Dirty Filthy Commie Taxes

After dinner, Ms. Cook's grandparents engaged in The Nightly Roardown. An (apparently) unconscious but much-relished source of entertainment for the elders, it was, for her and her brother, during their formative years (ages 5 - 10), frightening.

Now, as an adult, when occasion warrants (like when I'm pontificating as below) she lets forth with a vituperative mainstay from The Roardowns: "Dirty, filthy commie taxes!!"


This morning I ran across a bill introduced to the 2015 (link is to pdf) Senate: To eliminate certain subsidies for fossil-fuel production.


The bill included some interesting tidbits (facts?)...

....the Environmental Law Institute found that from 2002 through 2008, Federal fossil-fuel subsidies (our taxes) in the United States totaled over $72,000,000,000, while Federal renewable-energy investments totaled $12,200,000,000; (A disparity that says A LOT about our commitment to renewable energy resources.)

....according to Taxpayers for Common Sense, the 5 largest oil corporations have made more than $1,000,000,000,000 (just fyi: that's a trillion) in profits during the past decade;

....according to the Center for American Progress, the 5 largest oil corporations posted more than $89,700,000,000 in profits in 2014 alone; (That's $89.7 B.)


And the reason for the bill: To wean the corporations from government subsidies (welfare).




And in another line....

According to the Center for Responsive Politics, the oil and gas, coal, utility, and other natural resource extraction industries spent more than $1,800,000,000 on lobbying during the period of  2010 to 2014, which was an effective investment in protecting their extraordinary tax loopholes and subsidies;


A "fact" sheet about the bill -- some redundancy but with more detail: link


Of course, these kinds of issues are best left unreported. The media knows we're impotent and subject to depression when prompted to THINK (about these things). Besides, they, the masses, LIKE driving big trucks that only get 12 miles to the gallon.
 
Here's hoping you're getting YOUR share of "likes."


P.S. I contacted the office of Bernie Sanders (I-Vermont) (the Senator who introduced the bill) and asked what became of it. The guy said they only take calls from Vermonters. I scathingly scoffed with: "In this global economy?" He hadn't a clue what happened and after some further haranguing said he'd refer my call to some staffer who worked with enviro or taxo issues. I ain't holdin' muh breadth....or my breath neither. And we PAY these people to run our country?