Exxon's Profits so Disgusting Even O'Reilly Isn't Buying Right-Wing Excuses

In the past week, conservatives have jumped to the defense of Big Oil in order to justify their own push for more offshore drilling. On Sunday, House Minority Whip Roy Blunt (R-MO) backed up Exxon Mobil, saying that the company's critics should be overjoyed that an "American company made money." On Laura Ingraham's radio show on Friday, former senator Rick Santorum said that Exxon's record-setting quarterly profit of $11.7 billion was not "a huge profit."

Last night on The O'Reilly Factor, Karl Rove joined in, declaring that oil companies "pay a lot in taxes." But this new right-wing meme was too much even for Bill O'Reilly, who said that Big Oil should "donate 2 percent of their profits for the last four quarters to a fund that would help struggling Americans pay their heating bills." O'Reilly also contacted the top five corporations, who were only "lukewarm" to his idea:

O'REILLY: Now we contacted the five big oil corporations. And to say the response to my idea was lukewarm is to be kind. Exxon and Chevron pointed out they pay a huge amount of taxes to the government, which is true. But what about directly helping those in need? Not much enthusiasm so far.