Ted Poe: “if you tax something, you get less of it. If you subsidize it, you get more of it. So in this day of homegrown energy…”

“if you tax something, you get less of it. If you subsidize it, you get more of it. So in this day of homegrown energy depletion, Congress made the absurd choice of putting more taxes on American oil companies and, instead, chose to subsidize the special interest groups of unproven, undeveloped, and even nonexistent sources of energy. More taxes means the price of crude oil will rise, not diminish; thus, gasoline prices will rise. This tax will be passed on to us, the consumer. Taxes are always passed on to the consumer. The tax will not encourage, but lessen, domestic oil production. The tax will encourage oil companies to go to some other country to drill for oil and encourage American refineries to move offshore to areas not hostile. The tax will make us more dependent on Third World countries like Dictator Chavez for oil. Congress should lower taxes on U.S. oil companies to encourage domestic production. So Congress had the choice to encourage domestic oil production by opening up places to drill like ANWR and off the coast, or to tax the black gold and lifeblood of our energy--crude oil. Congress chose poorly. And that's just the way it is.”