Political Quotes

“At a time when we have a recordbreaking $13 trillion national debt and an unsustainable Federal deficit, at a time when two out of every three corporations in America paid no Federal income taxes between 1998 and 2005, at a time when ExxonMobil, the most profitable corporation in the history of the world, not only paid no Federal income taxes in 2009 but actually got a $156 million refund from the IRS, at a time when we desperately need to end our dependence on fossil fuel and transform our energy system, the amendment I am offering, along with Senator Wyden, Senator Whitehouse, Senator Menendez, and Senator Lautenberg, is simple and straightforward. This amendment simply repeals over $35 billion in tax breaks to the oil and gas industry, all of which were recommended for elimination in President Obama's fiscal year 2011 budget, which the Joint Committee on Taxation has estimated would raise over $35 billion in a 10-year period. To put this in perspective, the taxpayer dollars saved by repealing these tax breaks represents about 1 percent of the total projected revenue of the oil and gas industry over this same time period. In other words, the cost of repealing these tax breaks for the oil and gas industry is negligible. More than $25 billion of the money saved under this amendment would be used to reduce the deficit.”