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Thursday, March 10, 2011

Oil / Politics / Boom Rep. Joe Barton (R-TX): Without Tax Subsidies, Exxon-Mobil Would Go "Out of Business"

Posted by Goldy on Thu, Mar 10, 2011 at 2:58 PM

If you don't want your head to explode, absolutely don't watch this video of Rep. Joe Barton (R-TX) defending federal tax subsidies for Exxon-Mobil, by arguing that without them "they'll go out of business."

Exxon-Mobil. The largest publicly traded company in the world. Raked in over $30 billion in profits last year. Will. Go. Out. Of. Business. Unless, US taxpayers lavish it with billions in tax credits and subsidies. $45 billion worth, over the next decade. Really.

Also a potential risk factor for spontaneous cranial detonation? Rep. Barton's insistence that federal tax subsidies should be maintained "so long as you believe in the free market capitalist system." Because nothing exemplifies free market capitalism better than federal tax subsidies.

BOOM!

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Comments (33) RSS

Oldest First Unregistered On Registered On Add a comment

We're screwed.

Posted by Rujax!

on March 10, 2011 at 3:03 PM

Jesus Fucking Christ. Dear old Republicans, please hurry up and die already.

Posted by Sudden Nut on March 10, 2011 at 3:12 PM

You know, when I first read this headline, I got really excited. "What? Even Texas Republicans are starting to come out against oil subsidies and ExxonMobil's incredible greed? Wow!"

Then I realized he was actually saying that to defend subsidies and my head asplode. Fuck this. Fuck that guy. Ugh.

I suppose this could be a gold-plated publicity gift to opponents of both subsidies and Republicans, though, if it's spun right in debates and campaign ads.

Posted by balderdash

on March 10, 2011 at 3:14 PM

As usual, the Republican has his facts reversed: without Exxon-Mobile subsidies, Barton would go out of business.

Posted by judybrowni on March 10, 2011 at 3:18 PM

We need to nationalize the whole fucking industry. Their greed is beyond human comprehension.

Posted by Fifty-Two-Eighty

on March 10, 2011 at 3:19 PM

Dude was pretty much just shouting "U-S-A! U-S-A!" It's an instinctual "go limp" defense Republican's deploy during a rare journalist attack.

Posted by Dougsf on March 10, 2011 at 3:20 PM

Just more evidence that we need the Libertarians now more than ever.

Posted by cliche on March 10, 2011 at 3:25 PM

Sweet.

Sounds like a Plan!

(he's lying, I have about 25 percent of my retirement in energy firms, and this is not true)

Posted by Will in Seattle

on March 10, 2011 at 3:25 PM

(by the way it's Exxon-Mobil even if they have certain things in Mobile, Alabama ...)

Posted by Will in Seattle

on March 10, 2011 at 3:25 PM

Yes, and people working for the government with vacations, health care and $60,000 annual salaries are way too wealthy. It all makes perfect sense.

Posted by David Thompson on March 10, 2011 at 3:26 PM

Fucking bunch of fucking no good fucking liars and thieves!!!

Posted by Vince on March 10, 2011 at 3:26 PM

@5 Couldn't agree more.

Posted by OuterCow on March 10, 2011 at 3:27 PM

Shit, Barton's younger than he looks. :(

Posted by Sudden Nut on March 10, 2011 at 3:29 PM

Ex falso sequitur quodlibet.

Posted by kinaidos on March 10, 2011 at 3:38 PM

Fifty-Two-Eighty @5: "We need to nationalize the whole fucking industry. Their greed is beyond human comprehension."

Totally agreed. There's no way the free market, if left to its own devices, is going to satisfy Americans' God-given, inalienable right to cheap gas. And while we're at it, why don't we nationalize Iraq? It's time we recouped that trillion-dollar investment. I mean, that war was supposed to pay for itself, wasn't it?

Oh, and to my fellow libertarians who might chafe at such a massive expansion of the federal government, I say this. It ain't socialism if it promotes the kind of freedom that comes with being able to cruise 60 MPH down a freeway whenever you feel like it, as our founding fathers envisioned.

Posted by cressona on March 10, 2011 at 3:47 PM

pure MENTAL ILLNESS.

Posted by Adrian Ryan on March 10, 2011 at 4:00 PM

As Zizek would say, this is ideology at it's purest.

Posted by rootwinterguard

on March 10, 2011 at 4:07 PM

Hey, where's raindrop, supreme & all the other rightwing trolls? They should all be here, defending welfare given to private corporations, because that's what real American patriots do.

Posted by Some Old Nobodaddy Logged In on March 10, 2011 at 4:24 PM

Socialism for the rich, capitalism for the poor. I will never cease to be amazed by the Republicans' stunning lack of cognitive dissonance.

Posted by rara avis on March 10, 2011 at 4:34 PM

@18 There's a company wide Right Wing Troll meeting in the basement of Fox News today. They'll be back in their cubicles tomorrow I'm sure.

Posted by Fish Wrench Asteroid on March 10, 2011 at 4:52 PM

@ 10 - You beat me to it.

I won't belabor (HA!) the point but MY GAWD this kind of shit is just right out of a Monty Python skit. Have all our American brains truly turned to mush, so that this kind of crap seems to make 'sense'?

FEDERAL TAX SUBSIDIES FOR EXXON-MOBIL = DoublePlusGood

WORKING PEOPLE MAKING A LIVING WAGE = DoublePlusUNGOOD

Yeahhhhh......

Posted by merry on March 10, 2011 at 4:55 PM

@9,

I had it right one out of the three times. Thanks. Fixed it.

Posted by Goldy on March 10, 2011 at 5:42 PM

You lie!

Posted by McGee on March 10, 2011 at 6:20 PM

I don't know what credits and subsidies are being referenced here. I found a Reuters article on the subject, but it gives very little additional information.

Some on the left have adopted pretty hyperbolic rhetoric on tax issues: calling internationally standard tax treatment of unrepatriated revenues "subsidies for shipping jobs overseas", or describing accounting rules used by all companies as credits for "the banks" or "the oil companies" or whatever the hated-industry-du-jour is.

But if there are tax expendetures targeted explicitly toward a domestic industry or company (I'm looking at you, Boeing!) I'm definitely on board with eliminating them. (Let's give the resulting revenue back in the form of lower overall taxes rather than let the government keep it, though.)

Unlike Joe Barton and Washington State's D-heavy state government and Congressional delegation, I have no problem with buying from foreign producers.

Posted by David Wright on March 10, 2011 at 6:42 PM

Fawning. Toadies. Repeat until it works.

Posted by tunanator on March 10, 2011 at 7:01 PM

The odd thing is...and not a comment on SLOG polemic, which you normally do quite well...but after viewing this, I finally understood why we have these credits.

Think about it. In a perfect world, why would there even be an "American Oil Company". Unless you are some incredible racist, who thinks that 600 million Arabs don't have an ounce of business sense, you would imagine that by now, all oil based energy companies would be completely owned and operated by the lowest cost producer...the Arabs where the oil is located!

There would be no Texans driving Cadillacs with horns as hood ornaments. This would be yet another industry that would completely and totally flee the US (we have lots of domestic capacity, but the real cost of extracting oil in Saudi Arabia is $5 per barrel and its $55 in the US because of having to drill through bedrock, in water, etc).

So, yes, we bought ourselves a domestic industry with this money...

Posted by Supreme Ruler Of The Universe

on March 10, 2011 at 7:01 PM

I’m disappointed in my fellow slog commenters for uncritically embracing Goldy’s knee jerk left-wing outrage. I thought Joe Barton sounded pretty reasonable and we shouldn’t be too quick to dismiss his position just because he is an old white guy with a Texas accent. My political philosophy is that I’m always in favor of the free market, except when I’m not. I don’t know enough about the tax breaks in question have an opinion about whether they are a good idea.

Posted by Ken Mehlman on March 10, 2011 at 9:32 PM

Oh shit. Did SRoTU just say something that made sense?

Fuck me. I don't know how to handle this.

Posted by balderdash

on March 10, 2011 at 10:40 PM

Equal would mean that they actually have to pay taxes. It's another debt and spend republican who's supporting the people who put him in power. He doesn't give a fuck.

Posted by watchout5

on March 10, 2011 at 11:01 PM

Apparently Joe Barton is a wholly-owned, bought-and-paid-for subsidiary of Exxon-Mobil.

Posted by I have always been... east coaster on March 11, 2011 at 8:14 AM

@28: except he didn't. we bought ourselves a "domestic industry" with the money we credited them a long time ago. the value of that domestic oil industry to the citizens is what at this time? is exxon et al "holding down the price at the pump"? they don't control that; speculative markets do (where i assume they are speculating successfully). if it isn't the taxes they pay, then its the jobs they create in refineries and drilling rigs? or is it the ones in the military, employing patriotic cannon fodder to subsidize american access to mideast oil?

Posted by Max Solomon on March 11, 2011 at 9:34 AM

@26, you do make a good point. As a method of developing a necessary industry sometimes it makes sense to provide subsidies. However, they've been in business for many years and are consistently pulling down the largest profits of any company in the world. Even if it's costing them $55/barrel to get oil in the USA that's hardly a big problem when oil's now selling well over $100/barrel.

All of that is really beside the point of Goldy's post. The point he's making is that it's hypocritical for Republicans to say they're against federal subsidies and against government "choosing winners and losers" in industry yet to support subsidies to industries that pay for their campaigns.

@24, I agree that I would also like to know much more than I do about what "subsidies" the oil industry gets. I know they get to buy drilling rights at criminally low prices but I would like to know more. If you find good info please post it.

Posted by Root on March 11, 2011 at 9:40 AM

This is the cocksucker that apologized to the poor CEO of BP for all the trouble we were putting him through after the spill. At what point do we start treating this kind of behavior like treason and start sending some bitches to the gallows?

Posted by kbk on March 11, 2011 at 12:09 PM