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Congress over reacting again, still, yet!
According to reports, Congress is getting ready to quadruple—to 32 cents a barrel—a tax on oil used to help finance cleanups. The increase would raise nearly $11 billion over the next decade.
The tax is levied on oil produced in the U.S. or imported from foreign countries. In other words, all oil. The revenue will allegedly go to a fund managed by the Coast Guard to help pay to clean up spills in waterways, such as the Gulf of Mexico.
The House could vote on the bill as early as Tuesday. Senate leaders hope to complete work on it before Congress goes on a week long break next week.
Lawmakers want to increase the current 8-cent-a-barrel tax on oil to make sure there is enough money available to respond to oil spills. At least 6 million gallons of crude have spewed into the Gulf of Mexico since a drilling rig exploded April 20 off the Louisiana coast.
Whenever there is a crisis, Congress never fails to seize the opportunity to raise taxes. I am sure the spin will be that they are just taxing Big Oil and not the people who pay Big Oil. That they are just making BP pay for the cleanup but didn't BP already state that they will pay for the cleanup. So why is Congress once again over reacting?
As White House Chief of Staff Rohm Emanuel once said, "Never let a serious crisis go to waste…it’s an opportunity to do things you couldn’t do before." Like raise taxes again!
Any fund that Congress sets up with the Coast Guard will turn into another mismanaged slush fund for politicians to play their power games.
As bad as this tragedy is, it probably cannot be avoided in the future. We need to find out what happened and try to improve safety but their is never a guarantee it will never happen again. It is like a plane crash. We study it and try to improve safety but when you get on an airplane, there is never a guarantee that it will not crash. Congress is like an alcoholic needing a drink, one is too many and 20 is not enough. They can't help themselves when it comes to raising taxes.
Congress never needs a reason to raise taxes but they really like it when they can pretend they are doing it for the good of the country.
Vote out all incumbents in November. Let's start over.
The tax is levied on oil produced in the U.S. or imported from foreign countries. In other words, all oil. The revenue will allegedly go to a fund managed by the Coast Guard to help pay to clean up spills in waterways, such as the Gulf of Mexico.
The House could vote on the bill as early as Tuesday. Senate leaders hope to complete work on it before Congress goes on a week long break next week.
Lawmakers want to increase the current 8-cent-a-barrel tax on oil to make sure there is enough money available to respond to oil spills. At least 6 million gallons of crude have spewed into the Gulf of Mexico since a drilling rig exploded April 20 off the Louisiana coast.
Whenever there is a crisis, Congress never fails to seize the opportunity to raise taxes. I am sure the spin will be that they are just taxing Big Oil and not the people who pay Big Oil. That they are just making BP pay for the cleanup but didn't BP already state that they will pay for the cleanup. So why is Congress once again over reacting?
As White House Chief of Staff Rohm Emanuel once said, "Never let a serious crisis go to waste…it’s an opportunity to do things you couldn’t do before." Like raise taxes again!
Any fund that Congress sets up with the Coast Guard will turn into another mismanaged slush fund for politicians to play their power games.
As bad as this tragedy is, it probably cannot be avoided in the future. We need to find out what happened and try to improve safety but their is never a guarantee it will never happen again. It is like a plane crash. We study it and try to improve safety but when you get on an airplane, there is never a guarantee that it will not crash. Congress is like an alcoholic needing a drink, one is too many and 20 is not enough. They can't help themselves when it comes to raising taxes.
Congress never needs a reason to raise taxes but they really like it when they can pretend they are doing it for the good of the country.
Vote out all incumbents in November. Let's start over.
posted by Brian J Perks at
9:25 PM
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