Political Quotes

“I came to the floor. I heard an interesting colloquy going on between my colleagues, my friend from Utah and my friend from Alabama, and I saw that my name was invoked, so I thought I would come to the floor and maybe elucidate for them and set the record a little bit straight. No. 1 is I am no longer the chairman of the Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee, so my focus in ending the tax breaks that the big five oil companies in this country get to the tune of $21 billion that the taxpayers of this country give in essence to big five oil companies that will make $144 billion in profits this year I simply think don't need it in order to be able to achieve what the marketplace has allowed them to do. And I am happy for them. I am happy for all their stockholders and shareholders and everyone else, but they don't need $21 billion of the taxpayers' money and tax break--which, by the way, they describe them as these poor oil companies that, wow, we are going to stop domestic production. One of the breaks I want to finish actually says you can't be doing what you are doing. Here in the United States, when you get access to the lands and waters to drill for oil and gas, you pay a royalty. Basically, a royalty is a license fee. The oil companies figured out, Well, when I do this in other countries in the world, instead of paying a license fee, let me ask them to pay a tax for the same amount that it would have cost to pay a license fee.…”