Posted on 08/24/2011 10:54:00 AM PDT by SmithL
A coalition of environmental and taxpayer groups have come up with $380 billion in savings over five years -- that is roughly three quarters of a trillion over 10 -- from programs they conclude both waste money and harm the environment.
Friends of the Earth, Taxpayers for Common Sense, Public Citizen and The Heartland Institute all manage to agree that subsidies to corn, crop insurance, nuclear power, oil, timber, mining, flood insurance and the like should go. They are urging the new deficit supercommittee, which has to come up with $1.5 trillion in deficit savings by Thanksgiving, to take a look.
Here's the Green Scissors report. Press release here. Seems like a no-brainer given all the howls of anguish emanating from Washington. The only problem is both parties have constituents that love these programs.
(Excerpt) Read more at sfgate.com ...
The report mainly urges increasing taxes on the productive sector by changing tax accounting rules. Subsidies are transfer payments, and the report goes way beyond those. Why, because to a large extent it is the lefties’ “green energy” scam that receives true subsidies in the energy sector. Agricultural price supports for the 4 crops to which they apply need to go. These changes alone, however, don’t come near closing the deficit. Transfer payments - entitlements - have to be cut radically. Nothing else will do much for the fed gov balance sheet.
Defund the EPA and the Dept. of Education for starters.
Only problem with this notion is these are all radical Leftists activist groups. They define any tax break as a "Subsidy". They aren't advocating cutting any spending, they are advocating raising taxes on the people they don't like. These are the same Progressive groups that have lobbied for hundreds of billions of dollars being spent on their failed "green jobs" boondoggles
This article is just another PR lie by the Progressive Fascist political machine
Ok, let’s defund these groups sacred cows first. Eliminate the EPA.
Yes! Let’s declare war on our energy supplies! That will save us zillions!
Ending subsidies is now declaring war?
Most "subsidies" to the energy industry aren't subsidies at all. Instead, they are accounting rules that reflect the actual exigencies of the business.
For example, an independent driller drills an exploration well on a "wildcat" basis.
Upon completion, dry hole or a strike, normal accounting rules would treat the cost of drilling the well as a capital asset (like building an office building), rather than as an expense. Consequently, its cost would have to be amortized over a seven- or ten-year schedule.
The "subsidy" to independent drillers is to allow them to write off the well in one year -- i.e., treat it as the expense it really is. Whereupon, the independent driller then has the financial statement to do what they're in usiness to do -- drill another well.
In other words, the subsidy doesn't qualify as a "loophole". Instead, it's an adjustment of the tax code to reflect the realities of a given industry.
They aren't subsides. Allowing them to keep more of their own money is not a "subsidies" as these Leftist groups claim. What ARE subsides, is the hundreds of billions in Government dollars handed out to fund these groups favorite "green jobs" boondoggles. They aren't advocating "cutting spending" they are advocating tax hikes. Just another Progressive Fascist political machine lie.
Another thing to note, despite their claims, none of these groups are “Right” on the political spectrum, they are all Leftist political pressure groups.
spinning such a leftist plan as “centrist” is a master stroke of propaganda
What-you-said bump. That is the engine of Progressivism and its attack on the ability of government to govern, and to defend the society.
It is also the rootstock of Prog popular support -- cell phones for flash rioters, and "Obama gonna he'p me pay my rent."
Ending the subsidies for "oil" might be doable if USG stopped interfering with leasing and exploration -- such as by removing the entire Atlantic continental shelf and the eastern Gulf of Mexico (Florida waters) from leasing and exploration, as they have done for almost 30 years.
As Bill Buckley used to say, "Who says A, must also say B."
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