DEMS SHOULD ASK: Why does GOP side with big oil against Americans?

[yurbud]

The GOP has used our tax dollars and the volunteers in our military to secure Iraq's oil for "American" oil companies.

How have the oil companies repaid us?

They have demanded and got more tax cuts.

They have gouged us at the pump.

And now the GOP is preparing to attack another top oil producing country, Iran.


If you cut through the BS of fighting terror and spreading democracy, some will say we need to secure those countries oil supplies to fuel our economy. If that was the only issue, there's a much easier way to get them: buy the oil on long term contracts the way China has done with Iran and Canada. We are the number one consumer of oil in the world and anyone who produces it knows if they charge us too much alternative energy will start looking more attractive.

The only thing that changes when we invade these countries is who profits from pumping the oil and gets to set the price. Back during the Great Depression, the United States was the number one exporter of oil to the world, and that didn't seem to do much good for the third of Americans who were out of work and struggling to feed their families.

Even today, with oil execs in the White House, are they making it easier to make a living, buy a house, and take your kids to the doctor they're sick? Are they using that oil money to make it easier for your kids to go to college? Or are they stuffing their own pockets, building a higher wall around their gated community, and pulling up the ladder of opportunity behind them?

I believe in a strong defense of the United States, but that is not the same as invading other countries to seize their natural resources for private gain. The oil companies profit, and we pay the price in taxes, blood, and the lasting hatred of the people in those countries.

There are a couple of things we can do to neuter these cancerous businesses:

• We can tax 100% of the profits corporations make in foreign countries where our troops are in combat, or where the CIA, or military or our surrogates have undermined or overthrown a government in the last twenty years.
  
  
• Lobbying for such action with the intent of profiting from it should be treason and prosecuted.
  
  
• Where there is substantial evidence an oil company or other business lobbied for war or political intervention then profited from it, the federal government will recoup the cost of that intervention from those businesses and bar them from passing that cost on to consumers.
  
  
• Because oil is a critical commodity, the price at the pump should be controlled to guarantee a decent profit for oil companies, but prevent them from crippling our economy with price gouging and massive profit taking.
  
  
• Oil companies must make non-petroleum fuels, biofuel or electric recharging, available at 5% of their gas stations in every state, and add 5% more every year.
  
  
• Oil companies shall not be allowed to buy or in any way harrass or interfere with independents who choose to use a greater percentage of their stations for alternative fuels, and any tax breaks oil companies receive will automatically be doubled for renewables.
  
  
• Oil companies should be banned from buying any patents or rights on battery, solar, or wind, or other renewable resources. As a matter of national security, any such patents or rights they now own that are not being mass produced will be seized under imminent domain and put in the public doman.
  
  
• Because oil is a critical commodity, no further mergers will be allowed and oil companies should be broken into smaller units. When a handful of corporations have a monopoly on a product, they have the ability to commit economic terrorism, cut off our supply at will, and demand whatever price they want. This is exactly what happened in California after electricity was deregulated. They turned off power plants, sold electricity out of state, and turned off our lights to show us who held the cards when they were bargaining for prices with our governor.
  
  
• No elected official or bureaucrat may leave office and work for an oil company nor accept campaign contributions from them because of the national security implications of their influence.
  
  

There are probably a lot more things that could be done. Let me know what to add to the list.

I know there aint a snowball chance in hell of a Democrat with national stature saying this, but it's not because it wouldn't work or be popular.

A caller dumbfounded Sean Hannity and got him babbling about himself in the third person by simply asking why he sided with the oil companies over average Americans on the price gouging issue. If someone can do that off the cuff and fluster him that much on the corporate propaganda channel, imagine the effect when it's said directly to the public.

And the war will not end nor will be protected from future Bush type corporate pusches if we don't deal with this issue head-on and forcefully.

[RB TexLa]

1. The day government starts regulating the price of oil is the day I start

selling my oil and gas to non-North American oil companies, I'm sure there will be plenty others with me.

[yurbud]

2. What do you suppose happens when oil companies pass up 25% of market?

[yurbud]

6. If as a business you invested as much in oil as American taxpayers have...

what kind of return would you expect on your investment?

When oil and other corporations donate to politicians, they expect a return on that investment.

What is our return on our hundreds of billions invested in seizing Iraq's oil and probably trillions invested in securing Middle East oil for you for decades, from propping up tyrants like the Saudis and Shah, to overthrowing elected leaders like Mossadegh, to invading and occupying Iraq?

I can see what oil companies return on that investment is, but not what ours is.

[mmonk]

3. Trick question?

[yurbud]

4. nope--just painfully obvious and yet unasked.

[AndyA]

5. I like the way you think. What bugs me is that some of the oil companies

drill on public lands, and don't pay for the privilege. Then they get tax breaks on top of that. And make the highest profits ever recorded. So why do they get a free ticket to use public lands for their own profit? And why are they getting tax breaks when they don't need them, (obviously), and when there are other industries that are in bad shape. For instance, the airline and automotive industries in America sure seem like they could use some tax breaks.

Oil is a necessity, not a luxury. As a necessity, I think it should be regulated like other necessities are. Many cities in America are not set up for mass transit, and as such an automobile (and the gas it requires) are necessities of life. Regulate the SOB's and make them pay their fair share for a change.

[yurbud]

7. they pay a royalty, but it's pretty low--13% on land, 16% for off-shore

I think the Saudis get half.

[yurbud]

8. there is some mining law for other extraction industries written in the

19th century that pretty much lets them clean us out on public lands, the same with lumber on public lands and so on.

[yurbud]

9. problem is, industries pay close attention to that and most people don't

for us, it's more of an abstraction, but for the oil, mining, and lumber companies, it's money in their pocket.

[focusfan]

10. Ever wonder why repugs HATE american automakers

and why when repukes are in the WH they almost go broke and want to cut wages and benifits,but with a democrat in the WH they make a proffit and take care of thier employees.

[AndyA]

11. Come to think of it, I never really thought of it before, but you may be

on to something there.

[focusfan]

12. I would also like to see a law passed making

it impossible for the U.S. to ever attack another country that has not attacked us first.

[yurbud]

13. that's the kind of far left think Abe Lincoln had about Mexican War