Hypocrisy: Millionaire Dem Smears Opponent Over Oil Investments

Energy Investors
"Oh no, Energy Independence! Is there anything more hellish than this!"- Minnesota Democrats

The coming 2018 election is heating up in chilly Minnesota, where GOP Rep. Erik Paulsen is being challenged by liquor millionaire, and Democrat, Dean Phillips. Phillips has slammed Paulsen for his investments in the fossil fuel industry, however a look at Phillip’s balance sheet sheds light on the hypocritical charge.

Phillips has staked out his campaign identity as an extreme environmentalist, in a bid to first win the Democratic primary, to then challenge 5-term GOP incumbent, Erik Paulsen. “I care about the environment and I’d like to see fewer cars burning fossil fuels,” he said at a May town hall with his voters. “Anybody who argues that a carbon tax would kill jobs is simply, fundamentally misguided.”

As per the year 2013 report delivered by the non-partisan Congressional Budget Office, a carbon tax would further damage the economy by moving up the prices of all the goods. Furthermore, the people who are paying higher prices for the electricity and fuel, a carbon tax would too lead to the lost wages and a decrease in the investment. The increase in energy costs would also hit poor Americans and the blue-collar workers the hardest of all due to the “largest decrease in demand for their products.”

“Such a tax would have a negative effect on the economy. The higher prices it caused would diminish the purchasing power of people’s earnings, effectively reducing their real (inflation-adjusted) wages,” the report says. “Lower real wages would have the net effect of reducing the amount that people worked, thus decreasing the overall supply of labor. Investment would also decline, further reducing the economy’s total output.”

Phillips financial records, further, show that this environmentally conscious Congress candidate has never had any problems with profiting from automakers or fossil fuels for that matter. He has his investments summing up to $780000 and $2 million in the energy sector and the companies within, while also investing heavily in the automobile industries. Phillips holds stocks that value up to $65000 and $150000 in Energy Transfer Partners, owner of the Dakota Access Pipeline who went on to inspire several protests and the arrests from all the radical environmental activists.

Phillips, further, focused on the Republican’s history of receiving huge donations from mega giants of oil Exxon Mobil, a company which also is invested in by Phillips.

“While Erik’s taken money from the NRA, the Koch Brothers, and Exxon Mobile, Dean isn’t taking a dime,” the campaign had said in a fundraising email. Phillips has raised a sum of about $800,000—more than the all of the Democratic field combined together. More than 90 percent of contributions came from “large individual contributions,” as per the Center for Responsive Politics.

He likes hunting, dogs, and supports the troops at home and abroad.