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End the Subsidies!

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In the House yesterday, the vote to strip oil companies of the subsidies that they've so enjoyed in the past years (from 2005-2009, worth $485 billion) failed, the GOP voting as a block, with several Democrats, to keep the unnecessary subsidies for Big Oil going. This from the same party that sees any aid to alternative energy as creeping socialism, from the same people who voted to cut heating subsidies for the poor and want to use this budget debate to zero out funding for NPR and PBS, just to get back at them for perceived "liberal" bias.

What's worse than this is that I had to find out from a friend's post on Facebook. That's right, as yet no media coverage on this from the main media channels. An internet search found just three stories, all based off the original from ThinkProgress (DailyKos and ClimateProgress were the others). They link to the original House vote in the story.

http://climateprogress.org/2011/03/01/house-gop-big-oil-subsidies/

We see now just how far their commitment to fiscal discipline goes; the oil subsidies were a ripe target for the budget ax, as I think it is clear at this point that the oil companies don't need taxpayer help. Yet again, for whatever reason the GOP did not agree and decided to protect them. So, let's review, cutting corporate subsidies to balance the budget, bad, cutting salaries and laying off workers to balance the budget, good.

I think every Tea Partier should see this, see it broadcast nonstop on every channel. The headline might be something like this: "GOP betrays its voters."

We see just how far their commitment to "fiscal sanity" goes when it comes to dealing with corporations. Hypocrites all. End the subsidies now!
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  1. Brady ClemensMarch 7, 2011 at 6:53 PM

    It was brought to my attention by someone more knowledgeable on House procedure than I am that the vote in question was a procedural one rather than on the question of the subsidies. In light of that, I must fully retract this blog as containing inaccurate information. I hope that the results of any vote on oil subsidies will give me cause for joy rather than a post similar to this one. There is no shame in admitting to one's own error; the only shame is in persisting in that error once one has been made aware of it.

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