Will Obama's 'reducing spending in the tax code' harm energy firms, cost jobs?

I'm still recovering from President Obama's budget speech. Sorry, but after two year in the White House, plus four others in which he nominally represented me in the U.S. Senate, I'm still not overwhelmed by the greatness of the great man.

The White House has given us such euphemisms as "man-caused disasters" for terrorism, "kinetic military action" for war. The latest comes from Obama himself, a tax hike is now achieved when we "reduce spending in the tax code." In his speech the president says he will not extend the Bush Tax Cuts on "the rich," or as I prefer to call them, the job creators. He also calls for limiting deductions for "the rich."

I suspect his hungry eyes will rove onto corporate deductions enjoyed by the oil and natural gas industry, such as the Section 199 deduction, which awards firms for hiring workers, as well as the dual capacity deduction, which credits taxes corporations pay outside the United States.

If these deductions are eliminated, energy firms will pass on the new expenses on to the consumer.

By the way, have you checked the price of gasoline lately?

And dropping these deductions will cost Americans over 150,000 jobs, says Louisiana State University economics professor Joseph R. Mason. And these aren't "McJobs," they pay well.

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