Where Are My Tax Breaks?

Oil and gas companies got an early Christmas present yesterday when the final energy bill passed by the Senate kept $14 billion in tax breaks in place for big oil companies. This bill was just hours after a different version failed, one that would have removed these tax breaks.

So what made so many senators change their opinions? Money. Those who voted against the stronger version have received an average of $109,000 from the oil and gas companies since 2004--more than double that of the money received by those voting in favor of the legislation, according to data from the Center for Responsive Politics analyzed by Public Campaign.

Many environmental organizations said the final bill didn't go far enough, but big oil was pleased. The American Petroleum Institute put out a statement thanking the Senate for putting their interests first. The oil companies needed a break. After all, gasoline prices only jumped 9.3 percent in November and fuel oil jumped 14.2 percent--the biggest increase since February 2003. As these companies are making record earnings, we're left to pay the tab.

As I've written about numerous times, there is a solution to the pay-to-play political system: full public financing of elections, or Fair Elections. Fair Elections would put voters first in the political process, ahead of big campaign contributors.

The original bill, had it passed, would have been historic. It would have been a positive highlight to a week in which environmental leaders from around the world were being stymied by U.S. opposition in Bali. With Fair Elections, voters would be sure that legislation would pass or fail based on the needs of all voters and not just campaign donors.

Comments

[nomoredead]

I wish this was on the headlines of all major newspapers.

[realitytrumpsbull]

Payola's the word you're looking for, here,
greasy palms, greasy fingers, matter of fact
somebody kind of needs to work Capitol Hill
over with a couple truckloads of grease rags,
by the sound of it. Oil. Black gold. Texas
tea. Foreign indebtedness. Globalizationer.
Yeah...

[realitytrumpsbull]

I hope they just keep it legal to make your
own ethanol, that way the 'oil and gas' people
can find something else to do...

[SamThornton]

Regardless of your political orientation or position on any possible issue, you have to concede the cleverness of our Congressional critters.

In the one, truly bipartisan movement over the past 40 years, Republicans and Democrats have united in providing legal venues for what used to be called in court papers, bribery of elected officials.

One of my objections to this legitimized institutional thievery and corruption is that Congress has consistently failed to publish a price list. Without some idea of how much the average citizen has to "contribute" to get a desired result, we are at a distinct disadvantage to other "contributers" such as Jack Abramoff and similar D.C. players.

All I ask is a level playing field. What's wrong with that?

[mcostello]

109 thousand dollars...­..........­.
We are already publicly funding elections.
Senators give tax breaks to large corps, who in return fund the Senator's re-election campaign, and it is all done with taxpayer money.
Wow, headache coming....­......

[kasjuh]

Devastating. What Mitch McConnell and his henchmen are telling the American people is "Don't complain that your income taxes are being diverted to the overflowing treasuries of the oil companies.­"
The entire nefarious Republican cabal in Congress deserves ousting in 2008.

[DemandTruth]

There's only one way to get around the corrupt election system NOW, before we have to elect anyone who will supposedly "fix" it.

Vote John Edwards. The ONLY candidate who is doing his part NOW to run a fair, people-driven campaign. He's the ONLY candidate from either side that won't be beholden to special interests and big lobbies if/when he/she wins. The ONLY one.

Stop complaining about our rigged election system. There's ONE thing we can do about that TODAY. Vote for and contribute to John Edwards. The TRUE peoples' candidate.