| One Billion Dollars = One Thousand Million
One Trillion Dollars = One Thousand Billion
By Bob Weaver
There is more pain at the pump this week, with gasoline going up about 20 cents a gallon, in some parts of WV striking $4.30.
It exceeds the record high in 2008.
Some analysts are predicting the gallon price will strike $5.
It is a reminder that America's dependence on oil carries a great cost.
Exxon's profits for the first quarter soared 69 percent or $14.8 billion, and BP is recovering well from the gulf spill with record first-quarter profits of $5.8 billion.
See WHILE YOU WERE SLEEPING - Lowering Expectations Over US's Biggest Environmental Disaster
The US Congress' $4 billion tax break to oil is again a topic for discussion in Washington.
With the US in its greatest economic calamity since the Great Depression, the cost of oil and gasoline is insult to injury, added to the skyrocketing national debt.
Exxon Mobil said last Thursday that it makes "relatively little money" on gasoline.
With the price tag on the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan over one trillion dollars, and billions (some say a trillion) of dollars in congressional tax breaks/grants to corporations, many who have located off-shore to avoid taxes, and many who pay no taxes at all.
Washington is abuzz with cutting the out-of-control deficit, with a contentious battle over what some call a trillion dollar tax break for America's wealthiest citizens.
The BP oil spill was just a year ago, and tens of thousands of Gulf Coast residents, frustrated by the process of submitting claims to BP after the spill, are actively seeking legal help to cover loss of income or property damage. The company owes millions to small fishing outfits they hired for the clean-up.
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