Showing posts with label energy tax. Show all posts
Showing posts with label energy tax. Show all posts

Wednesday, August 4, 2010

U.S. Voters to Congress: Reject New Energy Taxes

/PRNewswire/ -- The Center for Individual Freedom ("CFIF") today announced that activists from across the country have sent more than 21,000 letters to Congress urging opposition to federal legislation that slaps U.S. oil and gas companies with a massive new tax bill and consumers with increased energy costs.

The letters were sent over a two-week span in response to an alert sent out by CFIF educating activists about the negative consequences of legislation, proposed by Senator Robert Menendez (D-NJ), that seeks to re-write the "dual capacity" taxpayer rules for American oil and gas companies. The change to the tax code would eliminate the tax credit afforded to domestic energy companies which currently permits them to offset taxes already paid to foreign governments on income made overseas. The Senate Finance Committee - in accordance with the president's budget proposal for next year - also is aiming to scrap the domestic manufacturing income deduction for U.S. energy firms.

"The thousands of voters who have called on Congress to oppose new energy taxes know what's at stake," said CFIF President Jeffrey Mazzella. "While Congress is away for August recess, we hope they will listen to the concerns of their constituents. If they don't and move forward with plans to pass legislation that burdens domestic energy producers with massive and unfair new tax liabilities, thousands of jobs will be lost, investments in new exploration and production projects will be cut and millions of dollars that could further stimulate our economic recovery will disappear."

Perhaps most troubling is the detrimental effect these new taxes would have on American competitiveness and energy security. "If Congress succeeds in raising taxes on U.S. energy producers this fall, it will effectively be subsidizing foreign competitors such as BP, Russia's LUKOIL and Venezuela's CITGO, all of which would not be subject to the added taxes," Mazzella explained. "Congress would literally be handing foreign-owned corporations a competitive advantage over American employers, harming the U.S. economy and increasing our nation's reliance on foreign sources of energy from places that are all too often hostile to American interests and values."

This large groundswell of citizen activism illustrates just how important domestic energy producers are to the health of the nation's economy as a whole. The U.S. oil and natural gas industry generates more than one trillion dollars in economic activity annually and employs more than nine million workers throughout the country.

These 21,000-plus letters send a clear message to Congress: It's past time you stand up for American interests and reject calls to give a leg-up to foreign-based corporations at the expense of our nation's workers and businesses.

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Wednesday, June 24, 2009

Libertarians urge “no” vote on $1.9 trillion Waxman-Markey tax hike

America’s third largest party urged the U.S. House Tuesday to defeat plans for a $1.9 trillion energy tax hike over eight years. House Speaker Nancy Pelosi is attempting to rush H.R. 2454, the Waxman-Markey energy tax bill, to a vote this week.

“With unemployment rising above and beyond what President Obama said it would be with the multi-hundred billion dollar stimulus bill, now is not the time to dismantle our economy with a multi-hundred billion dollar energy tax hike,” said William Redpath.

“Libertarians urge House members to defeat this job-killing tax hike on Americans,” said Redpath. “Libertarian candidates are out there every day proposing proven solutions to create the jobs we need and restore our prosperity. This $1.9 trillion tax hike would destroy millions of jobs and impose dramatically higher prices for everything.”

At nearly 1,000 pages, H.R. 2454, sponsored by Democrat Reps. Henry Waxman and Edward Markey, imposes new taxes on any economic activity that produces carbon dioxide. Pelosi hopes to rush the bill to a vote, despite no net temperature increase globally over the last decade, significant research showing man-made carbon dioxide isn’t changing the climate and opposition from thousands of scientists.

The economic impact would be harsh. According to research from the independent, non-partisan Heritage Foundation, the bill would have devastating impacts on the average American family.

The research found that by 2035, gasoline prices would increase 58 percent, natural gas prices would increase 55 percent, prices for home heating oil would increase 56 percent, and worst of all, electricity prices would jump 90 percent.

While the average American would pay the tax once in the form of higher energy prices, they also pay it again in higher costs for goods that must be manufactured and services that must be provided using energy.

The average family of four could see $2,979 in higher prices per year, paying $4,609 more in 2035 alone. The total costs to the average family in higher prices, from 2012 to 2035, reach $71,493.

The bill would also destroy millions of jobs, even taking into account Obama administration promises of new “green” jobs. The research finds an average annual job loss of 1,145,000 jobs per year because of Waxman-Markey. In the worst years, 2,479,000 Americans will lose their jobs annually under Waxman-Markey.

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Tuesday, March 31, 2009

Boehner on the Democrats’ National Energy Tax: “The Wrong Thing to Do and the Worst Possible Time to Do It”

House Republican Leader John Boehner (R-OH) today released the following statement after House Energy & Commerce Committee Chairman Henry Waxman (D-CA) released a discussion draft of the Democrats’ national “cap-and-trade” energy tax legislation, which is similar to the plan included in the President Obama’s budget:


“The Democrats’ plan to raise energy taxes in the midst of a serious recession is the wrong thing to do and the worst possible time to do it. Families and small businesses are struggling to get by, and this proposal, like the President’s budget, would raise taxes on every American who drives a car, flips on a light switch, or buys a product manufactured in the United States. It would cost every family as much as $3,100 a year in additional energy costs, and will drive millions of good-paying American jobs overseas.

“In my district, for example, there is steel manufacturer called AK Steel. If they are forced to pay this new energy tax – while competitors in places like India, China, and Mexico are not – their costs will skyrocket, and their customers will simply buy cheaper imported steel. That’s a recipe for shipping more good-paying American manufacturing jobs overseas, and that’s simply unacceptable. Democrats should shelve this national energy tax and work with Republicans to enact policies that will truly help get our economy moving again.”

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Tuesday, March 24, 2009

Campaign to Sell President's Budget Has "No Noticeable Impact" as Americans Realize It Spends Too Much, Taxes Too Much, Borrows Too Much

President Obama will hold a news conference this evening, as the campaign to sell his fiscally-irresponsible budget continues. Last week, the effort kicked-off with some fanfare, as news broke that his presidential campaign apparatus would be called upon to spin his $3.6 trillion budget blueprint. However, more than a week into the “budget campaign,” it seems the Administration and its political allies are having some trouble building support for the budget with the American people – and even some Democratic Members of Congress. McClatchy News reports:

“President Barack Obama’s army of canvassers fanned out across the nation over the weekend to drum up support for his $3.55 trillion budget, but they had no noticeable impact on members of Congress, who on Monday said they were largely unaware of the effort.”

“‘News to me,’ said Rep. Lloyd Doggett, D-Texas, a House Budget Committee member, of the canvassing.”

The reason the President’s campaign seems to be spinning its wheels is because the American people are realizing his budget will harm our economy and destroy jobs by spending too much, taxing too much, and borrowing too much. Last Friday, the nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office (CBO) issued a devastating report, noting that the President’s budget is actually $2.3 trillion more costly than the White House initially claimed. And yesterday, the President doubled-down on his plan for a national energy tax, with the Administration promising that it will fight for the tax, even though it will cost families up to $3,100 more per year. In other words, the more the American people are learning about this budget, the less they like it – and Members of Congress, including many Democrats, are hearing about it.

On WKRC radio in Cincinnati this morning, House Republican Leader John Boehner (R-OH) discussed the Democrats’ nervousness over the President’s budget:

“And so, the real key is what’s going to happen here over the next couple of weeks – whether we can stop the budget proposal that he has and put enough pressure on my colleagues on the other side of the aisle to take a second look at this proposal…”

“There’s a lot of nervousness over there right now over this, and what I’ve been doing and my colleagues have been doing is helping the American people understand that his budget spends too much, it taxes too much, and it borrows too much from our kids and grandkids.” (AUDIO)

While the Administration and Democratic leaders on Capitol Hill continue their budget campaign, Republicans are prepared to offer a better budget solution – one that will help create jobs, rebuild savings, and restore fiscal sanity. In a web video released last week, Boehner outlined for the President the GOP’s principles for a better budget, including:

- Helping create and protect jobs by letting families and small businesses keep more of what they earn.

- Ensuring the federal budget doesn’t grow faster than family budgets.

- Aiming to expand access to affordable health care for every American, while preserving Social Security and Medicare for future generations.

- Ending the bailouts to protect taxpayers and reforming the financial system so this crisis never repeats itself.

- Encouraging an “all of the above” energy strategy that harnesses new technologies, encourages greater conservation and efficiency, and increases American energy production in an environmentally-safe manner – without imposing a national energy tax.

- Fighting inflation so the prices of goods and services Americans depend on every day remain stable during and after this economic crisis.

The House Budget Committee will consider the President’s budget blueprint tomorrow, and Boehner today announced that Republicans will live-blog the debate on the Republican Leader’s blog, at http://gopleader.gov/Blog. During tomorrow’s debate, Republicans will remind Democrats that the President’s budget spends too much, taxes too much, and borrows too much and will offer better solutions for improving the blueprint, strengthening the economy, and creating jobs. Will Washington Democrats give these GOP solutions the consideration they deserve?

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