In practicing medicine, doctors take the Hippocratic Oath that pledges in part to "do no harm." We probably need a congressional oath that includes a similar pledge, forbidding members of Congress from adopting legislation that causes more harm than good.

Think about the catastrophic impact that arbitrary, government-mandated rent controls had on housing markets in New York City in the 1970s. Talk about the cure being worse than the disease.

Or else consider provisions in this year's tax reconciliation bill, currently being debated, to raise taxes on American oil companies.

On its face, this class-warfare bill is appealing. However, certain provisions in this bill have been offered as a way to punish oil companies for record profits.

The so-called "windfall-profits tax" provisions in the bill create tax dollars to fund Congress's low-income energy assistance program. Yet such taxes would ultimately hurt many of the people it supposedly is meant to help.

Let's be realistic. Everyone knows that any new tax on American oil companies is going to be passed along to consumers. South Carolina drivers already pay a hefty 35.2 cents per gallon in federal and state taxes. South Carolinians are currently not under taxed.

Any new taxes will certainly increase the pain for drivers already facing skyrocketing prices at the pumps. Higher gas prices for businesses will ripple through the economy and increase the costs of manufacturing and shipping.

These cost increases could stall the current economic expansion we have been enjoying. This expansion has been adding new jobs and increasing real wages throughout the U.S.

An economic slowdown would depress stock prices, which would hurt South Carolinians who invest in mutual funds or have retirement plans invested in stocks. A recent study by economists with the Investors Action Foundation found that state and local pension plans invest on average more than four percent of their funds in stocks of U.S. oil companies.

Overall, these pension plans own approximately 10 percent of all U.S. oil and gas companies. If the kind of new taxes being considered by Congress were not passed along to consumers, they would certainly drive down stock values in these plans. These declines in value would conceivably cost our state's retirees and pensioners more than $100 million annually for the next five years.

In addition to this damaging economic impact, new taxes applied only to U.S. oil producers would put U.S. companies at a distinct competitive disadvantage. That would only further increase our country's dependence on cheaper, foreign oil.

This is not just some abstract economic theory. Congress actually imposed similar taxes in the early 1980s and domestic oil production dropped significantly ? while America's imported oil consumption doubled. Congress never seems to learn.

Congress should not confuse energy policy with tax policy. This country needs a sound energy policy to encourage research and development into new domestic sources of fuel. Those new sources should be reliable and sustainable.

Congress shouldn't use our tax code to punish U.S. oil companies in hopes of trying to win large blocks of potential voters. Lots of people understand what Congress is up to.

Protecting consumers against excessive corporate profits is best achieved by free market forces, not by government mandates. Congress should resist its knee-jerk tendency to resort to shallow political gestures in situations like this.

The legislation currently being debated in Congress provides a cure that is every bit as bad as the disease.

Congress should immediately strip out any new energy taxes from the proposed tax reconciliation bill.

Please, Congress, please, do no harm.

Richard Eckstrom is South Carolina's Comptroller General. He is a member of the state's Budget and Control Board.