After watching Washington flirt with the dizzying prospect of national default, we're as relieved as Americans everywhere to have averted that disaster.
As the dust from the budgeting brinksmanship settles, though, we're keeping a close eye on the details behind the projected $2.5 trillion in spending cuts over the coming decade.
We need to get our fiscal house in order. That's a national imperative that will require national sacrifice.
There is a difference, though, between responsible deficit reduction and an unbridled assault on needed health and environmental safeguards.
We can't help balance the budget through disproportionate cuts in the critical pollution control, clean energy and public lands programs that together make up less than 1.2 percent of federal spending and yet provide manifest benefits to Americans everywhere.
Some House Republicans have given us cause for worry this summer, unleashing an environmental broadside through bills that would undermine foundational protections like the Clean Water Act and the Clean Air Act, as well as dozens of harmful policy riders attached to larger spending bills.
Debt reduction is too important to get sidetracked by a conservative agenda to undo a generation of environmental progress.
Instead, the place to start balancing the public ledger is by ending billions of dollars a year in wasteful incentives for mature industries like fossil fuels, nuclear power and natural resource extraction.
Whether those incentives come from tax loopholes or direct payments, we need to put an end to them in the name of responsible deficit reduction.
There's real money at stake. The oil and gas industry alone is set to receive some $46 billion in subsidies over the coming decade, according to the White House Office of Management and Budget.
Just this week, the big five oil companies -- ExxonMobil, BP, ConocoPhillips, Chevron and Shell -- announced second-quarter profits totaling $35.1 billion, up 9 percent from just a year ago. ExxonMobil, alone, earned $10.7 billion for the three-month period, bringing its profits for the first six months of this year to a staggering $21.3 billion.
Now, we're all for profits. We want every company in America to make money.
But let's be clear. At a time when more than 14 million Americans can't find work, and millions more are struggling to hang on to jobs, homes and health care, American taxpayers shouldn't be forced to choke up one thin dime to fatten the profits of oil companies.
Those subsidies should be ended today and every penny put directly toward deficit reduction.
We can save billions of dollars more each year by ending wasteful subsidies for ethanol production, natural resource extraction industries like coal and timber, and nuclear power.
Instead of subsidizing industries that anchor us in the past, we should be investing in the kinds of clean energy solutions that prepare us for the future.
That includes building the next generation of energy efficient cars, homes and workplaces. It includes wind, solar and other renewable forms of energy. And it includes building high-speed rail and sustainable communities that will put Americans back to work today while laying the groundwork for a healthier economy tomorrow.
Just like families everywhere, our federal government needs to balance its checkbook. We all have to do our part.
As we look at ways to manage our spending going forward, let's do so with an eye toward ensuring the integrity of the safeguards we depend on to protect our air, water, lands and health. And let's preserve, while we're at it, the investments we need to ensure economic health and sound fiscal policy, not just for now, but far into the future.
This post was first published on NRDC's Switchboard blog.
Entitlements are now taking 55% of all federal spending. Presidnet Obama himself told us that they will eventually consume ALL federal spending if they are not reformed.
We can tax all we want to can't solve the problem with taxes. Everyone knows it but many deny it due to party loyalty.
We are going to have to rework the promises of Medicare and SS so those who truly need it will have it. And with one party fully determined to raise taxes than the compromise will have to be made to raise taxes to get buy in from the the democrats.
When Clinton wanted to fix social security Republicans stopped him. When Bush wanted to fix social security Democrats stopped him. We need to rework the promises or we will fail to give our grandchildren a safety net.
Unfortunately, the car only sold 281 units in february, and only 125 units in july - at that rate, it will sell less than 2,000 units per year for a subsidy in the range of approx $100,000 per unit. All for a car that has a range of 100 miles -
Talk about Big Oil and talk about their profits then talk about subsidies for natural gas and petroleum. Making people think that Big Oil gets the bulk of these subsidies.
http://www.manta.com/mb_34_E317D_000/drilling_oil_and_gas_wells
Almost all these subsidies go for drilling related items. Big Oil is responsible for about 10% of all the wells drilled in the U.S. There are over 3000 drilling companies in the U.S. Big Oil does not qualify for the subsidies because and you got to love this - AMT - Alternative Minimum Tax. Now imagine removing these tax subsidies most of these oil companies would close giving more power to Big Oil and increasing our dependence on imported oil! We are less than 50% dependent on foreign oil for the first time in a while.
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2011/05/25/us-oil-dependency-drops-energy-department_n_867131.html
Now think how what effect this idea has on the poor? The average age of a car is greater than 20 years old before it makes it's way to the junk yard! Are you trying to restrict the movement of the poor? Is that your hidden agenda? I'm sorry; that's not a fair argument to make but it would hurt the poor disproportionately more!
Same with harm to the poor. It doesn't matter where the oil comes from, it is a global commodity that has a global price.
Oil is a finite resource, with demand growing swiftly for China and India. What is your cure for the problem?
http://www.eia.gov/oiaf/servicerpt/subsidy2/pdf/execsum.pdf
You are right that oil is a world commodity but pricing is set in U.S. dollars the less oil we import the greater chance we have keeping the stronger relatively strong and the world wide price of oil relatively low.
As for the cure I bought a used CNG Honda over 2 years ago with a Phill station at my house it cost me about $0.025/mile. A typical SUV is closer to $0.25/mile and a Hybrid is closer to $0.08/mile fuel cost. Total package cost me about $25,000.00.
I believe natural gas can be a bridge fuel to electricity and maybe hydrogen. The U.S. is missing the boat we have less than 1% of all the natural vehicles in the world!
http://www.forbes.com/2011/05/02/eliminate-oil-subsidies_2.html
I read Forbes but it has a Wall Street bias and is for world wide trading and against manufacturing in the U.S.
you might find this article helpful. Now you are correct much of what I said is opinion and it is a different take on what would happen. Forbes and I agree on the facts of the subsidies. The author says without these tax breaks Big Oil would rush in to make up the difference in U.S. Production and we are over paying for the oil we get. To be Frank I'm not a big fan of improving Big Oil's dominance.
I see with the removal of these tax subsidies a benefit to Wall Street but more harm to Main Street. I see hundreds of the drilling companies closing and thousands of people losing their jobs in the name of making oil more efficient and to line the pockets of Wall Street traders.
But really it's just my opinion.
When it's for something I like, it's an investment.
When it's for something you like, it's a subsidy.
When it's for something Bob over there likes, it's a taxpayer handout.
Then they'll stick the legislation in Congress and pass it without nary a whimper. And the American public will yet again get the short end of the stick, without even having to lose any sleep over it.
But that's not the big problem
Our debt comes from War, 54%, and GOP tax cuts on the rich, more than 50%, that is we would be running a surplus. Deregulation of the Banksters and a refusal to prosecute them is another 50% of our debt.
You want a plan?
Tax the rich, jail the banksters, cut the MIC 90%, end the big cpompany sunsisides.
That will solve the debt problem, but crash the economy.
We need to invest in infrstructure, citezens saftey net and green energy.
That is a great plan. It's also the Progressive Cucucas plan.
Vote for the Progressive caucus in the primaries and the dems in the general. The real founders types.
http://cpc.grijalva.house.gov/
Not the DLC corporatist anti-populist folks:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Democratic_Leadership_Council
The total military budget from anti-military sites is only 36% of the total budget.
What's MIC?
Like the past NEVER happened.....
In the U.S., government subsidized solar panel plants have been either closing down or taking their taxpayer funded subsidies and moving production to China, where they can make a profit in a loose regulatory environment.
Obama's solar panel poster child Solyndra received $535 million in stimulus loan guarantees to build a new plant, then announced it was postponing expansion and left taxpayers on the the hook for $390 million. Instead of hiring 1000 workers as promised, it laid off almost 200. Solyndra's billionaire majority owner George Kaiser was a major fund raiser for the 2008 Obama/Biden campaign, a fact that raises serious questions about corruption in the awarding of stimulus funds (or "investments" as Beinecke and Obama prefer to call them).
Sweden Germany and Holland are doing great with their green energy programs, stop watching Fox. They are cutting subsidies, because they don't NEED them anymore, and green energy is the one shining part of the world economy, still doubling every year or two.
"When economic power became concentrated in a few hands, then political power flowed to those possessors and away from the citizens, ultimately resulting in an oligarchy or tyranny." John Adams
"As riches increase and accumulate in few hands . . . the tendency of things will be to depart from the republican standard." Alexander Hamilton
"I hope we shall . . . crush in [its] birth the aristocracy of our monied corporations." Thomas Jefferson
"If you love wealth more than liberty, the tranquility of servitude better than the animating contest of freedom, depart from us in peace. We ask not your counsel nor your arms. Crouch down and lick the hand that feeds you. May your chains rest lightly upon you and may posterity forget that you were our countrymen."
- Samuel Adams
Vote for the Progressive caucus in the primaries and the dems in the general. The real founders types.
http://cpc.grijalva.house.gov/
Not the DLC corporatist anti-populist folks:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Democratic_Leadership_Council
Germany and Holland are cutting renewable energy subsidies to protect their fiscal solvency and Holland is turning to nuclear power. Sweden's SKGS group recently commissioned an energy study by PriceWaterhouseCoopers, which recommended Sweden turn to nuclear power because subsidized renewables are too expensive and inhibit prosperity.
Lastly, the Founders' quotes you cite are out of context (they are fulminating against England's monarchy and aristocrats in particular, and government overreach in general), but they all express an ingrained distrust of power in any form, public or private. Most of the Founders were merchants or gentleman farmers who believed commerce and private property led to prosperity and independence and government intervention limited it. The philosophy of today's Progressives bears no relation to the founding principles of this country.
And your comment about them "subsequently invests in expansion and jobs" is bull. The big oil companies are using their profits to buy back their own stock, not to create jobs. They have actually cut employment at thosr companies.
Do we really need to subsidize corn and soy for big agra conglomerates?
Shouldn't we really be subsidizing organic, sustainable, local and humanely raised?
Sorry, some combination of the Republicans or the Republicans and Obama will block all necessary change or any hope for a future.
Let's face it, any money set aside for the workers of this country by the workers of this country is up for grabs by the very thieves that have destroyed our economy and are now going to make us relive 2008-2010 all over again. Obama cannot be allowed to do anything that will benefit America. The GOP agenda to make Obama fail comes at the cost of America failing and nobody in Washington seems to care about the outcome.