GOP Votes To Protect Their Big Oil Donors

It's no secret to anyone in this country that the big oil companies have been making record profits -- with the biggest five oil companies making over $30 billion in profit just in the first three months of this year. And they pay little to nothing in taxes. For instance, Exxon Mobil made about $5 million an hour (in PROFIT) in the first quarter of this year after an excellent and very profitable 2010, but paid no income taxes for 2010 -- not a single penny.

It is obvious that Big Oil is in no trouble and is more profitable than many other companies and individuals who pay far more in taxes. There is no reason for this, and the American people know it. An NBC/Wall Street Journal poll in February of 2011 showed that 74% of the American people would support abolishing the subsidies and tax breaks given to Big Oil.

If the Republicans were serious about reducing the federal deficit, this would be a great place to start. Eliminating the subsidies for Big Oil would save billions of dollars (and those oil companies would still make billions in profits). But the Republicans are not really interested in reducing the budget -- only slashing funds for social programs (which help hurting Americans) that they never approved of in the first place. They are fine with giving away billions of dollars to their rich buddies.

And they proved that again yesterday. Democrats introduced a bill in the Senate that would strip the five biggest oil companies of some of their government subsidies, and the Republicans filibustered the bill to protect their corporate masters. Yesterday the Democrats tried to invoke cloture to end the filibuster and bring the bill up for a vote -- a move that would require 60 votes.

The vote was 52 to 48. Fifty Democrats voted to bring the bill up for a vote, along with two Republicans (Snowe and Collins -- both from Maine). All other Republicans voted to protect the subsidies for Big Oil. Three blue dog Democrats voted with the Republicans -- Mary Landrieu (Louisiana), Mark Begich (Alaska), and Ben Nelson (Nebraska).

Clearly, the Republicans are more interested in giving money to rich people than in cutting the federal deficit (that talk about the deficit is just to fool the voters). Why would they do this? The answer is simple. They are doing what they've been paid to do. Here is an interesting tidbit from Think Progress if you doubt that:

A Center for American Progress Action Fund analysis finds that the 48 senators who sided with Big Oil received over $21 million in career oil contributions, while 52 senators who sided with the American people received only $5.4 million in contributions. Each senator who voted for Big Oil received on average more than four times as much oil cash as those who voted to end the subsidies.

I don't understand how an ordinary voter can vote Republican. They would walk all over a thousand working Americans to kiss the rear end of a corporate CEO.