ABC News reports that Representative Joe Barton (TX-06), famous for apologizing to British Petroleum after the Gulf Coast Oil Spill, is now defending House Republicans’ support of taxpayer funding for subsidies to oil and gas companies despite record profits and record gas prices.
Just last week, Barton was joined by every House Republican in voting to protect these taxpayer subsidies for Big Oil companies after they voted to slash education funding, putting 218,000 children out of Head Start, cutting Pell Grants for college students by $845 and even cutting job training programs for 200,000 Americans currently out of work.
“No one should be surprised that Representative Joe Barton is the first to defend taxpayer subsidies for Big Oil companies despite record profits and record gas prices but everyone should be appalled that the House Republican caucus followed his lead,” said Jesse Ferguson of the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee. “Everyone knows we need to cut spending and reduce the deficit, but House Republicans showed they have the wrong priorities when they voted to protect taxpayer subsidies for Big Oil companies while they slash education to take teachers out of the classroom, close the doors on early childhood education for thousands and even make it harder for families to afford college.”
Background
- In an interview yesterday, Representative Joe Barton defended keeping taxpayer subsidies for Big Oil companies despite their making record profits. [ABC News, 3/9/11]
- Representative Joe Barton and every House Republican opposed a Motion to Recommit that would ensure no “tax benefit” could go to a “major integrated oil company.” [HJ Res 44, Vote #153, 3/01/11]
- The Democratic Steering & Policy Committee held a hearing yesterday on the issue noting that from 2005 to 2009, the largest oil companies have made $485 billion in profits. [climateprogress.org, 3/01/11]
- Representative Joe Barton and House Republicans voted for the Republican Continuing Resolution which would make massive reductions in education funding, student loans, vocational education and job training. [HR 1, Vote #147 , 2/19/11]
Pell Grants: Slashes the maximum Pell Grant by $845 -- from the current maximum of $5,550 to $4,705. This GOP bill will lower the amount of aid that 9.4 million college students are projected to receive.
Head Start: 218,000 children will be immediately dropped from the Head Start program, due to the Republicans’ $1 billion cut. 55,000 teachers, teacher assistants and related staff would lose their jobs.
Title I: Federal support for K-12 education would be severely cut. Includes cuts of nearly $700 million in help in reading and math for disadvantaged children – meaning 2,400 schools serving 1 million disadvantaged children would lose funding. About 9,000 teachers and aides would be laid off.
Special Education: Reduces funding for Special Education by $558 million, resulting in more than 7,000 special education teachers and staff losing their jobs.
Job Training: Grants to states for job training would be slashed by $3.6 billion – hurting America’s ability to win the race for jobs and industry in the 21st century and cutting training for more than 200,000 Americans out of work through no fault of their own. [Office of the Democratic Leader, accessed 3/10/11]
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