Senate Democrats are ratcheting up the pressure on their Republican colleagues over their support for billions of dollars in subsidies to oil companies, releasing a new video asking the GOP to just say ‘no.’
The approximately minute-long ad features no narration, but rather relies on the background noise of reports about surging gas prices to make its case. That backing audio is layered over images of gas stations with high prices, and news articles about the tax incentives that go to oil companies.
The ad also features clips of two oil executives directly saying they do not need government subsidies. In one clip, former Shell Oil CEO John Hofmeister tells an MSNBC host, “The actual subsidies are so small they’re very incidental to a business the size of the one I was formerly with.”
With gas prices high nationwide, Democrats have begun hammering Republicans over their support for oil subsidies, saying that doing away with such tax incentives would drive down the cost of oil. Republicans have countered that Democrats are unwilling to open new drilling sites in the U.S., thereby driving up the cost of oil. For the record, most experts agree that cutting subsidies would have little impact on gas prices.
Polls have shown that Americans are very concerned with how the rising cost of gas has impacted their wallets — in a recent CNN poll, two-thirds of Americans said the cost of gas was, “a major problem.” That same poll offered some ammo to Democrats, as it also found that Americans most blame oil companies for the high cost of gas. In the poll, 61% said oil companies deserve “a great deal of blame” for rising costs, compared to just 25% who said the same about Obama’s energy policy.
Watch the video below:
