Gas didn’t always cost more than four bucks a gallon.

But as gas prices have gone up, Ohio families have found ways to tighten their belts.

It’s a different story for the big oil companies. Our pain is their gain. They’re posting massive profits — over $30 billion in the first quarter of this year alone — one four-dollar gallon at a time. After all, no matter how much we conserve, we still have to get to work and pick the kids up at school.

But you know what we don’t have to do? Top off their tank with tens of billions of our tax dollars beyond their already astronomical profits.

It’s amazing — if you pay taxes, you’re writing a check every year to help keep afloat an oil industry that’s already flying sky-high while we’re struggling to pay for gas at the pump.

And it’s time to stop.

This week my Democratic colleagues and I launched the “Close Big Oil Tax Loopholes Act,” to cut off these taxpayer-funded handouts to BP, Exxon Mobil, Shell, Chevron, and ConocoPhillips. We’re also taking a page from you and from other families across the country: using money saved to pay down some debt. In this case, we’ll be saving over $20 billion, which we can then use to pay down our national debt.

Look, this is just common sense. Big Oil doesn’t need these tax subsidies. They haven’t done anything to deserve them. And we can’t afford to keep paying them.

Make sense to you? If so, help us spread the word by sharing this message on Facebook or Twitter. We’ll make sure to keep you informed.

Thank you for staying involved,

Sherrod