( - promoted by Karl-Thomas Musselman)
During the 2006 election cycle, Kay Bailey Hutchinson was the top recipient of contributions from the oil & gas industry. For the upcoming 2008 election, our senator John Cornyn is the top recipient of money from big oil in the senate.
So when the a recent energy bill came before the senate which called for a rollback of tax breaks for oil companies, both Cornyn and Hutchinson (unsurprisingly) voted against the bill:
President Bush had threatened to veto any energy bill that raised taxes. The House passed a bill with higher taxes on oil companies last week.
Texas Sens. John Cornyn and Kay Bailey Hutchison both voted against the motion to move the bill forward. Ms. Hutchison had negotiated to strip out the higher taxes on oil and gas producers. (source)
There you have it- Cornyn and Hutchinson siding with both the White House and their campaign contributors.
Apparently, despite the fact that there was across the aisle support for the bill ("There is no reason why we shouldn't pass the energy bill today" Minority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-KY) and the other provisions that would "boost the nation's use of renewable energy, set new efficiency standards for appliances and - most dramatically - set aggressive new fuel mileage requirements for cars, trucks and sport utility vehicles", some Senate Republicans (not pointing any fingers) looked past that because of money received from certain exploitive corporations.
Because of these Republicans, the tax hike on big oil is going to be removed from the bill and it will be reintroduced. At least we still have some energy reforms to look forward to. (source) |
