Yeah, right, that’s one that hasn’t been used enough lately.

The Press Telegram wrote about how congress tried to grill five of the top highway robb… erh, I mean oil companies. “Don’t blame us, oil industry chiefs told a skeptical Congress.”

“Top executives of the country’s five biggest oil companies said Tuesday they know record fuel prices are hurting people, but they argued it’s not their fault and their huge profits are in line with other industries.” And just look how they try to get congress to swallow this pill: “”Our earnings, although high in absolute terms, need to be viewed in the context of the scale and cyclical, long-term nature of our industry as well as the huge investment requirements,” said J.S. Simon, senior vice president of ExxonMobil Corp., which made a record $40 billion last year. No refineries have been built in a while, and investments have been minimal. A lot of blah blah with no consistencies.

“We depend on high earnings during the up cycle to sustain … investment over the long term, including the down cycles,” he continued. ” Now that is a pill alright. First no other industry can post profits like these and certainly holding drivers at gun point isn’t the smartest thing to do when groceries have to be cut back. But as long as we drive these big old V8 SUVs and pick
up trucks, well why shouldn’t oil execs cash in on it. Hum! How easy it is to blame someone else when you make more revenues than any other industries in the world.

For once, we can cheer Congress for taking a positive action on price gouging. The real question still is why should my tax money be used to continue dumping billions of dollars in tax breaks when they made $123 billion last year and motorists are paying record gasoline prices at the pump. Yes, why? Who’s giving me a break here?