Franklin County Times

“Never let a serious crisis go to waste. What I mean by that is it’s an opportunity to do things you couldn’t do before.” -Rahm Emanuel

Thank God indeed for Doppler radar and pinpoint satellite forecast. Unfortunately, some individuals cannot see past their own biased opinion in blaming Republicans for a lack of Federal funding for this technology.

Doppler radar and satellite forecasting is expensive to maintain and even more expensive to upgrade, but the funding would be available if not for the Democrats obscene spending habits. Since President Barack Obama assumed office in January of 2009, the total federal debt has increased from $10,608,325,323,172.13 trillion on January 8, 2009 to $14,345,428,204,844.19 trillion on May 31, 2011.  That is an increase of over $3.7 trillion!

Imagine if that $3.7 trillion was spent upgrading storm protection technology, bridges, dams and roads, and most importantly helping the victims of the recent tornado outbreak in Alabama.

Some would argue that Robert Aderholt, Mo Brooks and the rest of our Alabama Republican delegation are more interested in protecting big oil subsidies. This is simply untrue. What the liberal media and Democrats oppose are provisions of the Tax Code that are widely available to many types of companies, not just the oil and gas industry. They are the Section 199 deduction (mainly offered for domestically-based manufacturing job creation) and the “Dual Capacity” credit (which allows a write-off from U.S. taxes for taxes paid to foreign governments).

President Obama, in his State of the Union Speech, noted that oil and gas companies are “doing just fine.” So, companies that are “too successful” in the eyes of the Obama administration and Democrats, no longer deserve protections in the tax system that others get. The important takeaway here is that Section 199 and Dual Capacity would not need to exist if it were not for a terribly burdensome corporate tax system.

Democrats say that corporate America needs to pay its fair share but corporate America does not pay taxes, people do—in the form of higher prices and fewer job opportunities.

Simply put, the billions in supposed subsidies pails in comparison to the $3.7 trillion that could have been used by FEMA to award grants to help rebuild the cities of Phil Campbell and Hackleburg, assist with tornado victims that lost their homes in Tuscaloosa, and help Alabamians heal after this tragedy.

William Burgess, Russellville