Democrats Seeking Oil Tax Increase Mislead Public

Democrats in the House and Senate that are opportunistically seeking to increase the federal tax on a barrel of oil from 8 cents to 41 cents are deceiving the public when they suggest that the money raised will be set aside to fund future oil spill clean-ups.

"The proposed fee increase has become the latest weapon in the political war over oil, as lawmakers made the plan symbolic of larger congressional election-year themes. Republican senators said that the fee hike, which would raise an estimated $15 billion over 10 years, would help pay for a host of programs that Democrats are championing.

The dispute is helping to stall an emergency spending bill that would revive expired unemployment benefits, provide money for summer jobs for at-risk youths and pay for other programs. The oil fee would help reduce the bill's potential deficit spending to about $78.6 billion over 10 years."

It is undeniably true that this proposed tax hike is being used by Democrats to fund their spending objectives, and is not being set aside at all. In addition, you can rest assured that oil companies will ultimately pass the tax increase along to American consumers in the form of higher prices.

So now we have a tax increase proposal (like most others) that rest on two lies: that the tax is being imposed on some giant corporation (and not the American public) and that the money raised will actually be set aside for use in fixing the problem the tax is nominally supposed to address.

The American public would be a whole lot better off if Congress actively sought ways to reduce their intervention in the marketplace, not to increase it.