What happened to Obama's Big Oil windfall tax?
By Glenn Thrush Politico March 1, 2012 Republicans are slamming the White House for rising gas prices and Democrats have been whining about them doing that. So, BuzzFeed put together a list of new fewer than six instances where then Sen. Obama whacked George W. Bush and John McCain on the issue, and the GOP has been passing it around. What gets a little lost was the content and context of the Obama ads: most were focused not on actually blaming Republicans for the '08 spike, but their acceptance of millions in Big Oil campaign cash and -- more to the point -- Republican resistance to his plan to impose a windfall surtax on the industry's profits. Obama backed the tax lustily in '08 and posted it prominently on his campaign web site as gas soared to $100 a barrel. What happened to it? The administration dropped it quietly in early 2009 when the price dropped below $80 as global demand nose-dove during the economic crisis. And they haven't been talking much about it since, except briefly during the Gulf oil spill. Here we stand, eight months before an election, with predictions gas might hit $5 a gallon by summer. A handful of House liberals, led by Rep. Dennis Kucinich (D-Ohio) have proposed a new windfall tax (to go with the dozen other recent Congressional proposals lying on the scrap heap). So far, the Obama administration hasn't hopped aboard. Stay tuned. Instead, Obama is calling for and end to oil and gas subsidies, as he did today in New Hampshire. http://www.politico.com/politico44/2012/03/what-happened-to-obamas-big-oil-windfall-tax-116123.html ------------------------------------ --------------------------------------------------------------------------- LAAMN: Los Angeles Alternative Media Network --------------------------------------------------------------------------- Unsubscribe: <mailto:laamn-unsubscr...@egroups.com> --------------------------------------------------------------------------- Subscribe: <mailto:laamn-subscr...@egroups.com> --------------------------------------------------------------------------- Digest: <mailto:laamn-dig...@egroups.com> --------------------------------------------------------------------------- Help: <mailto:laamn-ow...@egroups.com?subject=laamn> --------------------------------------------------------------------------- Post: <mailto:la...@egroups.com> --------------------------------------------------------------------------- Archive1: <http://www.egroups.com/messages/laamn> --------------------------------------------------------------------------- Archive2: <http://www.mail-archive.com/laamn@egroups.com> --------------------------------------------------------------------------- Yahoo! Groups Links <*> To visit your group on the web, go to: http://groups.yahoo.com/group/laamn/ <*> Your email settings: Individual Email | Traditional <*> To change settings online go to: http://groups.yahoo.com/group/laamn/join (Yahoo! ID required) <*> To change settings via email: laamn-dig...@yahoogroups.com laamn-fullfeatu...@yahoogroups.com <*> To unsubscribe from this group, send an email to: laamn-unsubscr...@yahoogroups.com <*> Your use of Yahoo! Groups is subject to: http://docs.yahoo.com/info/terms/
