We’re all enjoying the falling price of oil. It’s a good thing, but I believe an opportunity here is being missed.

As a nation, we want to have a stable energy supply and to be the world’s leader in energy through fracking and other means. We cannot afford to depend on imports to provide our energy. Yet oil companies can’t produce energy at less than cost.

Maine loggers and pellet mills soon will feel the pain of low oil prices as people switch back to oil. I believe the government should protect our nation’s producers of energy here at home with subsidies and surcharges on energy. Any funds above what is needed to keep the market stable at home should be used on the nation’s debts.

We have a $20 trillion national debt and Social Security is totally underfunded. I’d like to collect Social Security someday, and I’m sure most people would. Many Americans feel they will never be able to retire.

We could beef up these funds with excess tax money not used for energy subsidies. This tax could be adjusted monthly and then eliminated when prices go back above $3 per gallon.

Opportunities like this don’t come around often, what we lack is leadership to tell the American people the truth — we’re broke as a nation. Our leaders have mismanaged the public till. We need to address this issue at a national level, and here’s our chance to atone for our sins of the past with minimum pain. A fuel tax would be across-the-board tax to all taxpayers. We all would pay, and we all would benefit as our nation becomes stronger.

John Hopkins

Manchester

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