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President Obama on Thursday urged passage of a bill before the Senate that would limit existing tax breaks for the nation's largest oil and gas companies.
Speaking in the Rose Garden, Obama said Congress “can either vote to spend billions of dollars on oil subsidies that keep us trapped in the past. Or they can vote to end these taxpayer subsidies so that we can invest in the future. It’s that simple.”
He criticized Congress for thinking “up until this point” that “it’s a good idea to send billions more of your tax dollars to the oil industry.”
He added that such energy companies are “doing just fine” without the extra tax boost, noting that the three biggest oil companies saw more than $80 billion in profits alone last year.
“It’s not like these are companies that can’t stand on their own,” he continued.
According to the White House, Obama’s Rose Garden audience included representatives from energy, business and environmental groups as well as people who posted about the impact of higher fuel prices on the White House websites and social media.
The Senate was expected to vote on the “Repeal Big Oil Subsidies Act” shortly after the president spoke. The bill, written by Democratic Sen. Robert Menendez (NJ) would repeal over $20 billion in tax breaks to the major oil and gas companies: BP, Exxon, Shell, Chevron and Conoco Phillips.
The Senate voted overwhelmingly to bring the bill up for debates, but Republicans will oppose its final passage; the GOP had looked to set up a broader debate over gas prices, and they have assailed the Democratic proposal as a de facto tax hike.
Earlier today, Senate Republican leader Mitch McConnell criticized Democrats for pushing the bill, which he said won’t do anything to lower gas prices.
"That was their brilliant plan on how to deal with gas prices: raise taxes on energy,” McConnell said, criticizing Senate Democrats for allowing a “tedious” amount of what he said were strictly politicized show votes.
UPDATE, 12 p.m.: Noting that Obama has been calling for oil industry tax incentives since his first term in office, the RNC released a statement saying, “President Obama will say and do anything it takes to get reelected even if it means doing a Rose Garden photo-op to pretend increasing energy taxes will lower gas prices. This is just more smoke and mirrors from a president who doesn’t have an energy policy while Americans struggle to pay higher gas prices at the pump.”
NBC’s Libby Leist contributed reporting.
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Did I just hear on the news that the Dems defeated the Obama oil subsidy request?
Pelosi and baracalypse with the class warfare. follow the trail of money without politics
oil companies get profits, and share with shareholders, who spend it and give the govt money OOOOOORRRRRRRRRRRRRR
GOVT taxes the crap out of big oil, sending it to egypt, israel, n korea etc and all obamas donors. people get nothing, we get f- uked AGAIN.
Any idiot can see how much this administration is a disaster. Thats why the media needs to omit most bad news about them.
DEBT MAN WALKIN!!!!
I love all these "yeah stop giving our tax dollars to the oil companies". People, read. We don't give them anything. GovCo doesn't write them a check, the subsidies are in the form of tax breaks. It isn't us paying them. It is the government allowing tax breaks. It costs the government nothing (and therefore you and me) if they didn't have it in the first place.
Now that you are all wee weed up about sticking it to big oil, certainly you must realize every dollar we take from them through taxes will be passed on to consumers at the pump. So, how many more dollars per gallon are you voting for 3, 4, or maybe 6? Public policy was to make oil available cheaply for the last 60 years or so; now public policy is to make us pay as much as possible for oil. I , for one am not thrilled with the prospect. Meanwhile, we also are planning to shutter coal plants in this country while we ship coal to China so they can build dirtier coal plants than we have here. And this is saving the environment? The only ones losing in this shift in public policy are you and me, and hundreds of thousands of americans who will be put out of work. Still want to stick it to big oil?
I want our President to explain the big picture so as to show how what he is advocating fits in. Without conditions to include actions of congress, the President promised that the 2012 federal deficit will not exceed 229.27 billion dollars yet his own White House is predicting a deficit of more than 1.3 trillion dollars. I want to know how the President plans to keep his promise. I also want the President to lay our a plan for the federal government to pay back the more than 15 trillion dollars that it owes. I want to know how much it is going to end up costing the tax payers and how long it is going to take. The White House is predicting huge deficits for at least the next decade and that is just going to make the current situation worse. If interest rates significantly increase we are going to be in big trouble.
The Three Stooges (Obama, Reid and Pelosi) need to be voted out of office. Those 3 never took ECON 101. But they are well versed in TAX, SPEND and WASTE.
When running for office Obama said that deficit spending was bad and he vowed to cut the deficit in half by the end of his first term. To do that the 2012 federal deficit must not exceed 229.27 billion dollars and both Obama's own White House and the CBO are predicting that is not going to happen. The White House is predicting a 2012 federal deficit of 1.33 trillion dollars. I estimate that the 2012 federal deficit alone will end up costing the tax payers more than 10 trillion dollars to repay if in 170 years. The White House is predicting huge deficits for at least another decade. And the President said that he was against deficit spending. How can anyone trust him?
The President needs to be reminded of some words of wisdom that were spoken back in March of 2006. The words were as true then as they are today.
"The fact that we are here today to debate raising America's debt limit is a sign of leadership failure. It is a sign that the US Government cannot pay its own bills. It is a sign that we now depend on ongoing financial assistance from foreign countries to finance our Government's reckless fiscal policies. Increasing America 's debt weakens us domestically and internationally. Leadership means that, "the buck stops here.' Instead, Washington is shifting the burden of bad choices today onto the backs of our children and grandchildren. America has a debt problem and a failure of leadership. Americans deserve better."
~ Senator Barack H. Obama, March 2006
How can we trust him? How can we trust someone who completly ignores what was going on when Obama took office? This country was on the verge of the next great depression and every creditable economist in the country said in order to avert it we must stimulate the economy, and that means running a deficit. If Obama did say he was going to keep the deficit under a certain number that was a mistake because there was no way to tell how much it was going to take to get out from under the mess Bush brought on us. But it seems you wouldn't care if we slipped into a depression as long as we kept the deficit under a certain number, that's just plain stupid. We can't pay off the debt if our economy is depressed. You get the economy in stable ground THEN you work on the deficit as the president is doing. It seems that the GOP drones are getting more desperate as they see their chances of regaining the WH slipping away.
Since oil is a global industry, taking back the entitlement program (tax credit) from the oil industry should make no difference. They made in PROFITS last year $8 BILLION DOLLARS. Why do they need our taxpayer money to give them more when they have outrageout profits.
The whole argument about gas prices and subsidies is smoke and mirrors. Gas prices aren't going down with or without the subsidies. The two are in no way related. Oil prices are set by the world market, so is Exxon going to tell Britain that they are raising oil prices because they can't get subsidies from the US government anymore? The GOP once again is trying to pull the wool over the eyes of the American people. The GOP doesn't give a damn about the price of gas, they are using it as a political tool to appease their buddies in the oil industry, the Koch brothers and at he same time trying to discredit the president.
What does it take for people to realize that Obama has an agenda that is not in line with the best interests of this country?
Who thinks that the oil companies aren't going to pass on the cost to Mr. and Mrs. America?
NOBAMA 2012