Three's a trend, so we're officially calling oil subsidy doubletalk the Instagram of this season's GOP. First John Boehner said oil companies "ought to be paying their fair share," until his handlers stepped in and told everyone he didn't mean it and oil companies definitely shouldn't do anything fair at all. Now two more representatives, Daniel Webster of Florida and Paul Ryan of Wisconsin, are joining the chorus of Republicans who are totally willing to cluck about oil company subsidies, as long as it doesn't mean voting against them.
Webster told ThinkProgress that "any kind of corporate welfare is on the table," including oil company subsidies and tax breaks; Ryan said he aimed "to get rid of corporate welfare" and agreed that the subsidies should end. This is awesome! Oh, except how all three of these big talkers just voted to protect the subsidies, less than two months ago, and Ryan's budget plan preserves oil company tax loopholes. Now we're apparently calling it "corporate welfare," though, which means the corporations are like poor people, so screw those guys from now on, right? But they're not really poor, because they're still getting these giant subsidies, so they can't possibly actually be on welfare, so we can keep giving them money. Phew! Cognitive dissonance crisis averted.
