Taxpayers Subsidize Big Oil, World's Most Profitable Industry

Rinaldo Brutoco and Madeleine Austin, World Business Academy:
"US oil companies earn about $3 billion in profits every week, yet get $4 billion in taxpayer subsidies every year. In the first quarter of 2011, Big Oil's profits were up 38 percent from the first quarter of 2010.... The industry's outsize profits didn't stop it from squealing like a stuck pig over proposals to trim $2 billion from its annual subsidies and use the revenue to reduce the deficit by about $21 billion over ten years. The oil companies tried to characterize the end of their subsidies as a 'tax hike,' despite growing and widespread recognition across the political spectrum that tax breaks are just another form of government spending." Read the Article