Political Quotes

“Mr. President, first, let me say I will be supporting the bill that we have before us today. It did not go far enough, though. What we ought to do is open everything. I am talking about the Pacific, the Atlantic, the gulf, the North Slope, the public lands. That is what we really need to be doing. I know there are some reasons they are confining it to the gulf in terms of this legislation. While I respect that, again it does not go far enough. Let me make one comment about yesterday's vote. Right now the single issue people have in terms of energy is the price of gas at the pump. I know it is not just my wife, they are all that way. I can see that. But when the Democrats came up with their bill last night, I hope people remember who was voting for this. That was for a major tax increase on what they call Big Oil. Big oil is the five biggest oil companies. I hate to say this, but sometimes you walk on the floor with half truths and get by with it, and people will assume that is true. As much as I love my fellows on the other side, some of the things that were stated were actually just totally inaccurate. To say the big five don't pay taxes--they pay huge taxes. I don't know where they come up with some of these numbers. I am going to single out one company, ExxonMobil, and tell my colleagues something they are not aware of because it has not been said on the Senate floor yet. In 2010, ExxonMobil's total tax expenses in the United States were $9.8 billion.…”