Bob Goodlatte: A new energy tax? No thanks, Mr. President

Up and down the Sixth District, folks that I talk to every day tell me their concerns about the harmful effect federal regulations and increased taxes have on their family budget or small business. Too many people are still looking for jobs, or only working part-time, and this Administration’s policies over the past seven years have done little to help those families struggling to make ends meet.

That is why President Obama’s new proposal to tax oil and potentially raise the price of a gallon of gas by up to 25 cents is so harmful. Included in the budget proposal he recently sent to Congress, the President has doubled down on his prior efforts to tax and spend his way to prosperity.

Despite the looming national debt and increasing global threats, this budget does not ever balance and does not truly prioritize national security. Instead, the President’s budget reads more like an unrealistic wish list. Whereas last year the Administration proposed taxing your family’s 529 College Savings plans to pay for two years of free community college, this year the President is proposing to raise your energy costs to pay for his radical global warming agenda.

Under the President’s budget proposal, there would be a new $10 tax levied on every barrel of oil, equating a roughly 25 cent tax added to each gallon of gas you buy at the pump. So while people across Virginia and elsewhere in the country have been enjoying a 12-year low in the price of oil, President Obama’s policies suggest that he believes it’s time for them to pay more.

The good news for Sixth District residents is that President Obama’s wish list is dead on arrival in Congress. Instead of policies that continue a war on coal and nuclear power, the House of Representatives is working to support policies that will increase domestic energy supplies, reduce job killing regulations on businesses, bring relief to consumers across the nation, and tear down barriers to job creation. Sadly, the President just doesn’t get it.

Bob Goodlatte represents the Sixth District of Virginia in Congress.