Political Quotes

“Mr. President, the subsidies to oil and gas companies in the form of tax breaks cost the Federal Government in the neighborhood of $4 billion a year. What most Democrats, including this Democrat, propose to do is to end those subsidies and to use the money to reduce our Federal budget deficit. This is not a particularly complicated issue. If oil and gas companies were struggling, if a large number of jobs were at risk, if ending these subsidies threatened to increase the price families have to pay for gasoline or fuel oil or if ending them would create a drag on our fragile economic recovery--if any of those things were true, this might be a closer call. But they are not true. We are subsidizing massively profitable oil companies. Nearly every independent analyst--and even some from the oil industry itself--tells us this proposal will not alter the economic fundamentals that determine gasoline prices. Oil production, and therefore the jobs it creates, will not decline if we pass this bill. Struggling families and small businesses will not pay more because we end these subsidies. And by ending them, we can help close a budget deficit we all agree is a significant problem. The arguments against this measure are misguided. Republicans have claimed it would increase gas prices. Independent economists disagree.…”