79-12-B2

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The Magic Money Machine

Transcript The long delayed Presidential energy address has come and gone now, but there may be some costly echoes. The President called for a windfall profits tax on the oil industry and he made it sound as if no one but those "greedy oil barons" would have to pay. A closer look at what he was proposing reveals that he would, if Congress went along, have himself a magic money machine. The total take could amount to $146 billion over a ten year period. And no matter how many times they say it would be paid by the oil companies, we should be asking, "Where will the oil companies get $146 billion?" The answer, of course, is from their customers, and guess who they are? The truth is, no matter how much we pretend the President has come up with a magic money machine, the $146 billion will be an added $146 billion the government is removing from the private sector. Now when our public servants see a windfall like that, they just naturally prove the truth of a century-old statement by the French statesman Bastiat: "Public funds seemingly belong to no one and the temptation to bestow them on someone is irresistible." The White House wants to use the money for an energy trust fund, but liberal do-gooders in Congress want to use it for welfare. Other members (and we should be grateful for them) want it to substitute for an income tax cut. In other words, our tax burden wouldn't be increased--we'd just collect it in a different way. Then someone realized the windfall tax would be an excise tax and, therefore, deductible in figuring the corporate income tax. Thus, it wouldn't add a net 140-odd billion dollars to government's haul. Suddenly the President countered with wanting to earmark part of the regular corporate tax for his pet program, the energy trust fund. Then some of those in Congress decided to exempt some oils from taxes in order to restore incentive for exploring and finding the new oil we need. And who can quarrel with that? If we follow the figures closely, the 140 billion dollars becomes with one idea only twenty-eight billion and, with another, two or three times that much. Then there is a new proposal to ease the tax to roll back social security taxes, but that inspired someone to suggest a new conservation plan financed by the, by now, not-so-magic money machine. The battle will rage, but hasn't everyone forgotten that we started out to find a way to encourage the discovery of more oil so as to reduce our dependence on the imported stuff? I have a feeling that if our government was as good at getting oil out of the ground as it is at getting money out of us, we'd all be driving gas guzzlers with nothing to worry about except how to pay for them. This is Ronald Reagan. Thanks for listening.		Details Batch Number 79-12-B2 Production Date 08/??/1979 Book/Page RPtV-467 Audio Youtube? No
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