Big Oil continues to win

[Devils Horse]

I agree that the changes would have to be implemented over time, but it has to start somewhere.

Imo a flat tax rate for all would be fair. Each person, regardless of income pays a certain percentage and everyone's percentage is the same.

One question, and I am serious because I don't know: Where did you get the 40 million family figure that pay no taxes? Do you mean they don't pay any taxes in but still get a return?

The tax structure in this country is broken...big time. Too lazy to look up stats, but yes there are millions who get more in a tax 'refund' than they pay in to begin with.

I'd vote for a flat tax in a heartbeat. They could burn all the volumes of tax codes and heat the whitehouse for a couple of years.

Using public opinion to target big oil tax breaks is easy right now for the Dems, and they never miss a chance for more funding of the ever expanding federal government.

How about other companies? Take General Electric for example, they make billions per quarter in profits, and after all their tax breaks they pay relatively little to the feds. Let's see the Dems drag Jeffrey Immelt, CEO of GE, and one of their biggest supporters before a committee to take away his company's tax breaks.

You cannot single out corporations and take away their tax breaks while leaving others alone. I believe the Republicans were correct on that issue.

I'm no big oil supporter, but I am big on common sense and fairness.

[GeoFisher]

I don't really care how much a cost a multi BILLION dollar company to revamp there plant every year, the bottom line is they can afford it and it is obviously not affecting their bottom line. I realize the provide a lot of jobs, but those jobs are not going anywhere as long as we are government continues to be big oil's *****. So once again, why should they be getting tax breaks?

Geo, there could be a baseline tax break, for companies making over a certain amount of profits would get a smaller tax break than companies making under a certain amount. I am also confused on the part of the constitution that allows tax breaks for big business.

WOW.....you don't CARE??............So it is completely OK to pass those costs along.....EVEN though the changes are pretty much meaningless.

AND a Baseline TAX.....WTF.......I mean really. Doesn't that just force mid companies to never expand to be a big company. TALK about destroying the American Dream. Come on Tim .......you really don't believe that do you??

And I agree on the tax breaks......to an extent. Lets revamp that, but certainly not now. We're in a pickle and quite a few companies rely on those breaks. I can probably name 100 or so in KY. That would be great to repeal the breaks, and cause 50% of those to move out on the country......GREAT IDEA, eh.......

Revamp, but do it responsibly.

Later,

Geo

[DJD]

I am not completely sold on drilling here for a couple of reasons. Too many people refuse to even LOOK at the environmental impact. I am all for drilling, but it better be done in as safe a manner and with as little impact as possible. If it cost a few dollars more to do it safely, who cares. I am sick of seeing places get trashed so that some huge billion dollar corporation can save $5! It happens all the time, you need to look no further than mountain top removal coal mining.

There is a situation going on with a ski resort in Minnesota right now where they want to drain even more water out of a wild trout river so that they can make more snow in order to expand there ski resort. The kicker is, they could get the water from Lake Superior, which has tons of water and would cause little to no impact, but it would cost them more money!

Here is an Aldo Leopold quote that I wish people would keep in mind when tempted to place property values over human values:
"Cease being intimidated by the argument that a right action is impossible because it does not yield maximum profits, or that a wrong action is to be condoned because it pays."

I wish we would do SERIOUS research on alternative energy sources, but unforunately, it seems we will have to completely run out of oil for this to be the case. After all, it might cost the stockholders at Exxon a few dollars out of their millions!

I'm pretty much convinced we don't ever get the real details about oil in Alaska and off the coast. One expert in the media says one thing and the expert from the other side says different.

I remember when the Alaskan pipeline was gonna destroy that area and hurt the Caribou migration but I don't think that happened.

The Exxon oil spill was terrible and the recent Gulf oil spill was bad but nowhere near as bad as the experts said (going on memory there).

Heck, I just think that we get so tied up in knots over whats politically correct that it makes us spend tons of money to find other ways to get things done.

The main problem I see is that politicians make decisions based on who put money in their coffers and thats destined to be corrupt. The interest of the country is way down on their list of things to do.

[GeoFisher]

[FONT=Arial]The Senate fell short of the 60 votes needed to proceed to consideration of this bill that would end certain tax breaks for large oil companies. The bill may resurface as part of the upcoming budget negotiations.[/FONT]

In case your wondering, Mitch McConnell and Rand Paul both voted against this bill and for big oil tax breaks! Looks like ol Rand may not be as tea party as we had hoped!

There are some HUGE issues with the tax breaks that BIG OIL GET......the single biggest is the fact that it hurts practically every other corporation that gets tax offsets for certain manufacturing....

Instead of a repeal, you'd have to rewrite the law to EXCLUDE big oil, and then that would be unconstitutional....

So to eliminate the break for oil you'd have to eliminate it for every manufacturing corporation, including Ford, GM, GE, Westinghouse and every other PRODUCT MANUFACTURER in the country.

Of course, no one who is bitching about big oil has said a single thing about this......have they.

NO my friends...........while the country is in a serious pickle, you CANNOT remove these incentives that are used by corporations to CREATE JOBS.....

Watch what Newt said this Sunday......he wants to lower corporate taxes by 5 percent and ELIMINATE the breaks, and then he wants to eliminate capital gains, and then eliminate inheritance tax. ALL of those would FLOOD the market with new capital for companies to develop and grow.

Imagine that.......someone who actually wants to see America prosper again.

Later,

Geo

[roadrunner]

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I made a huge mistake the OSHA fine was $700,000 negotiated to $350,000 not 70 million I don't know what I was thinking but It hit me on the way home that I was way way off. I appologize for such a huge mistake.