Will Subsidies for the Oil Industry Be the GOP's Next Achilles Heel?

I'm not one to demonize the oil industry in a knee jerk reaction. I was in-house counsel for an oil companies some years back so I do understand the high stakes nature of the industry. Add to that and and I currently own stock in Exxon I recently inherited from my late mother who never sold it (my parents originally owned Mobil stock, which had gay friendly policies which Exxon ended - something I voted to restore on my proxy) because they wanted to allow their heirs to decide what to do with the stock. Nonetheless, obscene greed at some point becomes simply unconscionable. Moreover, not paying one's fair share in taxes is in my view, un-American. Apparently, other voters feel the same way and at town hall meetings the GOP members of Congress are finding themselves under attack for their support of subsidies to the oil industry. That is when they aren't under attack for the GOP plan to kill Medicare for all practical purposes. Think Progress looks at one GOP Congresswoman who has broken ranks and will oppose continued oil industry subsidies. Here are highlights:
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As ThinkProgress has been documenting, conservative lawmakers have been facing the ire of Main Street America at town halls all over the country. These Americans are demanding fair sacrifice rather than budget cuts that unfairly saddle the poor and middle class with the burden of deficit reduction.
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Rep. Jaime Herrera Beutler (R-WA) came face to face with this growing movement at a town hall in Vancouver, Washington last night. Dozens of protesters encamped outside the meeting, waving signs like “Save Medicare: Tax the Rich.” When she tried to defend her vote on the GOP budget that would effectively privatize Medicare, “a chorus of boos and catcalls and shouts of ‘liar’ erupted in the auditorium.”
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Yet at one point — perhaps understanding that her constituents were already upset with her enough — she did endorse a position that put her on the opposite side of most of her House GOP colleagues. She told the audience that she favored ending subsidies to oil companies like Exxon and BP:
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Herrera Beutler did not directly address why she has supported making the Bush-era tax cuts for the wealthy permanent. But she said she does favor taking a hard look at military spending and supports ending subsidies for big corporations like Exxon and BP.
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Of course, Beutler voted, along with the rest of the House GOP caucus, to protect billions of dollars in taxpayer subsidies for Big Oil more than once in the past few months.
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Her flip-flop may be evidence that American anger at Big Oil is forcing hesitant conservatives to switch sides. A number of GOP congressmen have told constituents in recent days that they now oppose the subsidies. These include Reps. Joe Walsh (IL), Tom McClintock (CA), and Dan Webster (FL)