Political Quotes

“Mr. President, the skyrocketing price of gasoline is clearly causing tremendous hardship to American families all across this country, to small businesses to truckers to airlines and, in fact, to the entire economy. We are trying to claw our way out of this horrendous recession and the high price of oil and gas is not helping us. I come from a rural State, and it is a State where people often drive 30, 40, 50 miles to work and back home again. Many of these workers make $10, $12, $14 an hour and when the price of gas goes up to $4 a gallon, this is money that is coming right out of their paychecks and it is money they can ill afford to pay. Many of them have seen stagnation in wages, and these high gas prices are doing their families severe harm. Further, I think the American people understand that our good friends at the oil companies continue to do phenomenally well in terms of the profits they are making. In the last decade, the major oil companies in this country have earned $1 trillion in profits while gas prices have soared. The Repeal Big Oil Tax Subsidies Act we are debating today is a step in the right direction. This legislation would repeal more than $20 billion in tax breaks to the big five oil companies, and use roughly half of this money to extend renewable energy tax credits and use the other half for deficit reduction.…”