Another (not totally unexpected) defeat for one of President Obama’s legislative proposals today. This time, the Senate rejected a measure to repeal oil company tax breaks, which the president urged them to pass in a stern speech this morning. The vote wasn’t completely split along party lines, with two Republicans supporting the measure and four Democrats opposing it.
Obama will continue to frame this as the GOP protecting the interests of Big Oil, but the fact that it failed in the Democrat-controlled Senate takes the edge off that slightly:
Obama has sought to deflect blame for high gas prices, in part by casting Republicans as allies of big oil companies. He used a Rose Garden speech to urge lawmakers to back the plan.
“Today, members of Congress have a simple choice to make,” Obama said. “They can stand with big oil companies, or they can stand with the American people.”
I know this fits nicely with Obama’s class warfare strategy, but it sounds completely counterintuitive. Even if there’s no hard evidence that repealing these tax breaks would raise the price of gas at the pump, it still sounds like a reasonable outcome to the average voter. And that’s the argument the GOP has been making:
Republicans alleged the Democratic proposal would hit struggling consumers.
“That was their brilliant plan on how to deal with gas prices: raise taxes on energy companies; when gas is already hovering around $4 a gallon, then block consideration of anything else, just to make sure gas prices don’t go anywhere but up,” Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) said on the floor.
Sen. David Vitter (R-La.) said the bill “is not a policy that will do anything but increase the price at the pump and decrease supply.”
“That is the opposite of what we need,” Vitter said on the floor ahead of the vote.
So there is honest disagreement about whether repealing tax breaks for oil companies would raise gas prices. But everyone can at least agree it certainly won’t lower the price at the pump. Which is why this is a puzzling and politically stupid move for the Democrats. Their plan to deal with high gas prices isn’t even designed to lower high gas prices.
Instead, the plan was to use the extra money from ending the tax breaks to invest in green energy programs and pay down the deficit. Ending the tax breaks would bring in an estimated $2 billion per year. Our national debt is nearly $16 trillion. So, enough said on that.
As for using the money to invest in green energy, Obama’s stimulus allotted $38.6 billion for a green energy loan program that has been a disaster. Another $2 billion per year is not going to change that. The purpose of repealing the tax breaks for oil companies is more about Obama’s views on fairness than about achieving any practical purpose. And that fact isn’t going to be lost on the general public.
Obama has to take care of his 'Kaiser/Solyndra' bundlers; after all his campaign is running short on campaign cash; he has to work with Chu to make more loans so it can return to him in his campaign coffers.
The fact won't be lost on the general public — if they hear it (or figure it out on their own). What is the news story going to be? The MSM will probably only report that Obama wanted to raise taxes on oil companies and Republicans stopped him. In that case, many, who already won't vote for Obama will wonder why the Prez wants to raise taxes on oil when gas is so high, but those who are inclined to vote for Obama will probably see it just like he wants. I just hope people wake up before November!
The DIMS have put almost all the small Oil Companies and independent gas stations out of business. And they did it in cruel and senseless ways. They did it for no BENEFIT to the Land and water and air, they did it to the detriment of thousands of American families' financial independence and many of those family members ended up on welfare as a direct result. n nIf anyone wants to stand FOR America, they will stand WITH Big Oil and WITH SMALL BUSINESS, and Homeland Energy independence and letting Market Forces determine which energy source they use instead of Dim Marxist Govt Regulations and POLITICALLY CREATED FAKE CRISES. n nAnd they'll start prosecuting a lot of Marxist bureaucrats who are trying to personally profit off of personal stakes in Green Energy the way Obama, Bill Clinton, Algore, Joel Rogers, Franklin Raines, and many others are doing at this moment and have been building towards for 20-30 years. nAnd they will start divesting the Federal government of property that rightfully belongs to American Citizens as small private family holdings.