Republicans Drop a Tax Plan After Business Leaders Protest

[cal04]

Senate Republicans on Monday hurriedly abandoned a broad tax proposal opposed by the oil industry and business leaders, another sign of their struggle to come up with an acceptable political and legislative answer to high gasoline prices. Senator Bill Frist of Tennessee, the majority leader, said he had decided to jettison the provision, which would have generated billions of dollars by changing the way businesses treat inventories for tax purposes. Instead, he said the Senate Finance Committee would hold hearings on the plan "later this year, so the pluses and minuses of the provision can become well known."

The retreat came after a torrent of objections from business leaders and their advocates, who typically view Republicans in Congress as allies. They said they had been blindsided by the inclusion of the proposal as a central element of the Republican leadership's energy package late last week. The centerpiece of the leadership proposal — a $100 rebate check to compensate taxpayers for higher gasoline prices — continued to receive a rough reception as well. Members of the public have been telephoning and writing to ridicule the idea, and even Republican lawmakers are finding fault.

"Political anxiety in an election year is to blame for a lot of the bad bills Congress passes," said Representative Jeff Flake, Republican of Arizona, who on Monday called the rebate a "knee-jerk populist idea" that voters would see through. Democrats are trying to rally voters against Republicans, pointing to the rising fuel costs as evidence of how consumers were hurt by the opposition's ties to the oil industry. Outside Congress, experts have said that the government has few realistic options that would quickly reduce gas prices. And as lawmakers struggle to gain political advantage on the issue, they must juggle the often competing goals of curbing prices, increasing production and tamping down populist anger about oil industry profits.

(snip)
Senator Harry Reid of Nevada, the Democratic leader, called the decision to drop the tax proposal "just another example of the Bush Republicans' inability to break their ties to big oil."

http://www.nytimes.com/2006/05/02/washington/02cong.html?hp&ex=1146542400&en=d1ea743f3e6f1da3&ei=5094&partner=homepage

[Robbien]

1. Another example of how the GOP jumps when industry says boo

Frist, I bet you are really missing Delay right now aren't you.

[Media_Lies_Daily]

5. Especially Big Oil.

[bklyncowgirl]

2. I guess someone yanked their chain.

And the Republican leaders answered. Yes Master.

[TacticalPeek]

3. K & R

:kick:

[No Exit]

4. Hey, now, wait a minute... why not?

Cat Killer wants to give each of us peasants a nice shiny C-note? Gosh, what's so horrible about that? (I mean, would a waiter at Signatures Restaurant have turned down a nice tip?)

How about this: the price of a barrel of oil is expected to hit $100 some time in the fairly near future, right?

Each one of us 200,000,000 peons (that's the ones who are on the books; the rest of the 280,000,000 might be kids or Illegal Aliens or something) buys his/her own barrel of oil.

Then we start gaming the commodities market with our barrels of oil, forming little cartels and stuff. This could be fun.

And each of us would have our barrel of oil stored in the safest place we could find. And we'd form little armies and stage little raids to steal barrels from rival cartels!

At last, we'd get to play the fun game the Big Boys are always playing.

[LeftHander]

6. I want that $100 to spend at WALMART...

Sos I kin git me some stuff....some xbox games and some fancy underpants fer becky lynn...

and a carton or two of smokes.

[deadparrot]

7. Sen. Frist Backs Off Oil Co. Tax Increase

WASHINGTON - Senate Majority Leader Bill Frist, under pressure from business leaders, retreated Monday from a plan that would have used a tax increase on oil companies and other businesses to fund a $100 gasoline rebate for millions of motorists.

Frist, the Tennessee Republican, had proposed an accounting change that would have required oil companies to pay more taxes on their inventory of crude as a way to pay the one-time rebate which GOP leaders rolled out last week as they scrambled to find ways to ease public anger over soaring gasoline prices.

In a statement, Frist said he will still push the rebate, but abandoned the accounting change and said the Senate Finance Committee planned a hearing on the issue in the near future.

Frist gave no indication how the rebate, estimated to cost about $10 billion, will be paid for, although he said he still planned to "find a way to bring our proposals to the Senate floor for a vote."

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20060502/ap_on_go_co/oil_congress

[saigon68]

8. They aren't going to Shit in their own nest

[fooj]

9. LOSERS!

[global1]

10. On CNN This a.m. He Resorted To Rule #2 - When You Can't....

wiggle out of your own foibles - blame Clinton. He said that Clinton was the cause we're not drilling in Anwar. He said if we were today - those extra million gallons of gas per day would be keeping the gas prices in check.

[partylessinOhio]

11. BullShot!

[brentspeak]

12. The truth is that just before leaving office, Clinton chose

NOT to sign an executive order which would have permanantly banned ANWR drilling.

I really wish Clinton had signed that order into law, though. The idea of the people's land being destroyed over a 10 year period for the sake of just 6 months supply of oil (and most of that would just be sold overseas) is infuriating.

[Tellurian]

13. Why isn't someone in Congress asking...

1. Why are US oil company's drilling and rigging equipment Tax exempt?

2. When Congress voted for the construction of the Alaskan Pipeline, one of the very last paragraphs in the agreement states that in an emergency situation, a moratorium would be put on the sale of Alaskan Oil to Japan. Why isn't something being done?

[Acadia Blue]

14. Republicans don't represent the majority of the idiots who vote for them.