Anytime the US gets a break (cheap gas, first time in almost 8 years). The federal government jumps in to fuck everyone over again.
Check out this article from USA TODAY:
Obama's $10 oil tax proposal would cost motorists
I understand money has to come from somewhere but they are estimating close to $3.00 more per fill up for a small size car (15 gallons)?
This administration is a joke
shailynn,
"I understand money has to come from somewhere..."
Apparently you've not been paying attention. No it doesn't. "We'll" pile it on the nearly $20,000,000,000,000, that's TRILLION in dept we already have. About 8 when obama took over.
^^ impressive insight, Clubber
Apparently what the democrats and socialists don't always understand is that nothing is free. The liberals and socialists promise all this free stuff to some people, then charge everyone by adding a huge tax to a producer. The producer adds the tax to all goods it makes. The people all pay this tax, maybe 25 to 50 cents a gallon more for gas, more money to buy your food because the trucking companies need to add a surtax due to higher gas prices, everything that uses oil to make plastic may get a cost increase, the cost increases go all over the place. Of course our foreign competitors outside the US won't have the tax and will be able to make things cheaper outside the US. This could lead to more outsourcing of jobs. brilliant move, not!
The only thing this money would go towards is Obama's pet green projects. I wouldn't mind a gas tax as much if it went to improve roads in all states but local states already tax gas for state roads. This would be a tax on everyone to benefit a few, the hallmark of Obama's agendas I believe. The bill will be smashed by the Republicans in the House. I think I'm talking to the choir here though.
Yet more proof that the Democratic Party is not the champion of the poor and middle class that they claim to be. They'll choose a tree or a fish over a human being's interests every time.
I just paid $1.29/gallon for regular 87 octane (no loyal discounts, that was the street price) on my way to work this morning. Rock on.
Well, a great deal of money was spent in keeping the labor market afloat when Obama came into office, and to keep more people from defaulting on mortgages or otherwise becoming unemployed and maybe even homeless. And like he said, "The last one to raise taxes during a recession was Herbert Hoover."
So as paying down the deficit, or at least slowing its growth, is good...
The idea that the federal gov't should use taxation and spending, and even some deficit spending, to keep the economy on course is well established, ever since Herbert Hoover was voted out of office.
It worked extremely well, giving the United States its greatest economic decades. But then people elected Ronald Reagan and ever since we've had boom and bust and the rich getting richer and the poor getting poorer until many people have zero future and the fed deficit has reached epic proportions.
SJG
I must have missed the press conference about this new tax. I didn't know Obama could change the tax laws unilaterally. I thought that was a congressional act.
OMG. I just noticed you attached a link to the article. I see he is trying to attack our biggest enemy, climate change. Effing ridiculous.
" I must have missed the press conference about this new tax. I didn't know Obama could change the tax laws unilaterally. I thought that was a congressional act."
I used to think the same thing about gun control laws. Apparently I was wrong.
I live at low elevation. I don't want to be underwater. I don't want there to be massive agricultural failures or huge starving refugee migrations either. I also don't want the Earth to end up looking like Mars.
And even though I am a White Male, I still don't go along with the political right.
We used to think the issue was when the hydrocarbon fuels would run out. Now we see that before this happens, we have to deal with the effects of all the CO2 in the atmosphere.
Most of the paid jobs that people do are not worth the scarce resources they consume or the environmental damage they do when driving their cars to work.
We need to make some deep structural changes. Unfortunately no one running for President is talking about going this far, not even Bernie Sanders.
SJG
If this is actually new legislation, then as it deals with money it has to start in the House of Representatives, according to Article 1.
If it is some sort of a fee, like assigned by the Environmental Protection Agency, or some other Executive Branch agency, then the President probably can change it all by himself, as the agency is already authorized by congress.
SJG
@Shark: The socialists don't think it's free; who told you they thought that? I've heard a lot of conservatives say THEY think liberals think that, but I've never heard a liberal say it.
Bernie himself makes no pretense: he will raise taxes. He says it all the time. He knows his programs require money and it's his opinion it's worth it. We'll see how much of America agrees.
As for Obama, the DEBT is not the DEFICIT. The debt is hugher due to the improved economy (bigger economies have more debt) but the DEFICIT is actually lower. First president since Clinton who can say that.
The article does say that it is legislation that he is proposing.
Obama is no liberal if he supports a regressive tax.
On the contrary, some of Bernie's supporters say they want free college, etc, they say one thing is free but they will raise taxes on working Americans to pay for it. In effect, the young college students here the word free and think it's free for them. Just like the woman I heard when Obama was running for office said that if Obama got elected, he would take care of her mortgage and everything else. I do not believe you or too many of the socialists are that stupid but I do hear people say free this and free that like it won't cost them money. In the socialists case, they are happy until they run out of everyone else's money in my opinion.
A similar example could be Bernie promising free lap dances for every customer but he tells us all that he will raise taxes on everyone making more than $100k a year to pay for it all and then a bunch of us guys say, oh hell yeah, free lap dances. We can then smile and say, we know it's not free. Everyone who makes a lot more than me will pay more.
I disagree with Obama's proposal to raise taxes on oil companies when it could put thousands of Americans out of jobs and out of business. However to Obama, it makes perfect sense. An income tax increase in the richest Americans would be more progressive and fair in my opinion. An oil tax would raise the price of gasoline, food, and everything that uses oil and plastic in the manufacturing process but only if American producers were involved. Outsourcing supplies from overseas becomes cheaper resulting in an additional possible loss of American jobs. It also might help Saudi Arabia help put some US oil producers out of business which might be Obama's hope. However I believe he supports the Muslim brotherhood which is a group not aligned with Saudi Arabia but more so with Iran and Iraq so there may not be much merit to this conspiracy angle.
If we pay more gas tax, I want it to go towards improving our roads to help all the people, not just pay for one of Obama's green projects. 20 trillion in debt and proposing new spending plans.
Just for fun I've watched a couple of Bernie's speeches on C-Span. I've yet to see anyone over about the age 22 in the audience. (college kids who've never worked, LOL)
Of course he's going to get raucous cheers when talks about free college tuition, free medical care, a guaranteed income level, a new X-box, a new car, free pizza...lol
I think allowing the teens to go to college because they can get a low interest loan (or for free?) is a worthwhile goal. Yes, we working people would pay for it with taxes. There's no deception here. The only difference is I'm willing to pay for it, while most Republicans are not.
I did not proofread my rambling above but the bill isn't going anywhere anyway. Obama's bill would hurt the poor and middle class the most in my opinion and possibly put some American oil producers out of business in a worst case scenario.
The money has to come from somewhere because they spend like a kid with dad's credit card!
Free college is one of the best things our country could have! I mean talk about a high brow activity.
The money the government spends comes from the recirculation and retaxation on the money it had already spent.
The government spends money in payrole, procurement, and direct social program benefits ( welfare ). Then the money circulates and circulates, and usually it works its way up the economic hierarchy, where taxes start to get heavier. So government expenditure is what keeps the middle sector of the jobs market afloat. Without that expenditure, mid level wages would collapse as we became just like most of the other societies that have existed, the very rich and the starvation wages poor.
So the issue then is how big should this public sector be. The guy who figured all of this out was John Maynard Keynes.
SJG
Best of Woody Guthrie youtube.com
I wouldn't mind tax increases if they went towards national health care or lower tuition at colleges (i.e. low interest loans), but when the government raises taxes it usually just spends the money on pet programs that only benefit the top 1%, like corporate tax shelters or lower. Cheap gas helps everyone, and the poor the most, so I'm against it.