[Congressional Record Volume 142, Number 63 (Wednesday, May 8, 1996)]
[House]
[Page H4536]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                           OIL PROFITS ARE UP

  (Mr. KLINK asked and was given permission to address the House for 1 
minute and to revise and extend his remarks.)
  Mr. KLINK. Mr. Speaker, here they go again. Snake oil salesmen 
looking for a magic cure. The Republicans have come up with this idea 
that the 4.3-cents-a-gallon tax that was put on back in 1993 somehow 
did not cause the price of gas to go up in 1993, did not cause it to go 
up in 1994, did not cause it to go up in 1995. But all of a sudden, in 
1996, this pent-up tax caused it to go up 30 cents a gallon.
  Well, we are not really buying that. We know that they are really 
reaching for straws. We heard Philip K. Verleger, Jr., who is an oil 
economist, say, if you cut taxes, the incremental difference is going 
to go to big oil, not to the motoring public. In fact, an analysis by 
the Democrats in the Committee on Commerce has shown that, while this 
gas price was going up, just during April and March of this year, that 
the value of the stock options by oil company executives rose by $32.8 
million.

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