Posted on 05/25/2010 5:38:31 AM PDT by bestintxas
WASHINGTON (AP) - Responding to the massive BP oil spill, Congress is getting ready to quadrupleto 32 cents a barrela tax on oil used to help finance cleanups. The increase would raise nearly $11 billion over the next decade. The tax is levied on oil produced in the U.S. or imported from foreign countries. The revenue goes to a fund managed by the Coast Guard to help pay to clean up spills in waterways, such as the Gulf of Mexico.
The tax increase is part of a larger bill that has grown into a nearly $200 billion grab bag of unfinished business that lawmakers hope to complete before Memorial Day. The key provisions are a one-year extension of about 50 popular tax breaks that expired at the end of last year, and expanded unemployment benefits, including subsidies for health insurance, through the end of the year.
The House could vote on the bill as early as Tuesday. Senate leaders hope to complete work on it before Congress goes on a weeklong break next week.
Lawmakers want to increase the current 8-cent-a-barrel tax on oil to make sure there is enough money available to respond to oil spills. At least 6 million gallons of crude have spewed into the Gulf of Mexico since a drilling rig exploded April 20 off the Louisiana coast.
(Excerpt) Read more at breitbart.com ...
I wonder why if some of the biggest spills are by tankers, the oil producers are the ones having to pony up? http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Oil_spill
Yeah, let’s not waste a crisis here!
So much for the one making BP pay for it.
No need for an oil tax: BP should have to pay every last penny. Their stupidity caused it!
Great Post!
But, I thought 0bama wouldn’t raise taxes on the middle class by one dime. (I guess he’s right - he’s not raising the taxes on them by ONE dime.)
I thought they had a boot on the throat of BP and were going to make sure BP would pay every dime.
Why do we need a fund to pay for something someone else is paying for?
So it is yet another massive waste of tax dollars on yet another Federal program that does NOTHING it is suppose to do.
We already have a fund for cleanups.
Sounds like someone might be hedging their bets on cap-n-tax.
gee thought the oil company was paying for it.
What do the socialist Democrats come up with? Lets add more taxes! Yeah, great, that'll help the economic recovery. But we need it for the oil spill they claim. No, that is why you don't spend all your money (and then some, no and then a lot more) on stupid socialist fluff programs that advance nothing but your Marxist agenda. Now the Country has no reserves for a rainy (oily) day. This is called poor planning, negligence, and just plain bad leadership: brought to you by the Democratic socialist party and their champion obama.
View of Chicago after the "Great Fire" of 1871.
Imagine if President Grant said, "You can't douse any flames or help the victims until we complete our study of the situation."
Exactly. BP pays for the spill, while the Obama Administration picks our pockets.
The Left love crises. Every crisis is an opportunity to raise taxes, expand government and further the agenda.
What happened to the .08 they’ve been collecting? I hate them.
This is the perfect time to raises taxes. We have full employment, interest rates are reasonable, and the stock market is soaring above 14,000.
We’re rich and ought to be paying our fair share.
rat scam to steal more money
If you think they will stop there I have some ocean front property...
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