Political Quotes

“One thing we do know is that our constituents are paying about $4 a gallon for gas. What they have to ask is: Where's all this money that they're paying going? Well, as you have seen, it's going in profits to the biggest oil companies. In fact, almost $30 billion went just in the last 3 months to the top three oil companies-- about $11 billion to Exxon, about $9 billion to Shell, and over $7 billion to BP. Remember BP? And that's after they've taken $5 billion in subsidies from the taxpayer and as in the case of ExxonMobil paid zero corporate taxes. Well, what are they doing with that profit? What they're doing is spending 90 percent of it on stock buy-backs so that, of course, the remaining stock outstanding becomes even more valuable, thus enabling their executives to become even wealthier, and to stock dividends for their shareholders. And the remaining 10 percent goes to oil and gas exploration and to TV advertising so they can convince the American public otherwise. What this bill will do is to enable those who own oil company stock and run oil companies to grab up our last remaining oil reserves at a cost of $30 to $40 a barrel so that they can then sell it at $100 a barrel to make more profit. The motivation for this bill is more about scoring political points and currying favor with the oil and gas industry that the current House majority can't seem to coddle enough.…”