In other words: A discussion of The Bush Administration
Cheney Tax Plan From ’86 Would Have Raised Gas Prices
"Let us rid ourselves of the fiction that low oil prices are somehow good for the United States," Mr. Cheney, who is now vice president, said shortly after introducing the legislation.
...
To deflect charges that the White House has not done enough to bring down prices, the Bush campaign has attacked Senator John Kerry, the likely Democratic presidential nominee, as favoring higher gas prices. "Some people have wacky ideas like taxing gasoline more so people drive less. That's John Kerry," a recent Bush campaign commercial said. The commercial singled out Mr. Kerry's support a decade ago for a 50-cent gas tax increase, part of a deficit-reduction package that Mr. Kerry never voted for.
Yet the cost of Mr. Cheney's plan ultimately would have been passed on to drivers and other consumers through higher prices on gasoline and other refined petroleum products. In addition, he said in a February 1987 statement, he supported the tax partly because it would "assist us in reducing our budget deficit."
Under Mr. Cheney's proposal, any foreign oil bought for less than $24 per barrel would have been taxed with a fee equal to the difference between the cost of imported oil and the $24 base price. According to the federal Energy Information Administration, the cost of imported oil in the late 1980's and most of the 1990's stayed well below $24, except for a brief period following Iraq's invasion of Kuwait. In fact, oil imports cost less than $18 per barrel over much of that time, so when that was the case the Cheney plan could have led to oil taxes of $6 or more per barrel, driving up demand for domestic oil.
But the plan also included a complicated formula tying the taxes to gains in inflation and the gross national product. Senator Richard J. Durbin, Democrat of Illinois, who criticized the plan in a speech last week, said if it had been enacted when Mr. Cheney introduced it, in the years that followed it would have cost consumers $1.2 trillion.
...
Senator John Heinz of Pennsylvania, a Republican, said in February 1987 that the proposals would add $1.3 billion per year to the energy costs of Pennsylvania consumers. He also cited a study done for a federal reserve bank suggesting that a $5 per barrel fee would lead to the loss of 400,000 jobs nationwide and cause inflation to soar.
In a statement condemning the proposals to tax oil imports, Mr. Heinz said, "I want to bring this vampire into daylight now before it sneaks out of Congress and drains the lifeblood from our economic recovery."
Yeah that Mr. Heinz is Kerry's wife (Teresa Heinz)'s previous husband. He died in a plane crash, which is what happens when you call Cheney a vampire. (okay that was uncalled for... sorry)
- rob 4:44 PM - [PermaLink] -
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