annoying, we get it...

$500 million x 3,000 = Iraq War cost.

And moving on...

Also, perhaps with the loss of the tax break the price will be passed onto the consumer. But so be it. Again, if gas is artificially low and folks and businesses start to experience something more akin to the real cost of gas, perhaps this will spur innovation, efficiency, ect.

Let the free market do its thing. Stop supporting the government in its picking of winners and losers.

 

[Katzndogz]

China's Petrochemical oil company is now bigger than any oil company in America. Gas isn't artificially low. It is low compared to Europe where 60% of every gallon of gas is taxes. So theirs is artificially high. What makes Solyandra important is that it was used basically as a money laundering slush fund for democrats. It was never intended to produce anything. It was intended to fail. It's sole purpose was to take government money and return large amounts of it to the DNC as legitimate political donations.

Meanwhile, a company that did not exist 13 years ago is a bigger industry than ours.

 

[Papageorgio]

Are you certain that the subsidy loss won't be passed on to the consumer? Are you positive that the increased taxes the government gets from ending the subsidy will be well spent on more Solyandra like projects?

I’m so sick of hearing about Solyndra. It's getting tired, annoying, we get it.

Let the free market do its thing. Stop supporting the government in its picking of winners and losers.

If I was a liberal, I'd be sick and embarrassed by our government trying to pick a winner and getting a loser. GM is also a loser that the government forced on to us.

I am against subsidies and against higher taxes, I'm all for government getting out of the way and not forcing its BS subsidies on us. Let's cut spending and let's let companies and individuals keep more of their own money.

 

[uscitizen]

How many people actually understand that 'big oil' is just being singled out and demogogued here, by the way?

'The tax deduction in question was enacted in 2004 and applies to all domestic manufacturers, not just oil and gas companies. It was designed to increase competitiveness in the face of the U.S.’s 35 percent corporate tax rate, among the highest in the developed world.

Democrats settled on the five biggest oil producers as their first target.'

Both Parties Get It Wrong on Big Oil Tax Breaks: Caroline Baum - Bloomberg

Very few corporations pay the full 35%.
What is the effective rate? A mega bank had a net tax credit last year.

 

[dblack]

Tax incentives aren't welfare.

Agreed. They're mandates. Which, in terms of abuse of state power, is worse.

How are they mandates? Perhaps you are thinking of them in a way I'm not, but I am not seeing how they are mandates. Could you elaborate a bit more?

They're functional the same thing as mandates: Do 'x' or pay higher taxes. Our government has come to use this tactic as a tool to manipulate our behavior in ways we'd never tolerate, and would be blatantly (as opposed to stealthily) unconstitutional if they attempted them through direct legislation.

This is something that's been pointed out repeatedly about the individual mandate. It could have been formulated as a tax incentive - an across the board tax increase with a rebate for everyone who buys insurance, and no one would have batted an eye. The only reason they didn't do it that way in the first place is they were too chickenshit to admit they were raising taxes. Fortunately, their cowardice may end up sinking their whole scam.

 

[Papageorgio]

How many people actually understand that 'big oil' is just being singled out and demogogued here, by the way?

'The tax deduction in question was enacted in 2004 and applies to all domestic manufacturers, not just oil and gas companies. It was designed to increase competitiveness in the face of the U.S.’s 35 percent corporate tax rate, among the highest in the developed world.

Democrats settled on the five biggest oil producers as their first target.'

Both Parties Get It Wrong on Big Oil Tax Breaks: Caroline Baum - Bloomberg

Very few corporations pay the full 35%.
What is the effective rate? A mega bank had a net tax credit last year.

General Electric, Obama's buds paid nothing, so I guess both parties get it wrong on tax breaks and subsidies. Now, let's cut spending and let people keep more of their earned income.

 

[PredFan]

Obama is an idiot and so is anyone who believes his crap.

They are not subsidies, they are tax breaks. The government is allowing them TO KEEP MORE OF THE MONEY THEY EARN. A subsidy is simply free money.

The oil companies get the same tax breaks that every other company gets.

/THREAD

 

[skookerasbil]

Cant wait 'till November............