Obama And Oil Companies: Did The President-Elect Just Break His First Campaign Promise?

Did Barack Obama just break his first campaign promise?

On the campaign trail, Obama railed against big oil companies. He often criticized John McCain for backing tax cuts that would reward ExxonMobil and other top oil manufacturers. But now Obama's proposal to apply a windfall tax on big oil has vanished... at least from his transition website. The President-elect's transition team hasn't explicitly announced it will drop the windfall tax plan, but a transition aide, commenting on the condition he not be identified, backed off the promise in an email. "President-elect Obama announced the [windfall profits tax] policy during the campaign because oil prices were above $80 per barrel," he said. "They are currently below that now and expected to stay below that."

The windfall profits proposal was deleted from the transition website almost three weeks before the eagle-eyed American Small Business League (ASBL), an advocacy group for small businesses, noticed the change and protested in a press release Tuesday. The plan was mentioned in a version (PDF) of the site that existed after Obama's election win. But when the transition website relaunched on November 8, references to a excess profits tax on the oil and gas industry were gone.

Read the whole story here.

Comments

[elementalchick]

Um, you need to read your sources better. The transition team website is not a source for final policy for taxes, or anything. It is a work in progress, making recommendations for the cabinet and president who can start work on Jan 20th.
Please wait to freak out and attack position changes until the 21st.

[franklin opt]

Agreed -- and there are bigger fish to fry at the moment.

[Chardin]

yes he did.
Actually there were others..
Deciding to let Bush Tax Cuts EXPIRE in 2011 rather than
gather up those bloated revenues to offset the bailouts....
muscled to the head of the broken promises line revealing that
promises, like time, and truth...are relative
Just like Pilate said: "Truth? What is truth?"
Well. actually Obama first made the campaign promise to a highly educated crowd
in pig latin:
"I illway utcay indfallway axestay' in pdf .

so, technically, he can't be held to those dots and tittles.
Perhaps the transition team just prefers words like : delete, 'expire'
to the awkward and inelegant : cave and conceal.

[Social Construct]

"Welcome to the Machine"

[jpmdevildog]

Even Billionaire energy mogul T. Boone Pickens has announced a revolutionary alien technology as the next step in the campaign for US energy independence.

http://www.weeklyworldnews.com/alien-alert/pickens-teams-with-alien-energy/

[uvymopkq]

Obama is not fulfilling this promise for change. But they will end up covering for him 'cause he's too big to fail. I know it's very unseemly and it's really sometimes not very classy to remind people. He's a hack liberal Democrat. Obama has less experience than any other Democrat that's ever been nominated, if you look at who his friends are, who his alliances are, the things he's written about and says he wants to do, he's a hack leftist, almost radical. Why anybody is surprised -- there's no change. Liberalism isn't change. We've had liberalism since FDR. We've had collectivism since FDR. We're just going to get more of it. That's going to be the change. And we're going to have ostensibly a president who can speak and people are going to be comforted by the fact that he doesn't sound like an idiot, even though they're going to ignore what he says.

[elmoor]

Give me a break, cynics. We are in the middle of a financial crisis, and now is not the time for a windfall tax on the one industry currently not crashing. Their time will come...

[Audrey85]

Media, back off, you have too much access. You are competing for ratings, we understand that but let the guy get in office first. Watch the outgoing President and his cronies try to re-write history. Give the rest of us a break! The United States is BROKE! The middle class is suffering, tthe rich are loosing their wealth slowly because the conomy isn't thriving. The poor are getting by on what little subsidies they can still find. People are still loosing jobs and homes and you are watch dogging the President-Elect who basically has not power, he's just setting in motion his house so he can hit the ground running like no other President-Elect before him. BACKOFF and worry about the cuts that are sure to hit your industry!

[rkimball]

i wonder how many suitcases of money exxon/mobil dropped off at obama's campaign office to get him to do a complete 180.

[rkimball]

here we go again, back to no energy policy at all now that cheap gas is temporarily back for a while.
we are just begging opec to stick it & twist it to us again.

[wanttruth]

Every politican changes campaign pledges when circumstances change. If the gas goes up again, I expect to see the 'windfall profit tax' idea again. I think President-elect Obama is mindful that tax proposals no matter how sound may alarm an already skidish stock market. Right now, President-elect Obama is trying to project steadiness and readiness to tackle the recession. Voters really shouldn't be shocked or dismayed,.

Remember Sen. Clinton and Sen. McCain 'gas tax' holiday pander? They both knew that it didn't really provide alot of savings and that it wouldn't be done legislatively, but they kept saying it, because, it appealed to cash-strapped consumers! President-elect Obama told the voters the truth regarding the 'gas tax' hoax and received alot of flak from pundits and some voters.

Voters should do their own research on the issues and consult many sources to get the fullest picture regarding a particular issue. Don't be so easily swayed by provocative headlines and opportunistic bashing.

[poeticjustice4all]

While some of Mr. Obama's recent centrist posturing may be a little uncomfortable, I don't think we can hope for change and then be disappointed about each and every change in his campaign "promises." Things are said in the context of a campaign that -- down the road -- often turn out not to be the best way forward.

Unlike the rigid Republicans of our current administration, Obama's team seems to understand that there are trade-offs -- and you have to pick your battles carefully. Also, unlike the secretive Bush White House, Obama's website is public information and the changes can clearly be cited. He's setting a standard of transparency that all future President's will have to meet.

So let's celebrate the substantial changes and leave all the petty complaining and second-guessing to Sean Hannity's America. As long as Obama sticks to basic progressive principles, shouldn't we accept and even encourage flexibility in how he deals with getting set up to successfully take office and govern?

[research]

Just Cut it out!

We don't know what Obama will replace that tax with, do we?

Perhaps a higher royalty for using public lands?

Obama is not president Yet!

Meanwhile Bush is doing uncounted damage.

Perhaps you should report on that?

[qmastertoo]

Can the guy become president and break the promise before we accuse him of breaking a promise? Good lord. He is 2 months away from the job, what is this a pre-emptive whine?

[barackobama4prez]

they just don't get it.

[curiousasheck]

Clinton. (Oil Per Barrel) 1998 11.61

Obama . . . To be Determined

[philosopherkingtomas]

windfall doesnt make sense today!
we need a transportation retrofit tax on gas to pay for saving and retooling GM FORD CHRYSLER and for infrastructure. ten cents a gallon/