The Hill News

This week, the Senate squandered a real opportunity to do something about the increasing gas prices facing American drivers at the pump. Instead of bringing up meaningful energy legislation, the Senate continued business as usual, demagoguing the issue and demonizing “Big Oil.”

Sen. Robert Menendez (D-N.J.) proposed a bill with the full support of Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.) to “cut taxpayer subsidies to big oil.” The factual translation of this is that it would increase taxes on five energy companies by disallowing them from claiming some of the same deductions thousands of other American manufacturers and businesses can claim, some of which are nearly as old as the income tax itself.

This is a pretty interesting approach to decreasing the price at the pump since two of the most basic rules of economics are that corporations don't pay taxes, people do, and that if you tax an activity, you're going to get less of it, not more.

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