Leonard Witt: Koch brothers, Big Oil conglomerates must think we're stupid

To The Daily Sun,

Last August, Carroll County state Rep. Mark McConkey dropped prices at his Ossipee gas station for 90 minutes as a publicity stunt to blame the enormous gas prices on President Joe Biden. The stunt was paid for by Americans for Prosperity, which is underwritten by the Koch brothers, Big Oil’s most notorious moguls. They must think we are stupid.

The New York Times just reported that “Exxon Mobil made $56 billion in profit last year, its largest annual haul ever. Chevron earned $36 billion, also a company record. … Executives said they were committed to returning surplus cash to shareholders by increasing dividends and buying back shares.”

Combined, Exxon and Chevron made $92 billion in profits. The USA population is about 334 million. If you divide that number into $92 billion, it comes out to about $275 for every man, woman and child in the U.S. That’s $550 for a family of two or $1,100 for a family of four. All those billions flowing away from working families worldwide to enrich the world’s Big Oil conglomerates like Exxon and Chevron.

The Koch brothers are not done with us yet. They are constantly fighting to cut their taxes on those billions, which means the rest of us pay enlarged tax bills while also paying massive gas and heating bills.

The Times reported, “Americans for Prosperity’s super PAC spent nearly $80 million during the 2022 midterm elections.” We can assume a lot of that money went to politicians like McConkey to deflect the blame from Big Oil.

We can fight them by: 1) Voting against every politician backed by Americans for Prosperity. 2) Start fighting on the local level for more renewables to break Big Oil’s stranglehold on hard working Americans.

Leonard Witt

Sandwich