A missed opportunity

Thursday, May 19, 2011 | 2:01 a.m.

There aren’t many Americans, outside of a few wealthy oil executives, who see the humor in paying nearly $4 per gallon for gasoline. Prices at the pump are so high that consumers have been forced to sharply reduce household spending, which can represent a drag on the economy. More people, as well, are deciding not to travel when they receive their vacation time and others are avoiding going to restaurants, both of which have a ripple effect on the economy.

It makes absolutely no sense, then, that wildly profitable oil behemoths BP, Chevron, ConocoPhillips, ExxonMobil and Shell Oil continue to receive a combined $2 billion annually in tax breaks at the same time their customers are hurting. Those companies accumulated more than $31 billion in profits in just the first three months of this year.

Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid of Nevada and fellow Democrats understand the pain this is causing fellow Americans, which is why they sought Tuesday to repeal those foolish tax breaks over the next 10 years. That move would have reduced the nation’s budget deficit by $20 billion.

But the measure fell eight votes short of the 60 needed for passage. That’s because most Senate Republicans, including Dean Heller of Nevada, don’t have the nerve to stand up to the oil companies.

As Reid noted: “Republicans would rather cut college scholarships, slash cancer research and end Medicare than take away taxpayer-funded giveaways to oil companies that are raking in billions in profits. That tells you everything you need to know about their priorities.”

As reported by the Sun’s Karoun Demirjian, Heller said last week that he doesn’t support “raising taxes on the oil industry, because I don’t think that will lower the price of gasoline at the pumps.”

Heller misses the point. Of course, there is no guarantee that repealing the tax breaks would lower gas prices. But that’s only because the oil companies know how to game the system, which explains their record profits. They know how to manipulate politicians such as Heller to vote their way. The point is that their tax breaks are unjustified. It amounts to revenue taken away from the American Treasury, which means that ordinary taxpayers, the same ones being pummeled at the pump, have to make up the difference.

It would be interesting to see Heller explain to constituents, at the time they’re filling their tanks, why he believes big oil companies should continue receiving huge tax breaks. Surely Heller has seen the national polls that show more than 7 in 10 Americans view high gas prices to be a tremendous hardship.

Then again, congressional Republicans complain about welfare only when it suits their purpose. If Heller and his Republican colleagues truly wanted to do what’s right for this country, they would support policies that help average working-class Americans and retirees live better lives rather than do the bidding of oil companies that can function quite well without tax breaks.