During the 2020 presidential campaign, former President Obama warned us about the ability of former Vice-President Biden’s ability to mess things up. I am not posting the actual quote because this blog is family friendly, but you can find it in a search engine if you want to read it. It begins, “Don’t underestimate Joe’s ability…” On Tuesday, The Daily Caller posted an article that illustrates that point.
The article reports:
President Joe Biden’s budget proposes to scrap more than $45 billion in fossil fuel subsidies, his administration’s latest attack on the beleaguered industry.
The White House budget will remove more than a dozen fossil fuel industry tax credits, increasing the federal government’s revenue by an estimated $45.2 billion between 2023-2032, according to the proposal published Monday. The administration explained that the proposal was written to prevent further fossil fuel investment.
“These oil, gas, and coal tax preferences distort markets by encouraging more investment in the fossil fuel sector than would occur under a neutral system,” the Department of the Treasury wrote in its general budget explanation.
“This market distortion is detrimental to long-term energy security and is also inconsistent with the Administration’s policy of supporting a clean energy economy, reducing our reliance on oil, and reducing greenhouse gas emissions,” the department added.
…“This budget is basically a $45 billion tax increase on the oil and gas industry,” Mike Palicz, the federal affairs manager at Americans for Tax Reform, told the Daily Caller News Foundation. “This is more targeting oil and gas for provisions that are just good tax policy that any industry should be able to take advantage of.”
“This is a clear effort to continue to try and paint (the oil and gas industry) as the villain,” he continued.
The article concludes:
Republicans, who have doubled down on calls for the Biden administration to incentivize domestic energy production in recent months, slammed his tax proposal Monday.
“President Biden wants to spend more taxpayer dollars on his green energy schemes instead of increasing American energy production to solve the energy crisis he created,” Wyoming Sen. John Barrasso, the top Republican on the Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee, said in a statement. “The president’s priorities could not be more out of touch with families in Wyoming and across the country.”
“This budget is dead on arrival. Republicans will focus on what Americans care about most: national security, energy security, and economic security,” he continued. “That means tackling inflation, unleashing American energy production, and keeping Americans safe.”
The White House didn’t respond to a request for comment.
If by some horrible miracle this budget passes, every Congressman who votes for it should be voted out of office in the midterms. The average middle-class American cannot afford what will happen to gas prices if this passes. The average middle-class American cannot afford to buy an electric car–regardless of the government rebate. This is an attack on the average American.