The Path to Prosperity calls for getting Washington out of the business of picking winners and losers in the economy – and that includes our energy sector. The best energy policy is one that encourages robust competition and innovation to ensure that the American people have access to an affordable and stable supply of energy, and this budget proposes precisely that. Contrary to false partisan attacks, the House-passed budget directly targets crony capitalism through the tax code, advances pro-growth reforms aimed to boost job creation and lower gas prices. 

Myth: The House-passed budget includes special-interest tax breaks for oil companies.

Fact: This is absolutely false. In fact, The Path to Prosperity calls for the opposite.

• It calls for fundamental, revenue-neutral tax reform that would scale back or eliminate the deductions, loopholes and carve-outs that are distorting the tax code. It seeks to end the current tax discrimination and treat large and small businesses alike.  It lowers the corporate rate to 25 percent for all job creators so that U.S. businesses no longer have to labor under the highest corporate tax rate in the world. By broadening the tax base, the federal government would be able to generate the same level of revenue without the discriminatory distortions for special interests that politicians have packed into the current tax code over the years.

• It rejects calls from the President and his party’s leaders in Congress to raise taxes on energy producers. According to the non-partisan Congressional Research Service, the Democrats’ “proposals also would make oil and natural gas more expensive for U.S. consumers” – hitting families who are already dealing with gas prices that have doubled since the President took office.^[1] Independent energy producers and families would bear the brunt of these punitive tax hikes.

• The Obama administration has blocked and delayed domestic energy production both onshore and offshore, costing jobs and sidelining American energy sources at a time of rising gasoline prices and unstable conflict in the Middle East and North Africa.

• The House-passed budget calls for a more sensible approach, allowing for more resources from bonus bids, rents, royalties, and fees as a result of unlocking domestic energy supplies in a safe, environmentally responsible manner.