If you have ever found yourself at the gas pump thinking, “I really wish it cost more to fill up,” then President Obama has just the idea for you. In his final budget request, he will include a call for an additional $10 in taxes per barrel of oil. This terrible idea would roll back the tremendous energy gains made in recent years and harm the economy.
The biggest and most obvious impact of the Obama gas tax would be its impact on the pocketbooks of American drivers. That’s right; one of the most underrated findings in economics is the fact that the person cutting the tax check isn’t always the one shouldering its burden. In this case, you can tax “oil companies” as much as you want, but the burden will be passed on to consumers. And indeed, estimates show the $10 per barrel fee could translate to roughly 22 cents per gallon of gasoline. That would more than double the current federal gasoline tax of 18.4 cents per gallon. The president, in other words, wants Uncle Sam to collect $5 or more every time you fill up.
The president’s plan for this new windfall is to fund a “21st century clean transportation system.” Central planners love to dream up such massive projects, but they lack the discipline and necessary market incentives to determine if they’re actually feasible, much less to implement them successfully. California’s multibillion-dollar high-speed rail boondoggle is just one of many examples proving the point. The White House is spinning that the added costs imposed by the new crude oil fee will be borne primarily by producers, but that belief defies economic reality. It will be passed on to consumers and felt not only at the pump, but also in their homes and through higher costs for any other good or service that requires significant energy use.
It wasn’t so long ago that the president at least rhetorically acknowledged the negative impact of higher energy costs, particularly on the poor — for whom transportation and residential energy costs account for a larger share of their household budget. During a speech in 2011 on energy security, he said of rising oil prices: “If you’re somebody who works in a relatively low-wage job and you’ve got to commute to work, it takes up a big chunk of your income. You may not be able to buy as many groceries. You may have to cut back on medicines in order to fill up the gas tank. So this is something that everybody is affected by.”
More
DelMarVa's Premier Source for News, Opinion, Analysis, and Human Interest Contact Publisher Joe Albero at alberobutzo@wmconnect.com or 410-430-5349
OMG, I wish he would go away - enough of Obama and everything destroying thing he has ever done and now he wants to do more. I guess here lately he's just not getting enough attention so in order to do so, he'll just up some taxes again. Just Go Away, Please.
ReplyDeleteOil is ALREADY taxed by the feds............Taxes are never high enough for Dems.
ReplyDeleteI hate the idea of more tax on gasoline. Takes money out of everone's pocket and when gas prices rise again someday the price per gallon will be alarming. If O is looking for more money maybe he should try to get the big corps to bring money sheltered in other countries back in the US by offering an incentive program. Or stop government waste and corrupt spending.
ReplyDeleteTrying to generate funds that he can divert to smooth over the obammy care fiasco. Boy do we look stupid now for criticizing Europe's national healthcare system.
ReplyDeleteThere goes your cost of living increases for the rest of your lives retirees.
ReplyDeleteMakes one wonder whose side the President and Ryan are on as it's certainly not American citizens whom are just beginning to breathe a sigh of relief after years of over-inflated gas prices. It's time for big changes in DC as our representatives are no longer representing, but representing their self-interests.
ReplyDeleteAs if their little International green 'slush' fund is going to do anything but line the pockets of someone else - not to mention the guise of Global Warming, which is as a result of a natural progress the earth goes through every twenty-three thousand years. No one has ever been able to triumph over nature and it's not going to happen now!