FatedGolem, a person can be an elitist and a liberal. An elitist believes that he knows what is better for people than they know or can understand themselves. An elitist believes he is smarter than the ones he wants to rule, that he knows what is best for them even if they don't agree with him. An elitist argues they are just too dumb to figure it out for themselves, which is why Obama's "cling to their guns and their religion" comments tagged him as an elitist, and his explanation that they don't know any better than to vote against their own best interests only made it worse.
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Both Clinton and Obama propose to spend $150 billion over 10 years for energy improvements. Clinton says she'll fund her new spending in part by raising taxes on oil companies and repealing tax incentives for the industry. Obama's energy plan also states that he'll "repeal tax breaks for the oil and gas industry." We don't see much distinction here.
We also see little difference in their past records regarding tax incentives for the oil industry. In 2006 Clinton introduced a bill calling for a 50 percent tax on "excess oil profits" and elimination of a number of tax incentives for the oil industry. And in 2007 Obama introduced a bill of his own that also would eliminate a number of tax incentives. Neither bill attracted any cosponsors. Clinton's died in the Senate Finance Committee at the end of the last Congress, and Obama's is still languishing in the same committee.
Real Differences, Exaggerated
There are some real differences in the voting records of the two candidates on energy, but even here these dueling ads exaggerate and strain the facts.
Oil Tax Breaks. Clinton's ad faults Obama for voting in favor of the 2005 energy bill, which she voted against. She misleads, however, by describing it as "the Bush Cheney energy bill." By the time Obama voted for final passage, many of the Bush administration's original proposals had been stripped out, and in fact most Senate Democrats (including some of Clinton's most vocal supporters) sided with Obama in supporting the bill. Clinton was one of only 19 Democrats to vote against final passage. Obama was among the 25 Democrats who voted in favor.
It's true, as the Clinton ad states, that the bill "was called a piñata of perks." That was from a Washington Post report from 2005, which discussed criticism of the bill. The ad also is correct to say that the bill was called "the best energy bill corporations could buy," a criticism that came from Public Citizen, the consumer advocacy organization. But it's also true, as we've noted a number of times, that the Congressional Research Service later calculated that the oil and gas industry lost more tax breaks than it gained in the 2005 legislation, resulting in a net tax increase that CRS put at $300 million over an 11-year period. Not mentioned by Clinton is the fact that (as we've noted several times before) the $14.3 billion in tax breaks in the bill included large incentives for alternative fuels research and subsidies for energy-efficient cars, homes and buildings. So while Clinton and Obama were on opposite sides, her ad is misleading to suggest that his vote represented support for "Bush Cheney" perks for oil companies.
Fuel Efficiency Standards. Obama similarly distorts his differences with Clinton regarding federal fuel efficiency standards for cars and trucks. His ad says that "it's Barack Obama who's taken on the oil companies, demanding higher gas mileage standards," as though Clinton had never supported higher standards. That's not true.
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