[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 154 (2008), Part 5]
[House]
[Page 5991]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]




                        GOP: THE GRAND OIL PARTY

  The SPEAKER pro tempore. The Chair recognizes the gentleman from 
Oregon (Mr. DeFazio) for 5 minutes.
  Mr. DeFAZIO. Well, the Grand Oil Party is at it again. $500 billion 
in profits to the oil industry since George Bush, the oil man, and Dick 
Cheney, the oil man, took office. Remember what they told us? They 
could deal with the industry. They'd talk the prices down. They could 
deal with OPEC. They'd talk the prices down. OPEC is violating 
international law. The President won't file a complaint in the World 
Trade Organization for their illegal constraint of production which is 
driving up the price. The President refuses to take any action against 
his friends in the OPEC consortium or cartel.
  Now the big oil companies, $40 billion in profits for one, 
ExxonMobil, last year, their generous campaign contributors, the GOP, 
Grand Oil Party, is doing very well. But now they're crying crocodile 
tears here on the floor and saying they really care about consumers, 
after the Bush-Cheney energy bill, which gave subsidies to ExxonMobil 
who made $40 billion last year after the Republicans refused last year 
to strip those subsidies from the oil companies? They complain about 
the high price to consumers. They're born-again consumer advocates. 
That's great.
  I've been a consumer advocate for a long time. I have consistently 
supported a windfall profits tax. I've also consistently said we've got 
to go after the OPEC cartel and file the complaints. And we need new 
technologies, and we need new fuels, and we need conservation. None of 
those things were in the Bush-Cheney energy bills written behind closed 
doors by big oil and the GOP, the Grand Oil Party.
  But now, their presumptive political nominee, Mr. McCain, has come up 
with a great idea, let's suspend the gas tax. Now, let's see. In 1993, 
the gas tax was 18.3 cents a gallon, and gas was $1.05 a gallon. Today, 
in my district, gas is $3.50 a gallon, and guess what? The Federal gas 
tax is still 18.3 cents a gallon. That money is a tax. It's a tax going 
to big oil and OPEC and to hedge fund speculators who are driving up 
the price of oil. That's the tax the American consumers are paying. 
They won't take on OPEC, and they sure as heck aren't going to take on 
their friends in big oil.
  We're willing to do that. And suspending the gas tax, now I would ask 
the presumptive Republican nominee, Mr. McCain, if we suspend the gas 
tax, how many highway projects and bridge projects are you going to 
cancel? How many thousand people are you going to put out of work when 
you already have a deficit in the trust fund? If you want to give 
relief to the American consumers, target the real culprits. It is not 
the gas tax that's been flat for the last 15 years; it's big oil and 
it's the OPEC companies and the hedge fund speculators on Wall Street. 
Let's go after them.

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