Political Quotes

“Mr. President, the Senate is expected to take up a bill that would repeal $20 billion in outdated, antiquated tax breaks for the oil and gas companies. In many cases, this tax break was created about a century ago. They have little, if anything, to do with modern, job-creating energy policy. It is time for them to go. These oil and gas tax breaks are targeted in this bill we are going to vote on. They are narrow, special interest tax subsidies that distort the marketplace. It happens to pad the profits as a result of the tax breaks, and it does nothing to keep gas prices down. It simply doesn't make any sense to me that we would continue to rely on oil and gas tax breaks that were originally written in 1916. These rules are truly vestiges of another era. In some cases, rather than encouraging energy independence, the tax breaks actually promote energy dependence on the OPEC oil-producing member states and other foreign countries that produce oil. For example, there is a part in it called the ``dual capacity'' provision and it allows major oil companies to claim a foreign tax credit for royalties paid to foreign governments. The foreign tax credit was never intended to offset royalty payments. It was originally intended to offset foreign income tax payments. So a company does business in a foreign country, they pay an income tax. The foreign tax credit was created so you could offset your foreign taxes on your American income taxes.…”