Political Quotes

“Mr. President, last night the Senate defeated a misguided attempt to raise taxes on the five largest energy companies that are operating in our country. That bill, as we discussed, would have done nothing to reduce our gas prices, nothing to create jobs in America, and nothing to increase domestic energy production. Furthermore, it would have hardly made a dent in our spiraling debt. Put another way, last night's effort would have done nothing to address the problems that most Americans care about, that most Americans are talking about, as they discuss things around the dinner table. This morning we are here to debate a very different bill, called the Offshore Production and Safety Act. It was recently introduced by the minority leader, myself, and 16 other Senators. There is a very clear contrast, without a doubt, between this and what was brought up yesterday. Instead of punishing a handful of companies within the oil and gas industry, we provide new opportunities to put Americans back to work. Instead of merely attempting to assign blame for our Nation's energy challenges, we develop a policy that we are proposing that will start to work right now and yield real benefits in the years ahead. And instead of raising taxes regardless of the consequences, we ensure that a far larger source of revenues, those that are derived from new offshore production, will be generated in the years ahead. The bottom line is that our legislation is both common sense and long overdue.…”