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What kind of an idiot would even begin to think taking tax breaks away from oil companies and giving them to "green energy" companies would lower gas prices? That's right, a democrat idiot. If you are looking for a sure fire way to raise the cost of a gallon of gas, take away any tax breaks to the oil companies. What they will pay in taxes will just be tacked on to the price we pay at the pump.
Increasing production is the answer to lower gas prices. And these clowns need to do something fast. Most of us can't afford what we are paying now, and any further hikes will be close to catastrophic for many.
It's sounds like instead of anybody doing anything, congress will just sit around blaming each other and hope for political points out of the deal.
I've had it with the whole bunch of them...
By Chris Stirewalt - FoxNews
GOP and Dems Trade Shots Over Gas Bills, But Which Plan Would Lower Costs?
“What is more likely to lower gas prices: Raising taxes on oil companies or increasing oil production?”
-- Senate Republican aide talking to Power Play about competing energy legislation in Congress this week
With debt and budget negations stalled for the time being, members of Congress will instead turn to the business of assigning political blame over high gas prices.
Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid is expected this week to push forward a Democratic plan that would transfer tax breaks for American oil companies to approved green-energy firms.
House Speaker John Boehner, meanwhile, will bring up a series of votes on a suite of Republican legislation aimed at breaking President Obama’s clampdown on offshore drilling permits.
Even as recession fears force commodity prices downward, gas prices are expected to continue to rise above $4-per-gallon. Uncertainty abroad, rising global demand, a shattered U.S. dollar and decreased domestic production all mean prices will continue to increase for hard-pressed American consumers.
When it comes to high gas prices, the House Republican plan would do little to bring down short-term prices. Even if Senate Democrats and President Obama were to go along with the drilling, baby, drilling, it would take months for the new crude to hit refineries and increase domestic supplies. Any short-term reduction would come from speculators jumping out on the bet of increased future production.
The Democratic proposal, however, would almost certainly raise gasoline prices as companies compensated for $4 billion in increased federal taxes. The plan proposed by President Obama and subsequently championed by Reid and Finance Committee Chairman Max Baucus, D-Mont., is part of a multi-year effort to encourage green energy (in part by keeping energy prices high).
Last year, America’s largest oil company, Exxon, paid about $10 billion in federal taxes and made a profit of about $30 billion. If the tax bill had been $11 billion, it is unlikely that Exxon shareholders would have wanted the money to come out of profits. The money instead would have come from consumers.
While Democrats are betting that consumers would feel good about seeing politicians sticking it to big oil in the form of tax increases, American drivers (and voters) would likely understand the basic economics of taxation. Plus, gas prices are helping to stunt the already puny recovery. For middle-class consumers, high gas prices mean disposable income vanishes.
But the House would never let the Democratic plan through, either.
The real issue in Washington is about the budget deals that continue behind closed doors. The Gang of Six is shrouded in doubt as Gang member and Senate Budget Committee Chairman Kent Conrad is threatening to start pushing his own debt-reduction proposal.
Democrats are stalled on how to proceed on obtaining an increase in the federal government’s $14.3 trillion debt limit, and Republicans are mostly waiting to see how that plays out before getting too jiggy about a 2012 budget proposal.
Until the dam breaks, trying to score points on gas prices will have to suffice.
