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Oil Import Tax: Turmoil
| Article
# : |
10028 |
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Section : |
CURRENT ISSUES
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| Issue
Date : |
4 / 1986 |
1,387 Words |
| Author
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Wayne E. Gable
Wayne Gable is director of programming at Citizens for a Sound
Economy, a 250,000 member-citizens organization based in
Washington, D.C. |
The recent plunge in oil prices has been welcome economic news for the United States. Economists predict the decline in oil prices will add up to several percentage points of the Gross National Product (GNP) in 1985, further reduce inflation, and continue to exert downward pressure on interest rates. The rosy scenario has added impetus to a stock market boom, with the Dow-Jones average already reaching record highs on several occasions this year. Unfortunately, this silver cloud may have a dark lining.
With exception of certain oil producing states like Texas, Oklahoma, Alaska, and Louisiana, most Americans feel the drop in oil prices was long overdue. A pernicious alliance between high-tax advocates and oil state protectionists has seized the issue of falling prices as an excuse to promote plans for an oil import tax. Though strange bedfellows with vastly different objectives, they have come together in an attempt to prevent American consumers from reaping the benefits of lower energy prices. It has been estimated that a $5/barrel oil import fee would cost American consumers $20 billion a year. This figures out to $300 per year for the average family of four. Consumers would thus pay as much as $.12 per gallon more for gasoline, home heating oil, and other petroleum products.
The tax advocates have an ideological motive for their position. Distressed that the president has cut taxes and slowed the increase in government growth, they want to perpetuate the federal government's role as an engine for redistributing wealth. Passage of the Gramm-Rudman-Hollings deficit reduction measure created a crisis for the liberal high tax advocates. In the past they had been relatively successful in thwarting the president's initiatives to cut
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