Political Quotes

“Well, we voted to subsidize the cotton industry, NASCAR, agribusiness. You name it, we vote to subsidize it. But now we have an opportunity to correct the most egregious abuse of the Federal taxpayer. $53 billion of oil that belongs to all American taxpayers is basically being given away. It's their oil. It's being drilled offshore. We own it, but we're not charging royalties to the largest American corporations, and that's the real rub of it. These are the most profitable corporations in America. BP is the biggest beneficiary. Exxon, Shell, Conoco, you name it. Chevron. They're all at the trough. Exxon, for example, last year $383 billion in revenue, and yet we're told they didn't pay any American corporate taxes. They paid it to other countries, but not to the United States. You know, at a time when we cut $1 billion out of Head Start and then we're going to give $53 billion to the wealthiest corporations of America, take American taxpayer-owned oil? This is insane. Now, it may have made some sense when oil was at $20 a barrel, But when oil is over $80 a barrel and the American consumer is having to pay $3.50 a gallon for gas, is this really the time that we should be giving away $53 billion in oil? No. Let's stop this egregious abuse. We say we're in favor of eliminating waste, fraud, and abuse? This is the worst abuse. Let's stop it. Support the gentleman's amendment.”