The president is talking about reducing the federal deficit without crippling the budget – great promises on an extremely important issue.

However, instead of talking about spending cuts, he’s attacking the oil and gas industry and planning to raise taxes on energy companies.

The so called “stimulus” bill that is being circulated by President Obama includes provisions that would skew the global playing field against U.S.-based oil and natural gas companies. He wants to do this by changing existing “dual capacity” rules, the tax laws that grant tax credits to American companies generating income in foreign countries that enables them to use taxes they’ve already paid abroad to offset additional domestic taxation on that same foreign income.

By eliminating dual capacity, Obama’s measure would double-tax our domestic oil and natural gas producers, putting them at a competitive disadvantage with foreign operators. This is unacceptable to me. As a Mainer, I firmly believe that President Obama and Congress should work to maintain our domestic industries’ competitive edge.

The federal deficit should be tackled with reduced spending and an increase in job production, not punitive tax increases on proven job creators.

Jon Stinson
Portland


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