An interesting editorial in the WSJ, from August. Seems pretty timely now, when you begin to think about how goverenment is going to cover that $700 trillion expenditure they just authorized. Either you:
1. Generate Revenue by RAISING TAXES, which will in turn reduce consumer spending and put us into a crappy economic cycle of business raising prices and cutting costs, further reducing consumer spending, reducing tax revenues, and increasing government expenditures on social programs
2. Find other sources of revenue –
Opening our vast domestic resources, both on- and off-shore, to responsible oil and gas development would produce an influx of tax revenue from additional lease sales and royalties, as well as from income and excise taxes. These additional collections could be used, for example, to offset the alternative minimum tax (AMT).
The Congressional Research Service recently estimated the potential federal revenue from Arctic National Wildlife Refuge (ANWR) oil development at $191 billion over 30 years — roughly $18.36 per barrel, based on projections of recoverable reserves. Applying that formula to the 107 billion-plus barrels of recoverable oil that federal agencies estimate is in ANWR, the nearby National Petroleum Reserve and offshore tells us that sensible drilling could yield nearly $2 trillion in overall revenue over 30 years, or an average of about $65.5 billion per year.
Meanwhile, the “cost” in lost tax collections of protecting 22 million families from the AMT this year stands at about $62 billion. That figure is sure to balloon in the future as more and more Americans are ensnared by the complex system. Tax-hungry politicians defend the AMT by pointing to all the federal revenue that would be lost by ending it. (Never mind the fact that AMT revenue is ill-gotten in the first place, or that the estimated “costs” of its repeal to the federal budget ignore the benefits to economic growth and resulting additional revenues.) While oil and gas development won’t fill government’s coffers overnight, it will provide a down payment in the near-term, and big windfalls in the out-years that can help deal with some of the most intractable tax problems we face.
Can our country afford the price that a Democratic / Socialist / Communist administration offers? Their answer is always option 1.