Whelp, I think it's safe to say political observers who thought the GOP-controlled US Senate might mitigate the homicidal awfulness of the One Big Beautiful Bill Act, are going to have to eat the L now; in the immortal worlds of Lando Calrissian, "this deal is getting worse all the time." What's worse than a nightmare class war theft and murder bill that will kill labor class Americans to make the uber-wealthy even richer? How about adding an *additional* billion dollars worth of tax breaks for fossil fuel companies boiling you and your children to death, courtesy of James Lankford, the Republican Senator from Oklahoma.

https://www.commondreams.org/news/gop-big-oil-tax-giveaway

Senate GOP Adds $1 Billion Tax 'Giveaway' for Big O​il to Budget Bill

"That provision was secured by Sen. James Lankford (R-Okla.), and the benefits would largely flow to companies based in his home state.

As Dayen wrote, the CAMT is "a fairly clean tax provision as these things go." It currently requires companies that bring in more than $1 billion to pay 15% of the profits they report to shareholders.

However, the Senate Republican draft would modify that calculation to account for "intangible drilling and development costs," which would allow companies to declare lower profits and put many of them below the threshold required to pay the 15% tax.

According to Bloomberg, companies including ConocoPhillips, Ovintiv, and Civitas Resources lobbied in favor of the bill. Lankford, meanwhile, received more than $546,000 in campaign contributions from the oil and gas industry—his top source of industry donations—between 2019 and 2024 according to OpenSecrets."

My favorite thing about the Trump-era fascist Republican party is the way their open hatemongering and authoritarianism makes talking about the usual corruption and pro-corporate malevolence they still engage in seem almost quaint. Wait, no, I actually hate that about the Trump-era GOP. Back in the time before you could eliminate entire departments of the government because "woke," what Lankford is doing here by securing tax breaks for gigantic polluters in his district who also donate to his election campaigns, would be described as "pork barreling" by a mainstream media far too polite to just admit this is bog standard bribery and corruption.

Of course, a billion dollars worth of tax credits is a pretty massive fucking barrel of pork, and as the article notes this isn't even the only billion dollar giveaway for oil companies Lankford is trying to engineer right now. Furthermore, this comes in addition to the obscene tax breaks the murderous GOP "Billionaire Bill" already gave giant oil companies and fossil fuel investors when it passed the GOP-controlled House. I guess now we know why the Senate instituted even deeper healthcare cuts after getting their hands on a bill they *still* can't get past the Senate Parliamentarian without just agreeing to ignore him.

All of which doesn't even factor in that the industry bribing Lankford for what amounts to a billion dollar subsidy is actively boiling the planet to death and driving an unfolding climate catastrophe that is already claiming disproportionately labor class American lives. In the end, what this obscene budget reconciliation proves is that at almost every opportunity, and in so many different ways its hard to actually keep track of them all, the Republican party is committed to just straight up killing people so the rich can get richer; and in the second Trump era, they don't really give a shit if you know that either. I'd suggest it's a bold election strategy, but if I'm being entirely honest I don't think a politically-empowered American fascist movement that has already justified militarized repression, ethnic cleansing, and fascist violence against anyone who opposes their political program, is likely to allow anything resembling a free and fair election to curtail their burgeoning power.

#GOP #Budget #USPol #ClassWar #Theft #Murder #BillionaireBill #BigOil #Oligarchy #ClimateCrisis #JamesLankford #Medicaid #SocialSafetyNet

An encouraging sign:

Sen #JamesLankford, #Republican of #Oklahoma, also spoke w/NBC’s Kristen Welker, saying that #Putin was “a murderous KGB thug” & a “dictator” & that he understood why President #Zelensky of #Ukraine wanted assurances that #Russia would actually abide by any #ceasefire agreement that he signed.

“Zelensky is rightfully concerned that Putin has violated every single agreement he’s ever signed & that he can’t be trusted. He’s looking for some kind of #security guarantees.”