Daily Advertiser: No Help From This President

Daily Advertiser | February 23, 2016 | Editorial Board

“Dead on arrival.”

That’s a heckuva prospect for President Obama’s proposed $10 a barrel oil tax, but who is surprised?

The president has seemingly waged war against the oil and gas industry since taking office; senators and representatives from energy-producing states bristle when he proposes new, painful ways that seem to strike at the industry.

That dead-on-arrival prediction for this portion of the president’s Fiscal Year 2017 budget came courtesy of U.S. Rep. Steve Scalise, R-Metairie, high-ranking House member whose district depends upon prosperous returns for oil and gas. So does all of Louisiana; there are energy industry jobs in every one of our 64 parishes.

Scalise is likely correct; his was only one of a cohort of congressional voices that panned the president’s proposal. Obama’s bright idea would fund expansion of transit systems, high-speed rail and other “clean energy” initiatives. In some ways, the industry would be taxed to pay for likely competitors.

It would also fund infrastructure projects that can’t get traction because of the depletion of the Highway Trust Fund.

Read the full editorial here.