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Miracles do happen...A politician with principles?

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I received an e-mail from Congressman Vern Buchanan (R-FL 16th District) today which surprised cynical old me. Congressman Buchanan made his fortune from traditional car dealerships and (IIRC) he still owns the biggest Ford dealership in SW Florida; but....he did come to see the Model S shows at Sarasota Yacht Club twice where Larry and I squawked at him about EVs each time. Here's the text of the mail:

Big Oil continues to enjoy record profits as high gas prices victimize Florida families. It's essential that Washington put aside the partisan bickering and enact a comprehensive, balanced plan to reduce gas prices -- and we can start by holding the oil industry accountable.

As Memorial Day approaches, the price of gasoline continues to rise across the nation. Yet big oil continues to rake in windfall profits -- Exxon Mobil reporting $9.5 billion in the last quarter alone.

The last thing we should be doing is throwing taxpayer dollars at an industry that doesn’t need our help. That’s why I voted to eliminate $18 billion in wasteful and unnecessary tax subsidies for Big Oil. Specifically, the measure I supported ensures oil companies pay royalties, closes loopholes and ends giveaways in the tax code for the oil industry. I was one of only a handful of Republicans to support this measure.

Getting Americans back to work is my highest priority. I will continue to fight for commonsense, bipartisan solutions to get our economy back on track.

As always, please let me know what you think.

Vern

There's manyareas where I don't agree with Congressman Buchanan's views, but I'm plenty impressed that he stood up on this one. Now, if only we could get a few more of our leaders in Washington to agree on this point....
 
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This is impressive, but the cynical side of me will believe it when the actual voting occurs.

According to the quote above the vote has already been held. And I assume the result from the vote is public, so it should be available somewhere on the Interwebs, right? I’ve tried Googleing, but I can’t find it. Anyone who knows where it is?

It’s not super important for me personally, but it could serve as point of departure for further discussion.
 
He specifically mentioned $18 billion in the letter, which was a vote from five years ago. His site buchanan.congress.gov talks about his views, which are still consistent with that vote.

Thanks! Well in that case: Since according to Congressman Vern Buchanan (R-FL 16th District) only a handful of Republicans voted for the measure, and since: “The measure passed the House /…/ by a vote of 236-189" it would seem to me that voting and/or campaigning for the Dems would be the way to go if you want to “eliminate /…/ wasteful and unnecessary tax subsidies for Big Oil".

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It’s too bad though that you guys as I understand it really only have two choices to vote for. In Sweden we have eight. Ok, I take that back. In reality one could argue we ‘only’ really have seven... And that’s in spite of a rule that says that all parties must get more than 4% of the popular vote in order to be represented in our one and only Parliament. Personally I think that’s too high. I honestly cant see any reason for any such percentage barrier.

We also have proportionate elections which also helps to get as close as possible to one citizen – one vote.

…unfortunately Sweden is also a constitutional monarchy which of course really, really seriously sucks! So in that sense of the word I am (again) …of course a Republican!
 
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I don't follow this area much, so forgive me if this is dumb... But if we end tax breaks for big oil, won't that drive gas prices up ever further?

It's a good question.

Probably not. The tax breaks are a direct result of payments channeled back through lobbyists to politicians and PACs. Removing them would be a very small step in the right direction toward cleaning up the unholy alliance among the oil industry, lobbyists and politicians in Washington.

Conversely, if prices did go up that would actually be a good thing. Current gas prices do not reflect even a fraction of the cost of the environmental harm associated with the exploration, production and consumption of coal, oil and gas. (We are foisting those costs on our children and grandchildren.) The fact that millions of North Americans believe that regularly driving an SUV that gets about 10 miles per gallon is a reasonable lifestyle choice serves to confirm that gas prices are currently much too low. Doubling the price of gas, to the levels charged in Europe, would be a good start (and could easily be accomplished by a carbon tax, which taxed pollution and reduced taxes on income). However, such a tax is currently unlikely to be implemented due to the aforementioned corruption of the North American political systems.

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It’s too bad though that you guys as I understand it really only have two choices to vote for. In Sweden we have eight. ...

It's actually much worse than that in North America. In the US the people with money decide who is going to be on the ballot, so there is in substance no choice at all. It has effectively become a sporting event where both teams have the same owner (lots of noise and trash talk, but few substantive differences). Lawrence Lessig describes the situation quite well in the following TED talk:

http://www.ted.com/talks/lawrence_lessig_we_the_people_and_the_republic_we_must_reclaim.html
 
I don't follow this area much, so forgive me if this is dumb... But if we end tax breaks for big oil, won't that drive gas prices up ever further?

Not dumb; worthy of asking. But in addition to the points that dsm and Richard made (it would be a tiny rise, and to the extent that it is significant it would send the proper signal to the market), gas prices often go up for other reasons. The difference here is that the money from the price increase would go back to the taxpayers, while generally gas prices going up just sends more money overseas. I'm not worried about a small rise that results in corresponding taxpayer savings.
 
I don't follow this area much, so forgive me if this is dumb... But if we end tax breaks for big oil, won't that drive gas prices up ever further?
Gas prices will go up as far as people's ability to pay, period. This is no different than pricing a new cell phone. If you eliminate Apple's tax breaks will iPhone prices go up? If they do it won't be because of an increased tax burden. It would be because the company thought the market would bear the increase. If they are wrong then they will lose market share to Samsung, Motorola, etc. That is how markets are supposed to work. Now in the case of oil companies, there's no doubt they collude on prices between themselves. But if prices get too high then investment goes up on alternatives so they have to tread a fine line.