It's one thing to say we shouldn't tax companies much...

But it's quite another, I think--and easily done--to say that we shouldn't be giving tax breaks to big, extremely profitable industries, don't you agree?

Like "Big Oil"?

Check this out, from Political Animal and The Washington Monthly this morning: 

GET THE ENERGY SECTOR OFF THE DOLE.... With global warming deniers about to take charge of the House of Representatives, there would seem to be little hope for major clean energy legislation in this Congress. But all is not lost, argues Jeffrey Leonard in the latest issue of the Washington Monthly. Last fall's election let loose political forces that President Obama can tap to set us on a path to a sustainable energy future with a simple proposal: eliminate all energy subsidies.

 Yes, eliminate them all -- for oil, coal, gas, nuclear, ethanol, even for wind and solar. It will be better for national security, the budget deficit, and, believe it or not, the environment. Green energy sources get only the tiniest sliver of the overall federal subsidy pie, so they'll have a competitive advantage in the long term if all subsidies, including the huge ones for fossil fuels, are eliminated. In addition, deep trends in America's energy supply, including discoveries of huge natural gas reserves, will over time create favorable terrain for wind, solar, and other energy sources that liberals love -- but only if our entrenched system of subsidies doesn't gum up the works. And while getting the energy sector off the dole may have once been politically impossible, with anti-pork Tea Partiers loose in Washington and deficit cutting in the air, the moment may finally be right.

From the original article Mr. Benen is referring to:

Energy subsidies are the sordid legacy of more than sixty years of politics as usual in Washington, and they cost us somewhere around $20 billion a year. To put that sum in perspective, that’s more than the State Department’s entire budget. It’s also enough to send half a million Americans to college each year with all expenses paid. Energy subsidies undermine the working of the free market, and they make rational approaches to long-term energy challenges and climate change impossible. They are not an aid to energy independence or environmental stewardship. They are an impediment.

 Doesn't this make sense? 

Why should we give tax breaks, for pity's sake, to the oil industry?  Does anyone think they won't make a profit?  Who could be for keeping things as they are, I mean, besides the industry itself? 

Libertarians, Conservatives, the Tea Party, Democrats, Consevatives, Liberals--everybody ought to be behind this.

And while we're at it, let me bring up here, yet again, why doesn't some Congressional representative bring up a bill to do away with tax deductions to any industry to take manufacturing offshore?

You know, sometimes things just aren't that difficult.

This is an example of two right here.

Link to original post:  http://www.washingtonmonthly.com/archives/individual/2011_01/027369.php
http://www.washingtonmonthly.com/features/2011/1101.leonard-2.html

Get your gasoline NOW

Is it a big deal?

Maybe not, but I can tell you, if you need gasoline and want to save money on it today, you should go get it right now.

This morning, gasoline was $2.35/gallon here in Independence.

Last night, in the overnight markets, oil went up $3.00 per barrel. From what the news said, this is an 8-month high. Apparently Nigerian refineries were attacked yesterday or some such, at minimum.

Usually always, when there is an international jump in the price like this, the price you and I pay at the pump goes up immediately, as you may know, even though this same gasoline was bought and paid for long before these markets, of course.

So expect the price to jump shortly, if not today. (I'm betting on today).

Besides, it's Summer now.

And it's the holiday, 4th of July weekend.

A guy's gotta make a buck, right?

Frustrating fights on several fronts--for all of us

More than anything else, it really frustrates me to hear working class people--people of not a great deal of money or "means", the middle and lower classes, if you will--rail against a new, government-sponsored single-payer health care system or other things we need.

Our health care system is broken, much as our financial system is, and needs fixing. The President is trying to bring solutions to the country.

Instead of fighting him and these programs, all of us in those middle and lower classes should be working with him, together, to bring about these fixes.

Keep in mind, we have to be unified and fight together with this White House and President on several fronts:

1) We have to push and fight back right now against the very wealthy, entrenched and powerful banking lobby which has virtually always gotten its way in Washington and which has been described as owning Congress, at least, if not Washington;
2) We have to fight the institutional investment firms;
3) We have to beat the hedge fund companies and their trillions of dollars;
4) We have to fight back against several fronts in this health care fight to fix our system:
a) We have to fight the doctors and their lobbies
b) We have to push back against “Big Pharm”, the drug and pharmaceutical companies
c) We have to win out against the hospital companies
d) We have to beat back the health insurance companies and their lobbies
5) We have to fight the oil companies and their ability to speculate on their products, raise the price of their products and cripple our household and national economies;
6) We need to fight the coal industry and its dirty mining and coal burning processes so we can clean up our air and reduce carbon and greenhouse gas emissions

So we have all this to do. It’s a big list and they are going to be long, tough, ugly fights, folks.

We have to hang together or we’re all hang.

And the President isn’t doing this because it’s fun or because he’s a “Socialist”, no matter what people like Glenn Beck, Rush Limbaugh, Bill O’Reilly or others say.

He’s doing it because it’s good for the country—it’s good for you and me—and it’s the right thing to do.