Democrats See Strategy to End Big Oil Tax Breaks

[Playinghardball]

Source: New York Times

WASHINGTON — Linking two of the politically volatile issues of the moment, Senate Democrats say they will move forward this week with a plan that would eliminate tax breaks for big oil companies and divert the savings to offset the deficit.

With high gas prices and rising federal deficits in the political spotlight, senior Democrats believe that tying the two together will put pressure on Senate Republicans to support the measure or face a difficult time explaining their opposition to voters whose family budgets are being strained by fuel prices.

President Obama and some top Congressional Democrats have said they want to take some of an estimated $21 billion in savings from ending the tax breaks and steer it to clean energy projects. But the Senate’s Democratic leadership is calculating that using it to cut the deficit instead makes it a tougher issue politically for Republicans who are trying to burnish their conservative fiscal

More at: http://www.nytimes.com/2011/05/09/us/politics/09congress.html?_r=1

[aSpeckofDust]

1. Oh boy, just in time for it never to pass the house. So glad they just now got their strategy..

together. Or we might as well call it what it is. Grand standing. Republicans have shown us in the past they don't care about public opinion, and will vote in lockstep.

[KansDem]

2. YES!!!

Go to it, Dems!!! :woohoo:
:dem:

[Hutzpa]

3. Well hell, I sure hope they don't go blabbing it out from

the top of their lungs.

[xchrom]

4. interesting. nt