The Greatest Con Job Ever

by Contributor | October 5, 2025 9:16 am

The Oil Tycoon Mark Hanna said, “There are two things that are important in politics. The first is money and I can’t remember what the second one is.” Mark Hanna’s enormous wealth contributed to President McKinley’s electoral win.

The Ecologist wrote that George W. Bush, in 2001, was the President “floating on oil money.” George W. Bush and Dick Cheney were “Big Oil’s dream team.” Bush “had made his early career through oil exploration in his home state of Texas.” Cheney “was a Halliburton executive.”

The Oil Industry gave Bush “the largest donation from the industry to a single political candidate,” $1.5 million. Antonio Juhasz wrote, “Bush named at least thirty former energy industry executives, lobbyists, and lawyers to influential jobs in his administration… The oil companies gained long sought access to national lands to drill for oil, billions in tax breaks and new subsidies, easing of environmental regulations, and a seat at every negotiating table.”

Open Secrets revealed ExxonMobil’s annual lobbying in Congress from 1998 to 2025 was $317.81 million. Lobbying was crucial for Big Oil to affect policy changes. The organization Oil Change International wrote, “The 25 Representatives who took the most Big Oil money per term between 2000 and 2007 voted for Big Oil on average 86% of the time.” Oil money influences congressmen and women to vote the way that benefits its interests.

This means American taxpayers pay the oil and gas companies the money to lobby Congress. The International Monetary Fund found “Globally, fossil fuel subsidies were $7 trillion in 2022.” US companies received $760 billion in subsidies in 2022. Taxpayer money helps keep the oil industry profitable.

Feldman continued “During the [2024] presidential campaign, Donald J. Trump gathered oil executives at his Mar-a-Lago estate and promised them a powerful return on their investment if they raised $1 billion to help him retake the White House.” Feldman reported “the oil industry had spent $450 million on a combination of donations, lobbying and advertising during the 2024 election cycle… the oil industry and related interests made $75 million in direct donations to Mr. Trump and his campaign committees.”

Professors Martin Gilens and Benjamin I. Page wrote, “the majority does not rule.” “Economic elites and organized groups representing business interests have substantial independent impacts on U.S. government policy.” “Average citizens have little or no independent influence.”

EPA Administrator Lee Zeldin said, “There’s no scientific evidence showing carbon dioxide emissions contribute to negative public health outcomes.”

Robert Hunziker wrote, “[There are] record wildfires, record floods, record hurricanes, record tornadoes, record coral bleaching, record glacial melt, record droughts, record sea level rise, record dry riverbeds, record heat deaths, record ocean acidification, record insect loss, and record marine loss.”

Bernie Sanders said, “The president has directed the full regulatory, legal, and financial weight of the federal government toward helping his fossil fuel executive friends get rich at the expense of a healthy and habitable planet for our kids and grandkids.”

Anton Porcari

Source URL: https://oswegocountytoday.com/opinion/letters-to-the-editor/the-greatest-con-job-ever/

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