The Obscenely Rich Corporations You Subsidize Are Killing You

The only valid analogy here, really, is vampires. How else to explain the richest people and corporations in America sucking every last dime out of the people who do the real work?

 

Rebecca Leber and Adam Peck at Think Progress:

Every hour so far in 2012, the five largest oil corporations have recorded a $14,400,000 profit. And every hour, they received more than $270,000 in federal tax breaks. That adds up to $2.4 billion in subsidies every year for the five largest oil corporations — Royal Dutch Shell, ExxonMobil, Chevron, BP, and ConocoPhillips — all ranked as the top 9 companies in the world.

Even though BP posted an unexpected second-quarter loss, these five companies are on track to meet last year’s record profits. Put these numbers into context, and they are not so “disappointing“: Big Oil profits more in one minute than what 96 percent of American households earn in one year. Even so, Mitt Romney and House Republicans want to double what the five companies receive in federal tax breaks to $12.8 million per day, even though the three publicly owned U.S. companies paid an average tax rate of under 17 percent.

The graphic below illustrates where Big Oil directs these profits and its pollution over the course of a day:

And the drought that's killing thousands of farmers and sending food prices skyrocketing? Yeah, that's Big Oil's fault, too. And yes, that sound you hear is them laughing their asses off at you.