Posted on 12/03/2014 12:14:10 PM PST by jyro
I can't think of a tax I have even been for so this is new ground for me. Think about a tax on imported oil. Discuss.
Texas Sen. Ted Cruz and Kentucky Sen. Rand Paul have both criticized federal subsidies for ethanol, but Iowa party leaders are looking for a candidate who will champion the issue
Read Latest Breaking News from Newsmax.com http://www.Newsmax.com/Politics/Ethanol-Iowa-Ted-Cruz-Rand-Paul/2014/08/06/id/587245/#ixzz3KrySJe00
It's politics over science.
Originally tariffs were to raise money for the federal government.
Most of our imported oil is from Mexico.
If we want more domestic oil we don’t need a tariff on foreign oil, we just need to stop kneecapping domestic oil. We stand in our own way on this one.
No, it isn't. ~10%
U.S. Crude Oil Imports by Country of Origin
http://www.eia.gov/dnav/pet/pet_move_impcus_a2_nus_epc0_im0_mbblpd_m.htm
No way. Not even close to Canada. http://www.eia.gov/dnav/pet/pet_move_neti_a_EP00_IMN_mbblpd_m.htm
BTTT
Knowledge is power
;-)
I have an excellent guide!
I think it was Rush Limbaugh who long ago pointed out that encouraging increasing taxes on *anyone*, for whatever reason, is wrong. It’s usually done to punish someone, and it never works in doing that. But it invariably has very bad side effects that those who wanted the tax never imagined.
“I’d really like to see how someone can show how a tariff would benefit the American consumer.”
Every dollar spent on US production instead of foreign hands is a dollar spent in the US economy and not in a foreign economy. Whatever you do for a living has that dollar available to it instead of being spent by OPEN overseas.
Every dollar spent on US production helps cut the cost of US production through economy of scale.
Every dollar spent on US production helps ensure supply and remove foreign manipulations.
Every dollar spent on US production helps remove foreign interest sin our politics.
Every dollar spent on US production helps keep costs down as OPEC cannot manipulate the markets higher as they have, removing real competition. OPEC is nothing but foreign oil price fixing.
There are all kinds of wins here for the US consumer.
Having the government selecting winners and losers among different industries is evil.
And the effect on the refining and petrochemical industry?
Same affects. Well, first ya gotta get the EPA out of the way so they can build more of them.
“Just get rid of ethanol”
Just get rid of the subsidy for ethanol. The free market will do the rest.
Agreed.
We buy oil on the world market, regardless of where our contracts are made, therefore, a tariff will simply increase the cost of oil across the board.
A tariff targeting a particular industry is ultimately just a subsidy for domestic production. We should be getting rid of subsidies, especially farm subsidies and corporate subsidies.
We should not be rewarding inefficient producers, even domestic ones. We are no more obligated to bail out the US petroleum energy industry than we were obligated to subsidize Solyndra or bail out the UAW or the Banksters.
IIRC, we cannot target specific countries for anticompetitive practice under the WTO.
We should eliminate the ethanol subsidies and quotas. Dairy and Beef producers have been warning for years what an absolutely ridiculous idea it is to add baseline costs to the #1 grain crop of the country. The science backs them up. Even under wet milling of ethanol, the net oil displacement is on 0.26. That is, one "barrel" of ethanol, takes 3/4 of a barrel of oil produce. Using dry milling, there is actually a net loss of energy: it takes more than one barrel of oil to produce one barrel of ethanol. Research done at Cornell University made this claim YEARS ago. Under the Clinton Administration the USDA claimed the research was bad. Now, under full production, the Cornell results have been verified, and the USDA says, "Oops!" [and Bush was supposedly the guy "politicizing" science.]
None of that takes into consideration the increased cost of food production caused by the ethanol subsidy, nor the horrific damage that ethanol does to internal combustion engines, particularly small ones like chainsaws and lawn mowers, but also the injection systems of expensive cars.
Tell me again, why we would create a whole new subsidy lobby for the US Oil Companies?
Subsidies hurt everyone, but they hurt the people who receive them the most. If the Saudis want to sell us product under production cost we'll be happy to take their money. Frack'd wells can be restarted without significant production costs when prices rise, as they inevitably will.
Government is the problem. Money sent to the government keeps the monster growing. If you think tariff money will be used for anything other than pork funding and more debt I have a bridge in lower Manhattan to sell you. Don't feed the beast.
Raising prices to the US refineries above the cost of feedstock of foreign refineries is not a US benefit. Same with Petrochem. The end result of such a tariff will cost US jobs.
If it is a beneficial effect, why not make it 100%, why not 1,000%?
And we don’t have a refinery shortage, we already refine more product than we consume in the US. With the proposed tax, our surplus product would be uneconomic and shut down US refineries.
The US oil production industry survived today’s prices +5 years ago, we will survive this as well. Sure it won’t grow as fast as at $100, but it won’t dry up and go away either.
When it comes to seeking “help” from the federal government for a select industry, take Ronald Reagan view, please.
I used to believe the free trade crapola you are purveying....
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