The Hidden Taxes That are Crushing America's Poor

Barack Obama likes to claim he's a tax-cutter. Never mind that Obama's signature health care overhaul contains dozens of new taxes poised to take effect, curiously, right after the 2012 elections. Never mind that the "Bush Tax Cuts" that Obama now repudiates (just months after agreeing that they were necessary) are set to expire.

No, Obama's secret, insidious "tax hikes" are rising energy prices (PDF), which hit lower-income households hardest. The president's energy policy is simple: prevent exploration, drilling and refining; close electric power plants; and regulate new power sources to death.

Energy costs are growing and eating up a disproportionate share of low and fixed-income families’ budgets. The 60 million households that earn less than $50,000 per year, or half of all U.S. families, will devote an estimated 21 percent of their after-tax incomes to energy, compared to 12 percent spent in 2001.

Energy cost burdens are greatest on the poorest families. The energy bills of families earning less than $10,000 have risen to 78 percent of their after-tax income.

Minority families are burdened by higher energy costs. More than 60 percent of Black and Hispanic families had pre-tax household incomes below $50,000 in 2010, compared with 39 percent for Asian families and 46 percent for white households.

Lower and fixed-income senior households are among those most vulnerable to energy price increases. Food, health care and other necessities compete with energy for a share of the household budget. The $31,408 median income of senior U.S. households means that half of these households depend on incomes below this level.

EPA regulations drive up electricity prices... [Yet, e]lectricity is the bargain among all consumer energy products. This is due, in part, to the utility industry’s reliance on affordable coal. Electricity prices have increased by 51 percent in nominal dollars since 1990, while the nominal prices of residential natural gas and gasoline have nearly doubled and tripled, respectively.

Remember this golden oldie?

"Under my plan of a cap and trade system, [energy prices] would necessarily skyrocket. Even regardless of what I say about whether coal is good or bad. Because I’m capping greenhouse gases, coal power plants, you know, natural gas, you name it — whatever the plants were, whatever the industry was... [t]hey will pass that money on to consumers." --Barack Obama, 1 November 2008

Hey, you know what? I've finally discovered a campaign promise that Obama actually followed through with!