Monday, January 31, 2011

A rebuttal on Obama's State of the Union attack on the oil and gas industry

In Saturday's Washington Examiner, William O'Keefe looked back at President Obama's State of the Union address and rebuts his attack on the oil and gas industry. As for the most memorable charge, that the industry receives billions in taxpayer dollars, that is "simply untrue." And that's not all:

All companies across the United States face a 35 percent corporate tax rate, the second highest in the world. To promote business growth and job creation, certain incentives have been written into the tax code for all companies to alleviate this burden.

Traditional fuel producers, and all other qualifying companies, benefit from incentives that enable them to invest in domestic jobs and expansion, while keeping the price of their products competitive.

Competitiveness is important, especially when facing the large international players. For this reason, "dual capacity" tax status has been written in to the tax code for U.S. multinationals.

The president would eliminate this status for oil and gas companies only, taxing them twice on foreign income and ensuring there inability to compete in the global marketplace.
Would you believe that there is some good news regarding Egypt? Salem El-Badri, the secretary-general of OPEC, says the cartel will increase production of petroleum if the crisis in Egypt disrupts shipment of oil. What a capital idea! Now only if President Obama could lift the "permatorium" in the Gulf of Mexico...

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