The Discerning Texan
All that is necessary for evil to triumph, is for good men to do nothing.
-- Edmund Burke
-- Edmund Burke
Sunday, March 02, 2008
More Harebrained Legislation from the House
Via IBD Editorials: H. R. 5321 passed the House last week, and in the process it removed the tax deduction normally given to the major oil companies and which helps them look for ways to produce more oil. The measure cuts the profits for huge corporations like Exxon and BP by $18 billion, and its passage is justified by Speaker on the basis that those companies already make too much money. While it may be true that those companies reported record profits last year, does Pelosi think that Exxon, BP, Shell, etc. are going to absorb the loss? We heard this afternoon that economists are predicting gas prices will hike up to $4.00 a gallon by summer. Now we understand why:
"The bill will force these five companies to pass $18 billion in costs on to buyers. Energy companies, like all private enterprises, don't eat new taxes — their consumers do. We'll pay at the pump."
And....it gets worse:
"Congress made this even worse by ensuring that its discrimination against the big oils would benefit Citgo, which happens to be owned by those same companies' worst tormentor abroad — the brutal leftist dictatorship of Venezuela's Hugo Chavez.
"Under this bill, the dictator's oil subsidiary keeps its 6% deduction for U.S. domestic manufacturing — the one the American oil companies lose — because Citgo, technically, buys from Chavez.
"How's that for logic? Worse, the bill includes distorted incentives that will do exactly the opposite of what Congress intends."
This is our Democratic Congress at work. Instead of looking for ways to induce businesses to keep their profits here in the U. S., they are giving them an incentive to locate operations abroad. And, at the same time, they're making gasoline even more expensive and making us even more energy dependent on tyrants like Chavez.
There is still a chance that the bill will die in the Senate or be vetoed by President Bush. But......if it makes it into law, it will fall right in line with the thinking of our would-be president, Barack Obama, who plans further hikes in the corporate tax rates in order to foot his big government spending.
