[Congressional Record Volume 157, Number 68 (Tuesday, May 17, 2011)]
[Senate]
[Page S3004]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                           BIG OIL SUBSIDIES

  Mr. REID. Madam President, as we learned today from articles around 
the country--I will refer briefly to one in USA Today:

       As gas prices hover near $4 a gallon, nearly seven in 10 
     Americans say the high cost of fuel is causing financial 
     hardship for their families, a new USA TODAY/Gallup Poll 
     finds.
       More than half say they have made major changes to 
     compensate for the higher prices, ranging from shorter trips 
     to cutting back on vacation travel.
       For 21 percent, the impact is so dramatic they say their 
     standard of living is jeopardized.

  It goes on to indicate that the situation involving gas prices is 
very focused and, in the lives of some, drastic.
  The other issue the American people face--and they should--is we have 
to do something about raising the debt ceiling. We can only do that--
Democrats, Republicans, Independents agree--by doing something about 
bringing down the deficit, and it has to be something that is 
meaningful. A place to start in that regard would be to focus on these 
gas prices, how concerned people are and, in addition to that, the 
deficit.
  We have a bill we will vote on this evening that says these subsidies 
given to oil companies, the five big oil companies, which in the last 
quarter made $36 billion; that is net profit--we are saying those 
subsidies are no longer necessary.
  We have had over the years a number of executives from these 
companies say they are not necessary. They are now trying to justify 
these: Well, if we don't do this, it is going to cause gas prices to go 
up.
  We had a report by the Congressional Reference Service, an 
independent body, which said in three different places in that report 
that it will not affect gas prices at all. They said it in different 
ways, but they said it.
  No. 1, of course, we have to do something about the exorbitant gas 
prices, and the best way to start with that is to do something about 
the five big oil companies getting subsidies they do not need. The 
other thing we have to be concerned about is the huge deficits we have 
had. We can accomplish both of those to some degree today by doing 
something this evening when we vote on taking away those huge subsidies 
that the oil companies no longer need.

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