The American taxpayer helped BP pay the lease for the Deepwater Horizon rig.
BP was reaping sizable tax benefits from leasing the rig. According to a letter sent in June to the Senate Finance Committee, the company used a tax break for the oil industry to write off 70 percent of the rent for Deepwater Horizon — a deduction of more than $225,000 a day since the lease began.
And while they bitch and shriek about spoiled freeloaders on unemployment, I would wager that the Republicans would gladly continue to allow this tax loophole. And why not? The Republicans were happy to keep paying Big Oil $35 billion a year in corporate welfare.