Republicans Give Oil Companies Early Gift

Merry Christmas to the donors of the Republican Party. Republicans added opening of the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge to oil drilling as part of a Pentagon spending bill. The plan also reduces spending on Medicare by $8 billion and Medicaid by nearly $5 billion, and wrings savings out of several other programs like agriculture and student loans. When it comes to finding money for the Pentagon (and Iraq) the money seems to grow on trees, for any domestic spending on the middle and lower classes, forget it. Big Oil and the Military Industries have the entire Republican Party securely in their pocket. Democrats assailed majority Republicans for using the Pentagon bill to win approval of the drilling plan after objections by moderate Republicans led to it being eliminated from the budget measure. "A can't-pass measure has been added to a must-pass measure in order for the Republicans to give an early huge Christmas gift to the oil companies of the United States," said Representative Edward J. Markey, Democrat of Massachusetts. Read More: New York Times