Political Quotes

“Mr. President, it might make us feel better to beat up on Big Oil, it might present a scapegoat in some quarters, but it will not lower prices at the pump, and that is what we need to talk about. The economic recovery we are in--slow and spotty in places, but underway--can be stalled out by prices as high as $4.37 a gallon--a price I saw at a station right here in the Washington, DC area. That is frightening to consumers, to families, to small businesses, and to large industry that are seeing their cost of business go up because of these prices. We should be working on real solutions, and this is not one of them. According to the Joint Economic Committee report on this bill, published last week, repealing these tax incentives ``would have little or no impact on consumer energy prices in the immediate future. The impact in the long term will also be negligible.'' So why are we doing it? Why would we want to harm five large oil and gas companies that work internationally, that employ 9.2 million people in the United States directly--good, hard-working Americans working in and for these companies? Why are we doing this? That is a good question. No. 2. The industry pays its taxes and then some. I think there is some real misunderstanding that these large oil and gas companies pay either little or no taxes. Maybe people have been told, and believe, that they have so many tax subsidies they do not pay taxes. I want to put that issue to rest.…”