Evansville for Change

Here’s a summary of the total percentage profit improvement from the last two Clinton/Gore Presidential years (1999 and 2000) to the last two Bush/Cheney Presidential years (2007 and 2008) of the following groups of large corporations:

16 Largest, most profitable non-energy Dow Industrial companies……+66%
4 Huge Big Oil companies……………………………………………………….+289%
20 Other Big Oil companies……………………………………………………..+733%
13 Other Houston Big Oil companies………………………………………….+869%

The best performer of the above Dow group was Cisco Systems, with earnings growth of 228%. The worst performer of the above 4 Huge Big Oil companies was BP, with earnings growth of 190%.

The 4 Huge Big Oil companies with heavy US operations also included Exxon Mobil, Chevron and ConocoPhillips. These four companies had total earnings in the last two Bush/Cheney Presidential years of a massive $203 bil, as compared with $52 bil in the last two Clinton/Gore Presidential years. Clearly, the Bush/Cheney presidency has elevated Big Oil to “Too Big to Listen to Anyone” status.

Included in the above latter two Other Big Oil companies was Halliburton, whose earnings in the last two Bush/Cheney Presidential years of $5,178 mil was an incredibly 1,330% higher than its earnings in the last two Clinton/Gore Presidential years of $362 mil.

Also included in the above Other Big Oil companies was Transocean, whose earnings in the last two Bush/Cheney Presidential years of $7,333 mil was an incredibly 4,344% higher than its earnings in the last two Clinton/Gore Presidential years of $165 mil.

As you review these incredible above numbers and also particularly review the much more specific details included in the link at the end of this article, it is quite clear that something obscene happened here that had no business of happening. While the country, US businesses and US citizens suffered severely during the Bush/Cheney Presidential years, the entire Big Oil industry rocked, dancing The Houston Hustle, and clearly at the expense of everyone else. This just wasn’t right and, in all fairness, needs to be both immediately and dramatically corrected.

And all of this wholescale Big Oil windfall profit gushing in the Bush/Cheney Presidential years occurred while these same Big Oil companies were granted incredibly lucrative tax loopholes by the US government. Further, the US government, instead of regulating these Big Oil companies, decided to grease the skids for these Big Oil companies, with the result being that they all generated nosebleed, windfall profits during the Bush/Cheney Presidential years.

I think this is the Presidential legacy of the Bush/Cheney years. All of Big Oil rocked, proudly dancing The Houston Hustle in the 2000s Lost Decade, while the country, so many domestic businesses, and so many US citizens severely suffered. And I also think the above exceptionally robust Big Oil profit numbers in the Bush/Cheney years reveal why most of Big Oil, and its many US Congressional supporters, are not willing to help the current Obama Administration in its intense effort to get the country out of its massive economic hole. In fact, many of them are doing everything in their power to see to it that the Obama Administration fails, despite the horrible economic consequences to US citizens and to the country as a whole. What an absolutely disgusting strategy.

The Houston Hustle started in the 2000s Lost Decade with Enron, continued unabated throughout the entire span of the Bush/Cheney Presidential years with the nosebleed, windfall profits of the entire Big Oil Industry, and still continues today in the Halls of the US Congress….it’s time to vote all of these US Congressional shills of Big Oil out of office in November 2010. They are wrecking the country economically. We also need to make sure that the many new Congressional candidates, who strongly support the Bush/Cheney Big Oil agenda, do not get elected in November 2010. Big Oil clearly thinks it is invincible….but perceptive, invigorated voters can trump that.

Also, the responsible thing to do would be to close all of Big Oil’s tax loopholes, to levy a windfall profit tax on all of Big Oil for the instrumental role it played in the 2000s being the Lost Decade, and to use the proceeds to fund desperately needed real US long-term private sector job creation and to also help fund a very robust permanent business research tax credit, with a clearly green emphasis. US citizens are shouting out for the Big Oil supporters in the US Congress to stop their obstructionist behavior and work with the Obama Administration to help get the country out of its deep economic hole.

Lastly, when you have one very powerful industry so intensely focused on just one goal….maximizing their own profits, regardless of the actual and potential detrimental consequences to anyone else….it is very easy for me to see why you end up with something like the devastating BP Oil Spill, as well as the ineffectiveness of all of Big Oil in quickly fixing this horrible disaster.

The Houston Hustle