But here in the REAL world...

Yesterday, the Senate failed to pass a bill that would have repealed tax breaks for the 5 biggest oil companies.  I haven't read the wording on the bill, but supposedly it would have directed that the money go to paying down the debt, which, is a good thing.  But, who knows if the final version of the bill would have still directed that...I personally, have very little faith that the money saved would have had ANY effect on the debt.

I am for this bill, because I don't believe that the big, bad(EVIL!!!!!) oil companies NEED these tax breaks.  But, passing it will have consequences, and I think that Mr. Menendez, the Democratic Senator from New Jersey is dreaming is naive if he believes otherwise.

Oops, looks like he is naive:

Menendez argued that the five oil companies affected by the bill — Exxon Mobil, Chevron, BP America, Royal Dutch Shell and ConocoPhillips — are projected to report $125 billion to $144 billion in profits this year, and the companies could get by with $2 billion less without raising prices.
Yes, they could... but they WON'T.  You think you can take away a whole 1% of their potential profits, and they won't pass that along to the consumer?  Heck...it would only take another 1-2 cents a gallon to recapture that money...and as they tell us here in Washington State every time they want to nudge the gas tax up another penny or so a gallon, a 1.5 cent a gallon increase 'is not going to be real noticeable' because it is a deminishing component of the overall price.