Is ending tax breaks for oil companies un-American?

No. But here is what will happen. If the congress ends the tax breaks for oil, (other companies besides oil get the same breaks,) the oil companies will pass the lost tax incentive on to the consumer to some degree. Here is the part that upsets me. It was Congress years ago that passed the tax incentives. Now Congress wants to take them away. Just like with the IRA or 401(k), the government keeps changing the rules. Changing the incentives will affect the price of a share of stock. Investors have oil stocks in their retirement plans. The will then impact the values in the retirement plan. I have found that members of congress, for the most part, have no working knowledge of financial planning. Almost every decision they make hurts the consumer in the long run. Yet, they keep changing the rules.

I beleive we should end tax breaks, period.

My understanding is that the so called tax breaks are no more than accelerated depreciation for oil drilling equipment. All businesses depreciate their equipment so why single out the oil companies for punishment? It will only make drilling for new oil more expensive and cut down on exploration. Politicians like to demonize oil companies and are either ignorant of the taxes paid by oil companies or are purposely misleading people. Yes, it is anti American legislation and should be stopped. Schumer and Menendez should get their heads out of their a**es and stop showboating for the cameras.

Yes, if they decide to end the tax breaks for one type of company and leave them in place for other types of companies, that is not the American way. If we want to end all tax breaks- fine. No one is complaining about the same deductions for AT&T, Microsoft, UPS, Wal-Mart, Altria, and all of the other businesses that make a profit in this country. Using the tax code for punitive retribution is pretty much un-American. (The excuse that 'because you can afford it' is down right anti-American.) If they are having hearings and posing for the media and spending all of this time in an effort to raise revenues, then we are in deep trouble- because this in not much revenue for the amount of hoopla. Congress should be concerned over hundreds of billions of dollars each year instead of a measly 4 billion. Senators that use the term 'subsidy' are either too dumb to know the difference or intentionally misleading with their terminology. I know it plays well for the politicians to say what the stupid people want to hear and it gets them elected, but to make policy out of what the stupid people want to hear is just dumb. If their beef is that fuel prices are too high, why don't they ask the Fed chair about that? He lied in testimony in front of congress (by saying that the Fed would not monetize the debt) and no one even cares to notice that- and that is actually a crime. These oil companies have to buy crude on the world market in dollars that are losing value every day. The producers of oil are not going to take the same amount of devalued dollars tomorrow that they took today for the same amount of oil. Schumer and co. are barking up the wrong tree. And they think they are right because lots of people like to hear them bark. This is a sad spectacle. We are doomed.

No. We have a budget problem. Where or where do we find the money? I've got an idea. End tax cuts to the rich and subsidies to the oil companies when their first quarter profits blow your head off while gas prices are going up. Why in heavens name do we continue to give them subsidies? Paying the debt on the backs of the middle class, seniors and the poor is immoral and fiscally unsound, creating a bigger underclass while the millionaires continue to get richer each year from Bush's tax cuts. Trickle down economics? Doesn't work. C'mon guys, it's time to pay your fair share. This country made you rich. It's time for you to step up to save this country since we are in this mess because of 8 years of a Republican administration. We bailed you out while CEOs tanked their companies and walked off with millions of our dollars. We bailed out the banks and then they wouldn't give out loans to save home owners from foreclosure. To Paul Ryan--no way are you going to destroy Medicare. Can't wait until you are a senior Mr.Smarty pants. We did our part; now, it's time for the wealthy in this country to put their greed aside and do theirs.

While everyone complains about the spill this year in the Gulf of Mexico, the fact is that searching for and obtaining new oil (both) are very expensive and while the company will owe so much in taxes, it will pay less because of how much it spends in exploration. We could always not buy their product and get biodiesel or electric vehicles or ride a bike or even carpool, hey!