[Cross-posted from the ProgressMass blog. Like ProgressMass on Facebook and follow on Twitter.]
2011 was a banner year for Big Oil. The Big 5 Oil companies raked in $137 Billion – with a B – in profit just last year. You probably think that such a profitable industry doesn’t need an extra $24 Billion in tax giveaways. Well, our Republican junior Senator, Scott Brown, disagrees with you.
Last week, Brown voted with his right-wing Republican colleagues in the U.S. Senate to protect those enormous tax giveaways for Big Oil. Of course, that vote was right around the same time that Scott Brown had to pay $34,545 for a violation of the People’s Pledge by, get this, the American Petroleum Institute!
In completely unrelated news, Scott Brown has received about $200,000 in contributions from Big Oil over the past two years. Take a moment to recover from the shock of such a coincidence. Big Oil gets $24 Billion in tax giveaways, while Scott Brown gets $200,000 in Big Oil bucks for his campaign coffers. And what do the rest of us get? Gas approaching $4 a gallon.
Scott Brown has been a tremendously effective Senator for Big Oil, but he is not working for the people of Massachusetts.
Please share this important information about where Scott Brown’s priorities lie. Share our graphic on your Facebook wall, Tweet it out to your tweet-peeps, and e-mail the graphic to your family, friends, co-workers and neighbors.
Massachusetts deserves a U.S. Senator who puts the needs of the Commonwealth ahead of the greed of Big Oil. We know the facts behind Scott Brown’s Big Oil record, and it’s up to us to make sure that the rest of Massachusetts does as well.
That is crazy!!! Masslive.com has been really active lately with comments. I’m glad to see it because for the longest time there were only a few incredibly uninformed individuals spewing untruths and nonsense talking points about how bad liberals are and freedom this and that and Republicans are good, etc. Now there are quite a few informed people chiming in. Thank goodness for that. I am excited to see the debate liven up over there, because the nonsense vote was the most vocal for too long. Here is a link to the roll call. I am really, really upset that this didn’t pass. We are never going to get out of this mess we are in.
I was just looking over the large amount of Executive Orders signed throughout the years and it seems to me that President Obama shouldn’t be as helpless as claims to be. So frustrating. I can’t bear to go through another 4 years of helplessness, but the alternative is not any better. What an awful place our country is in.
BTW… how much money did Democratic Senator Blanche Lincoln get from the oil companies? Was she (a Democrat) the number recipient in the 2009-2010 election cycle?
In 2008, Obama got about $900,000 from the oil and gas industry. McCaion got $3.5 million. $900,000 is about one half of one tenth of one percent of the $745 million Obama raised in total in 2008. Also a very small fraction of the $100+ million the industry spent on lobbyist in 2008.
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Scott Brown is in the upper echelon of big oil money in the Senate and big oil spend against Obama 3 to 1 in the past presidential election. Great point JohnD.
No oil money for anyone.
Yes, Lincoln was the #1 recipient from the oil and gas companies in 2010. But Republicans and IANO Murkowski make up the other 9 of the top 10. See list below.
From 1990-2012, they’ve given a total of $67 million to Democrats (23%) and $223 million (77%) to Republicans. (http://www.opensecrets.org/industries/totals.php?cycle=2012&ind=E01 ) They’ll hedge their bets, but the oil and gas industry bribes, I mean supports, Republicans at three times the rate of Democrats for a reason.
1 Lincoln, Blanche (D-AR) Senate $464,366
2 Vitter, David (R-LA) Senate $411,150
3 Blunt, Roy (R-MO) House $345,050
4 Pearce, Steve (R-NM) $329,270
5 Portman, Rob (R-OH) $310,358
6 Toomey, Pat (R-PA) $304,966
7 Murkowski, Lisa (I-AK) Senate $291,826
8 Fiorina, Carly (R-CA) $286,284
9 Pompeo, Mike (R-KS) $257,856
10 Hoeven, John (R-ND) $257,78
http://www.opensecrets.org/industries/recips.php?Ind=E01&cycle=2010&recipdetail=S&Mem=Y&sortorder=U
in the above rant… “Big Oil gets $24 Billion in tax giveaways, while Scott Brown gets $200,000 in Big Oil bucks for his campaign coffers. And what do the rest of us get? Gas approaching $4 a gallon.”
Sen Brown got $200K, Pres Obama got $900K of “BIG OIL BUCKS” correct? Who signed the $24 Billion in tax giveaways… President Obama or did he veto it?
Does it really hurt you that bad to say both parties take oil money? Can’t you see thru the redness of your rage to admit we have people with black oil on their hands in both parties, albeit more of them are Republicans?
Just electing Democrats isn’t enough, and this is exactly why. $900K isn’t chump change.
Any tally of contributions needs to include all the players in the industry. Servicing companies, etc. I would include ethanol producers as well.
The oil companies already pay a big chunk of taxes.
As I understand it the tax and other incentives are to drill here rather than outside the US. Creates jobs and reduces foreign dependance. The oil companies make economic decisions, and probably would do it differently if the Feds weren’t involved.
The tax breaks (and other government bennies) as a function of energy produced are very small for oil & gas compared to alternative energy.
Maybe the breaks should go away, but lets look at tax benefits for all energy producers (as a function of their role in our economy) before we haul “big oil” up before the court of public opinion.
A couple other notes:
Money for Senators is going to partly be a function of the size of the energy industry in their state, just like our previous discussions on the financial services industry.
Oil companies aren’t free standing entities. They are owned by us in the form of stocks and within our mutual funds. Anyone with an index fund (or who had a pension that has invested in index funds) owns these companies.
because it’s false.
If the 5 biggest oil companies made $137 billion in profits last year, why do they need taxpayer “incentives” to provide jobs and drill here.
They don’t.
The $4 billion a year they get goes directly to profit. Almost all of it is for depreciation of equipment and investment in drilling operations. In other words it does not lower the cost of drilling, pumping or refining oil. So it boosts their profits rather than lowering production costs.
Besides they own far more oil leases here and off shore than they are actively drilling on. Why? Because they can boost their stock price simply by having leases in their posession.
If the republicans are so concerned about the deficit I would think they would embrace repealing taxpayer subsidies to the oil industry. Perhaps Grover thinks it unfair.
Top Recipients, 2011-2012 per Open Secrets
Candidate Office Amount
Perry, Rick (R) $833,674
Dewhurst, David H (R-TX) $650,850
Romney, Mitt (R) $597,950
McConnell, Mitch (R-KY) Senate $264,700
Barrasso, John A (R-WY) Senate $225,400
I don’t think Blanche Lincoln is in congress anymore.
Here are the two crucial points of this diary and thread:
1) REPUBLICANS are by far the larger beneficiary of the two parties of oil money.
2) REPUBLICANS at far greater rates then turn around and cozy up to said donors with their policy positions.
Yes, even if Democrats aren’t all saints, but this thread is about (as it should be) REPUBLICANS, and specifically the most prominent one in this state.