It's bad enough when Republicans pass massive tax cuts for the extremely wealthy, but it's inexcusable that they are giving away the house to oil companies at a time when gas prices are higher than ever (as are company profits). Justin Blum has the story for The Washington Post:

The House this week will consider $8 billion in tax breaks targeted to the energy industry at a time when some of those companies are enjoying soaring profits from high consumer prices.

The vast majority of the tax breaks would benefit companies that produce and supply traditional forms of energy, with a large portion going to the oil and natural gas sector.

Even President Bush -- an oilman -- thinks the idea is ridiculous:

Dana M. Perino, a White House spokeswoman, would not comment on the House measure but referred to comments made by President Bush last week. "I will tell you with $55 oil we don't need incentives to oil and gas companies to explore," Bush said in a speech to newspaper editors in Washington. "There are plenty of incentives. What we need is to put a strategy in place that will help this country over time become less dependent."

This is yet again another example of the real principles of the Republican Party. At a time when Medicare is about a decade away from complete bankruptcy and the federal deficit is ballooning to all-time highs, all the Republicans can think about is how much money they can give away to their cronies in the oil industry.

Ask anyone who paid $2.57 for a gallon of gas if they think Exxon needs another few billion dollars in tax breaks. In fact, run an ad asking that very question. Perhaps the American people will be interested to learn that while Bush is proposing to cut their Social Security benefits, his party is planning on giving billions to the oil companies.