One Wisconsin Now

All of the big oil companies have been announcing more record profit for the quarter. Exxon Mobile just reported that it brought in nearly $12 billion dollars in the last three months, which is not only a record for them but also a record for any U.S. company. Similarly the other big oil companies have once again made record profits while consumers struggle to pay record prices at the pump. The pain is not only being felt at the pump because the pain has moved its way through nearly every layer of our struggling Bush/McCain economy.

The Los Angeles Times has reported that in the quarter that just ended, Exxon spent $8 billion buying back shares of its own stock and only spent $7 billion in other projects that could helped ease the supply problem. Although conservatives seem to think that Big Oil should get a free pass to drill wherever they want, they fail to notice that they already have access to a large majority of public lands but have done very little with that access. This has understandably led some in Congress to promote a “use it or lose it” strategy.

In the middle of these record breaking profit announcements by Big Oil, John McCain is running around the country serving as their latest key representative in government. He has earned their recent support by reversing his own position on offshore drilling, a change that has brought in over a million dollars into his campaign coffers in only a month. Even in the midst of such record breaking profits, McCain has sought to hand over many more tax giveaways to his new benefactors to the tune of $4 billion. Just what Big Oil needed, another lacky in Congress trying to create ways to give them even more money.