Instead of concentrating
on the cause of the oil spill,
lawmakers on Capitol Hill
appear to be focused on
liability limits and oil
tax increases.
The White House
and some Members of Congress
are pushing for a one-cent increase
per-barrel of oil produced - from
eight cents to nine.
In reality, this is an indirect gas tax
that will be passed onto the consumer.
Currently the direct federal gas tax
is 18.4 cents per gallon with the mean
state tax being 27.2 cents per gallon.
The purpose of the newly proposed
tax hike is to increase the amount of
funds available in the Oil Spill Liability
Trust Fund and ostensibly collect more
money for the clean up.
But the real purpose
is to make political ends meet.
Although it doesn't sound like much,
the Wall Street Journal reports that
"The one-cent increase would raise
about $5 billion over 10 years to help
offset the cost of the tax package, which
is nearing $200 billion.
The tax
could go to 10 cents a barrel in 2017."
Wait. What tax package?
Politico says,
"The added revenue is coveted
by tax writers, still struggling to find
close to $50 billion in offsets needed
to pay for an election-year package
of infrastructure investments and
popular tax break extensions."
This makes one wonder :
is this about cleaning up the
Gulf or making ends meet for
other political agendas?
http://blog.heritage.org/2010/05/17/oil-tax-hike-is-about-raising-revenue-not-clean-up/
The Value Added Tax of the
Global Commie Unionist Corporate
Criminal Regime :
The threat of a value added tax
(VAT) in the United States is
growing steadily.
Despite protesting
that it is not something
he is considering, President
Obama refused to rule out a VAT
completely, much as David Cameron
and Nick Klegg, the new leaders of the
U.K. refused to rule out an increase in
the UK VAT during the campaign.
Of course, one day after taking office
they were laying the groundwork for an
increase in the UK VAT to 20 percent.
That would be a 5 percentage point
increase from the current
15 percent rate.
Not surprisingly,
Obama has already said he would
consider it if his debt commission
finds it necessary.
The VAT threat
will lurk in dark corners
until either Congress brings
the deficit under control or Obama
is ready to bring it out into the open.
Until then, murmurings will continue
that a VAT is the only way
to solve our fiscal mess.
Unfortunately,
it appears at least
to have been part of
President Obama's plan
all along to drive spending
up rapidly - to "glut the beast"
- to make a VAT seem inevitable
http://blog.heritage.org/2010/05/17/opposition-to-vat-mounting-in-house-of-representatives/
