Political Quotes

“Mr. President, I am pleased I could be here to hear our colleague from Florida talking so eloquently about the importance of ending the subsidies we are currently paying to the Nation's largest oil companies and about the importance of continuing to preserve the gulf and to make sure the regulations we put in place last year continue. I appreciate his leadership on both of those issues, and particularly on protecting the gulf, which is a national treasure. So I thank very much our colleague from Florida, Senator Nelson. I came down to the floor today to talk about the important legislation that is before us to reduce our deficit by ending the needless subsidies for the Nation's largest oil companies. At a time when Americans are paying these companies $4 a gallon for gasoline--and in some places it is more than that--it might be surprising to some people out there that these same companies are receiving $4 billion a year in subsidies from the American taxpayer. The legislation that is before us in the Senate right now would end six of these separate tax handouts. One of them repeals a provision that essentially amounts to a subsidy for foreign oil production. A second closes a loophole that lets oil companies drill for free on public lands in the Outer Continental Shelf. Another ends a practice that lets oil companies manipulate the numbers when deducting the cost of new wells from their taxes.…”