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America addicted to oil? Rather, Congress is addicted to oil money
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Location: Blogs Jim's Blog |
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| Posted by: Jim Hansen |
1/31/2006 |
To the loud cheers of Congress on Monday, President Bush chastised Americans for being addicted to oil. His solutions leave a lot to be desired but lets focus on the main cause of this supposed addiction: Congress's addiction to campaign money from the oil industry.
In the State of the Union Address on Monday evening, President Bush appeared to chastise Americans for our "addiction" to oil. Members of Congress cheered wildly. It was certainly a memorable line and made headlines the next morning in the Idaho Statesman and other papers across the country.
I wondered, how many of those members of Congress had just been to a fundraiser hosted by the oil industry. I wondered how on earth can we even begin to address America's "addiction" to oil if Congress ignores it's own chronic addiction to campaign contributions from the oil industry. Hello? They just don't get it. It's another example of how there appear to be one set of standards that apply to us ordinary Americans and another set of standards (or lack there of) for Congress.
The Center for Responsive Politics has been tracking the flow of campaign contributions to Congress for over twenty years and, not surprisingly, the oil industry comes out as one of the biggest financiers of Congressional campaigns of any industry.
Of course, we are paying through the nose (through the hose?) for Congress's addiction. The rising cost of gas, heating oil, and petroleum products have hurt small businesses. Meanwhile, the industry has seen unimaginable windfall profits.
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