# Republicans and Oil **URL:** \ **Category:** In My Humble Opinion\ **Created:** [April 27, 2011, 12:22pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/republicans-and-oil/579880 "2011-04-27T12:22:18Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 4\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![Dangerosa](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/22d042/32.png) [@Dangerosa](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dangerosa)\ **Post date:** [April 28, 2011, 3:04pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/republicans-and-oil/579880/21 "2011-04-28T15:04:41Z")
> [@JohnT](#): > > But the numbers are peanuts. $36.5 billion of ill-defined “tax subsidies”? For the entire industry? Over a decade? So are the numbers for other programs we are talking about cutting or defunding. Planned Parenthood ($360M in 2009). Public Broadcasting ($422M). NEA (about $160M). In the game of political budget cuts, its better to make a stink about peanuts. ---
**Author:** ![JohnT](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/johnt/32/15048_2.png) [@JohnT](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/JohnT)\ **Post date:** [April 29, 2011, 12:39am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/republicans-and-oil/579880/22 "2011-04-29T00:39:14Z")
These programs aren’t getting cut because energy companies receive too-rich subsidies, they are getting cut because individuals and families receive too-rich subsidies. Take that child tax credit I mentioned previously. In 2008, 17.5% of the nations 142 million returns filed took a tax credit averaging $1,209 per claim, _$30.4 billion that year alone_. Had the credit not been doubled to $1,000, there would have been an additional $15 billion, plenty to fund the programs listed. Had the credit not been passed in the first place, the US Government would have an additional $200 billion+ in its coffers over the past decade. Remove the standard deduction (and itemized deductions) and you gain $150-500 billion/year. However, the system will collapse before people vote to end their own personal subsidies. [http://www.taxfoundation.org/files/ff228.pdf](http://www.taxfoundation.org/files/ff228.pdf) ---
**Author:** ![elfkin477](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/a9a28c/32.png) [@elfkin477](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/elfkin477)\ **Post date:** [April 29, 2011, 12:52am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/republicans-and-oil/579880/23 "2011-04-29T00:52:05Z")
> [@JohnT](#): > > Remove the standard deduction (and itemized deductions) and you gain $150-500 billion/year. However, the system will collapse before people vote to end their own personal subsidies. > > [http://www.taxfoundation.org/files/ff228.pdf](http://www.taxfoundation.org/files/ff228.pdf) Wait, you’re really arguing that the government generously admitting that you have expenses beyond supporting **it** is a subsidy? Why do you think the government is rightly entitled to more of the profits of your labor than they currently seize? ---
**Author:** ![LonghornDave](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/a87d85/32.png) [@LonghornDave](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/LonghornDave)\ **Post date:** [April 29, 2011, 8:29pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/republicans-and-oil/579880/24 "2011-04-29T20:29:06Z")
> [@Omar\_Little](#): > > The point is that there are no subsidies to big oil companies. People write articles about about an oil companies “effective tax rates”, which are GAAP accounting measures based upon their financial reports and not the companies tax returns and make a bunch of wild ass assumptions that big oil must be getting subsidies through “depletion deductions” and those low effective tax rates" must mean that they have special deals with the IRS. All that is somebody writing articles that doesn’t understand financial accounting. > > Corporate tax deductions afforded to big oil companies in the US are available to all other corporate tax payers. There is no big conspiracy to give breaks to oil companies. This post is exactly correct. Oil companies receive essentially no meaningful subsidies. Politicians that state otherwise are either: 1) lying; or 2) ignorant. It is absolutely absurd to consider depletion or the ability to expense intangible drilling costs (the two main supposed subsidies) as subsidies when the first is simply the oil and gas industry’s version of DD&A available to every single company in every industry and the latter is simply a timing difference in taxation that most people, if informed, would wonder why they can’t expense more. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/republicans-and-oil/579880.md?page=1)