Nov 7, 2011: New Oil Company Tax Break Campaign Seeks Donations from Seniors, Students, Starving Kids
 
Revolutionary Campaign Twice Takes Billions from American Taxpayers
 
WASHINGTON (November 7, 2011) – A revolutionary new campaign from the American Petroleum Institute, the lobbying arm of the highly-profitable oil and gas industry, will ask American seniors, students, and kids in need of a meal to either pay more taxes or get less government services so that unnecessary tax breaks for Exxon-Mobil, BP and other large oil companies can be preserved, Rep. Ed Markey (D-Mass.) said today.
 
“This is the kind of shocking, tin-eared, tone deaf, special interest lobbying that has Americans sick and tired of how political power is wielded in Washington,” said Rep. Markey, the top Democrat on the Natural Resources Committee. “Every dollar given to an oil company is another dollar taken away from Medicare, from student loan assistance, from child hunger programs. This isn’t some kind of cute social media campaign, it’s an anti-social safety net monstrosity that should be given the hashtag #CLUELESS.”
 
API announced it had sent a letter to certain members of the debt committee thanking them for defending oil and gas tax breaks. Cutting tax breaks for the largest companies could contribute $43 billion over the next 10 years towards America’s financial stability. The top five oil companies have already made $101 billion in profits so far this year.