Government for Sale

  

I usually try for optimism, positive stories, and even beauty, especially on Fridays, but some things are too maddening.  Like when our taxes support a dirty business for no other reason than the influence of money in our government.

Subsidies for Big Oil are tax breaks that we pay for.  We say we don't like them (74% of Americans say end subsidies, according to one poll), and past government officials on both sides of the aisle, including former President George W, say the subsidies are unnecessary.  Yet they persist.  Why?  Because the people that "run the country" are for sale.

Yesterday, legislation to end billion dollar subsidies for Big Oil was once again defeated.  The elected officials who voted to end the subsidies received $5 million in campaign contributions from Big Oil and the unscrupulous officials who voted to keep the subsidies as "incentives to explore" received $23 million from Big Oil, according to Think Progress. 

Above is a clip from MSNBC where the details are carefully laid out (the first 6 minutes).  The unfortunate conclusion is clear:  our government has been bought by the same companies that rake it in ($37 billion in profits at last count) selling us gasoline and telling us the lie that we cannot have jobs and prosperity without their pollution.