oil companies - Pigs Get Slaughtered, And They Deserve It! from tax.com #p2

from http://www.tax.com/taxcom/taxblog.nsf/Permalink/UBEN-8GDJB3?OpenDocument

Now before the animal rights folks get up in arms, I'm talking about oil companies, not swine (then again, maybe I'm talking about the same thing).

One lesson of history is that sooner or later the greedy get theirs. This is a lesson harshly learned. The trick, I guess, is to get as much as you can without looking greedy.

Senate Finance Committee Chairman Max Baucus, a Democrat from Montana, where they probably have more cows than cars, has released a plan to end billions of dollars in tax breaks for large, multinational oil and gas companies. According to Baucus, with energy prices rising and large oil companies announcing huge first quarter profits, now is the time to stick it to big oil.

As we all know, Baucus is not alone. President Obama has been out to get big oil since he got into office. And Republican House Speaker John Boehner stepped in big oil a couple of days ago when he said he was open to eliminating their tax breaks.

Some say this is an attack on the industry. Well, duh.

A Tax Foundation blog post diplomatically points out that all this fuss about oil tax subsidies in isolation doesn't really make rational sense. Fair point, but there's nothing rational about a taxpayer staring at a gas pump and realizing it says his fill-up just cost him 50 bucks. Yeah, let's get those oil companies!

Going after oil and gas tax subsidies in isolation may not make much sense from a policy standpoint, but this effort has legs. And the oil companies may have to learn that historical lesson: pigs really do get slaughtered sometimes.