Rep. Fred Upton (R-MI)

One of the reasons Americans have a hard time trusting some politicians is because they say one thing and do another.

Take Rep. Fred Upton (R-MI). During a debate with his Democratic opponent last night, he said this about oil subsidies:

Letai??i??s look at the oil and gas subsidies, letai??i??s take them away. Letai??i??s let them compete just like everyone else at the same level. We can do that with the tax code to take those special provisions away.

Listen to his remarks:

Upton’s words sound great. Why should taxpayers be giving oil companies $7 billion a year in payouts and preferential tax treatment?

There’s just one problem. When Congress actually had a chance to eliminate these subsidies, every single House Republican voted to keep them in place. Including Upton.

And he isn’t just some freshman back-bencher. He’s the chairman of the House Energy and Commerce committee. But Big Oil has paid him well to stay in their pockets — his fifth-largest donor is the oil and gas industry, and almost all of his money from the industry comes from Political Action Committees, which are based far away from his district.

It doesn’t have to be this way. Campaign dollars don’t necessarily have to run Congress. Click here to join PCCC’s Take Back Democracy campaign.