Letter: Obama’s oil tax will hurt consumers

After last year's steep fall in oil prices, President Barack Obama has proposed a new $10-a-barrel tax on oil for green transportation and infrastructure funding. Although described as a 'fee” on oil companies, this tax will ultimately be passed along as a consumption tax to consumers. This oil tax would work out to about an additional 25 cents a gallon at the pump when fully in place. This would be an addition to the 18.4 cents a gallon the federal government collects at the pump.

Effectively, the proposal would become another regressive sales tax on America's low and middle-income families. This plan would also amount to a levy on petroleum products. For perspective, we would end up paying more for every pound of plastics produced. We use plastic in a lot of products. Furthermore, the cost of all goods that rely on transportation to get to us will increase. Not only will Americans be squeezed more at the pump, but at the grocery store and shopping centers as well. We need to consider these ripple effects on the American consumer when contemplating broad new tax increases such as President Obama's crude oil proposal.

Jim Felker

Hiawatha