It's Time To Stop Big Oil Tax Subsidies

If you own and drive an automobile (as most Americans must do), then the image above (from The Doc Is In) probably feels more like reality than humor to you. It certainly does to me. Now the congressional Republicans would like for everyone to think this is President Obama's fault. That's not just a lie, it's outrageous! The high price of crude oil is due to Wall Street speculation, and the high price of gas at the pump is due to the Big Oil companies continuing to raise gas prices even though they are already making record-breaking profits.

Now I know the Big Oil companies would like for everyone to think they are barely getting by and must raise prices at the pump to survive. That is not even close to being true. The final numbers for all of 2011 are not known yet, but the profits for the first three quarters of 2011 for the five biggest oil companies topped $101 billion. That's a massive increase in profits over 2010 (when they recorded record-breaking profits).

And yes, I did say PROFITS, not income or revenue. That $101 billion is the profits made by those companies in the first nine months of 2011 after all expenses have been accounted for (including exploration costs, refining costs, labor costs, equipment costs, transportation costs, etc.). This profit, plus the profit for the fourth quarter (also expected to be record-breaking), is what these companies should be paying income taxes on. But due to subsidies and other tax loopholes, most of these companies pay a smaller tax rate than most middle class workers -- and some pay no tax at all.

Like most intelligent people across this nation, President Obama doesn't think it is right that these oil companies make such huge profits but pay far less than their fair share of taxes (especially in this recession when every tax dollar is extremely important). He is asking that the Congress eliminate about $4 billion in oil tax subsidies -- a drop in the bucket compared to the massive profits being made by the oil companies. That's a pretty reasonable and very moderate request from the president, considering that it's only about half of the subsidies currently received by the oil companies.

But the oil companies, and their lackeys in Congress (right-wing Republicans and blue dogs), don't want to make these companies pay their taxes. In fact, most of them would like for these (and other) corporations to pay no taxes at all. Their excuse for this ridiculous attitude is that the corporations would use that money to hire workers and lower employment. If that was even partly true, I have to wonder why a massive number of jobs are being created already -- since corporate America is currently sitting on more cash reserves that ever before (many trillions of dollars).

The president is right. It's time to end at least sum of the oil company tax subsidies. They are obviously not necessary (considering the massive profits being made), and simply allow them to avoid paying their fair and reasonable share of taxes. And if the oil companies raise gas prices upon losing these subsidies, it would be out of greed -- not necessity (look again at their massive profits).

The president has said, "I am asking Congress to eliminate this oil industry giveaway right away. I want them to vote on this in the next few weeks. Let's put every single member of Congress on record. You can either stand up for the oil companies, or you can stand up for the American people. You can keep subsidizing a fossil fuel that's been getting taxpayer dollars for a century, or you can place your bets on a clean energy future."

I agree.