We have a budget surplus, but the Clinton tax remains. The feds impose 43 different direct and indirect taxes on the production and distribution of gas. Excise taxes are 5 times more onerous for lower income folks than the wealthy, according to the Tax Foundation. Only a large supply increase in oil would substitute for tax relief. Some exporters may reduce output further as the price rises, regarding oil in the ground as a great investment.
Higher prices lead to overall lower supply and then to still higher prices.
In 1991, our brave servicemen and women freed Kuwait from Iraqi invaders. Several hundred soldiers lost their lives, while Kuwaiti young men lounged in exile on the sunny Riviera in France. Demand that OPEC nations increase oil production dramatically or face immediate foreign aid and military assistance and protection cutoffs. Contractors and labor unions feverishly lobby against gas tax cuts, seeking more pork barrel spending on highway and other road infrastructure projects. Congress also must terminate the 4.3c per gallon Clinton excise tax, because much of this revenue funds the general budget, not transportation needs.