From Newsmax.com

WASHINGTON — President Bush on Friday rejected calls in Congress for a tax on oil company profits, saying the industry should reinvest its recent windfalls in finding and producing more energy.

“The temptation in Washington is to tax everything,” Bush said in an exchange with reporters in the White House Rose Garden. Rather than for the government to reap the benefit from oil company profits driven by the recent surge in global oil prices, he said, “The answer is for there to be strong re-investment.”

“These oil prices are a wakeup call,” Bush said. “We’re dependent on oil. We need to get off oil.”

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President Bush is certainly right in that the Congress believes taxation is the only solution to national problems. The reality is that if Congress passes and President Bush signs legislation to raise taxes on oil company profits, oil companies most certainly will pass the costs onto consumers in the form of higher prices. There must be a change in mindset in Washington, from a “penalize oil companies” prospective to a recognition that government must promote an environment that reduces regulations and allows new refinaries to be built and new drilling in commence.