Senate GOP Votes Down Bill That Would End Big Oil Subsidies

WASHINGTON -- A ceremonial vote over whether to end subsidies to major oil companies failed on Tuesday, with 45 Republicans and three Democrats voting to continue the tax incentives to the five largest oil companies.
Atlhough the 52-48 vote broke down mostly along party lines, Republican Sens. Olympia Snowe and Susan Collins of Maine split with the rest of the GOP to support the effort to repeal oil subsidies. Democratic Sens. Ben Nelson (D-Neb.), Mary Landrieu (D-La.) and Mark Begich (D-Alaska), voted against the bill.
Still, the debate over whether to end the subsidies is unlikely to die with Tuesday's vote. Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.) vowed to continue pushing for the government to end the series of tax credits to five oil companies, which Democrats say could produce $21 billion over the next decade.
"I am confident that before we finish our budget negotiations here, and in anticipation of raising the debt ceiling, that that will be part of it," Reid said at a midday press conference.
The bill would have cut $12 billion in subsidies for producing oil within the United States for Chevron, Shell Oil, BP America, ConocoPhillips, Exxon Mobile. Another $6 billion would come from eliminating credits for taxes that the oil companies pay to foreign governments, with the final $2 billion from blocking them from writing off certain drilling and development costs.
Republicans said the bill would unfairly single out oil companies, harming their ability to hire American workers, and drive up the United States’ dependence on foreign oil.
“Our oil and gas industry is an industry that creates jobs,” Sen. Kay Bailey Hutchison (R-Texas) said on the Senate floor. “We ought to be giving every possible fair break to companies that hire in America.”

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2011/05/17/oil-subsidies-senate-gop_n_863308.html

Vote with your vote!  “Our oil and gas industry is an industry that creates jobs,” Sen. Kay Bailey Hutchison (R-Texas) said on the Senate floor. “We ought to be giving every possible fair break to companies that hire in America.”

Did you really say that on the Senate Floor?  We ought to be giving every possible fair break to companies that hire in America?  20 Billion dollars a year in subsidies?  That’s fair?  20 Billion to one industry?  What about Target?  What about Walmart, the auto industry, the hotel, and entertainment industries?  They all hire in the United States.  How stupid do you think we are?  There is nothing fair about subsidizing an industry where the individual companies make more money (I’m talking profit) in a year than the GDP of some small countries.  Perhaps if these subsidies reduced our price at the pump it would be easier to look at this a little differently.  It’s hard for the consumer to reconcile the word “fair” with 4 dollar a gallon gas.