Republicans Offer $100 Rebate Checks/Democrats, a 60 Day Suspension of Gas Taxes

I am so sick of republicans sucking corporate d*ck.

 

Very dumb. Who do you think will pay the difference in the market price of gasoline and the capped value? The government? Wow, now that's some innovative thinking.

Hell, why don't they just give gasoline away for free? That would be better than your capped values.

 

They should be paying money to conserve.

 

What a trip! I can't remember the last time the GOP was in such disarray. They are in an absolute freefall. The sharks are feeding on each other. November is looming, and the Democratic Party is set to capitalize. I love it.



May 1, 2006

Sharp Reaction to G.O.P. Plan on Gas Rebate

By CARL HULSE and DAVID D. KIRKPATRICK

WASHINGTON, April 30 — The Senate Republican plan to mail $100 checks to voters to ease the burden of high gasoline prices is eliciting more scorn than gratitude from the very people it was intended to help.

Aides for several Republican senators reported a surge of calls and e-mail messages from constituents ridiculing the rebate as a paltry and transparent effort to pander to voters before the midterm elections in November.

"The conservatives think it is socialist bunk, and the liberals think it is conservative trickery," said Don Stewart, a spokesman for Senator John Cornyn, Republican of Texas, pointing out that the criticism was coming from across the ideological spectrum.
Angry constituents have asked, "Do you think we are prostitutes? Do you think you can buy us?" said another Republican senator's aide, who was granted anonymity to openly discuss the feedback because the senator had supported the plan.

Conservative talk radio hosts have been particularly vocal. "What kind of insult is this?" Rush Limbaugh asked on his radio program on Friday. "Instead of buying us off and treating us like we're a bunch of whores, just solve the problem." In commentary on Fox News Sunday, Brit Hume called the idea "silly."

The reaction comes as the rising price of gasoline has put the public in a volatile mood and as polls show that cynicism about Congress is at its highest level since 1994.

http://www.nytimes.com/2006/05/01/u...&en=e7e79a65ecccf805&ei=5094&partner=homepage



Keep D&D Civil.

 

I try to be high minded but I just can't help thinking that Rush could be bought off for a $100 worth of oxycontin.

 

Am I the only one who feels the hype around the gas prices is overrated? If you have a problem with the gas prices, dont buy it. Walk, ride a bus, take a taxi. Companies should have the right to charge whatever price they want. That's capitalism, when you have the chance to take advantage of someone, you do it.

 

Its not overrated but for a different reason. Fine, gas companies shouldn't have their prices capped. That would be suicidal for the economy.

But to say that it is not having a significant impact both on the average consumer and the economy at large is foolish. Petroleum forms the basis of so much in society that high oil prices affects all sorts of things beyond cars. And considering how dependent we are on oil, namely foreign oil, this is a significant issue and one that deserves more than a bull**** rebate from Congress and the President.

 

Nope, I'm right there with ya. Of course, I grew up in Baytown, and my father was a process engineer at the Exxon Baytown Refinery (which Fortune magazine recently called "the needle" of America's oil addiction) for nine years, so I'm pretty biased.

To some extent, I think high oil prices are the de-facto cost of suburban sprawl. When you live 50-80-100 miles away from work this is the cost you run the risk of incurring. (I've moved to Omaha, and I'm still amazed that some people willingly drive all the way in from Lincoln in the west, and Iowa from the east, I sincerely thought was just a big city thing). Maybe this will do for hybrid/electric cars what the first oil crisis did for Japanese economy cars (and both times the Japanese seem to have the jump on us, funny how all the WWII Axis powers make better cars than all of the Allied Powers: would you rather have an '85 Lamborghini or '93 Geo?)

Also, as someone who went to a state school in Texas, I think about how Texas supports one of the largest public university systems in the country without charging a cent of income tax (especially considering higher education is usually one of the three or four largest pieces of any state budget). Remember that $15 Billion Permanent Unviersity Fund, which was largely funded by oil reserves (and a good renivestment policy) over the last eighty years? Granted, these only help the UT and A&M systems, but of course you're talking about 15-20 insititutions and 200,000+ students, probably a pretty big chunk of the state's higher education funded by high oil prices.

This is a goofy thought, but I bet when most Americans think of oil executives, they think of J.R. Ewing, that artistic manifestation of the mid-and-late '70s oil crises. Do Houstonians think of Hugh Roy Cullen, Ross S. Sterling, or Walter Fondren? Do they think of the banks (Texas Commerce, now JPM Chase Texas), construction companies (Brown & Root), or other industries (Compaq, Baker Botts) that probably supplied our oil industry? How were those companies fees and services justified without profitable oil prices?

Of course, as I write this, I'm watching a news segment about some personal care provider who now has to add her gas costs to her elderly clients' fees...and now a school district that ran out of gas money for it's buses. The one thing all those people have in common, however, is that gas prices directly affect their balance sheets. So, I dunno, maybe the government can figure out a way to help these people first, along with transportation companies, just because of the possible economic impact. But private citizens, at least those of us in the middle class, probably just need to deal. Would any of us pay more taxes or make donations to help blue-collar, low wage earners pay for their gas?

 

With a two liter of Diet Coke.

 

In this case it isn't true capitalism at all. If it was true capitalism those oil companies wouldn't have tax breaks, and the govt. handouts they do. They would fail or succeed on their own merit without the help of govt. breaks. Instead these people are writing energy policy to be beneficial to them, getting additional tax breaks and incentive from the govt. and aren't really going by a true free market, capitalist mode at all.

In this case I will side with the small man over the big oil corporation.

 

I'm with you pouhe and Rule0001. Everyone up in arms about high gas prices are forgetting that each of us has the power to make a market decision to reduce demand. At the same time high gas prices should be a wake up call that our development pattern is unsustainable.

 

People are more affected by the gas...Don't get me wrong, there are people upset about the war, but more so about what's happening to their disposible income or what's left of it...

This rebate and gas tax will improve his numbers but only temporarily...I'll be more than happy to see some savings...I didn't read all the info, but how is this funded? What program gets temporarily eliminated...

 

Senate GOP backs off $100 gas rebate proposal

WASHINGTON (AP) -- 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 pay for a $100 gasoline rebate for millions of motorists.

Frist 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 that GOP leaders rolled out last week as they scrambled to find ways to ease public anger over soaring gasoline prices.

http://www.cnn.com/2006/POLITICS/05/02/oil.congress.ap/index.html

 

program temporarily eliminated??

I wish it was that easy.

COnsidering the fiscal policies of this administration....they just add the cost onto the spiraling deficit...no problem.

btw...Rule0000001

high gas prices = higher costs of doing business for trucking companies = higher cost for us at the stores

it isnt just about consumer gas usage.

 

It looks like the $100 rebate, along with Frist's presidential bid is DOA.

Congress Set to Drop Fuel Price Rebate Plan

By CARL HULSE
Published: May 2, 2006

WASHINGTON, May 2 — A Republican proposal to provide taxpayers with a $100 rebate to compensate for higher fuel prices appeared all but dead today as leading congressional Republicans said it had quickly run out of gas.

"I just think that trying to satisfy voters with a $100 voucher is insulting," said Representative John A. Boehner of Ohio, the House majority leader. "Over the weekend, I heard about it from my constituents a few times. They thought it was stupid."

Other Republicans in the House and Senate did not mince words either.

"It was a silly idea," said Senator Jon Kyl of Arizona, a member of the Republican leadership, who predicted that the rebate would not be in the final energy package when it reaches the floor.

Coming after Senator Bill Frist of Tennessee, the majority leader, announced Monday that he was dropping a broad tax proposal from the leadership's eight-point package of energy initiatives, the resistance to the rebate meant that two core elements of the plan were either off the table or teetering on life support.

As a result, Republicans will have to regroup on energy legislation while they are under steady political attack from Democrats who say the ties between Republicans and the oil industry have contributed to rising prices at the pump. The harsh reaction to the rebate was also a setback for Mr. Frist, who led the rollout last week of the energy plan and defended it during a morning interview on CBS.

http://www.nytimes.com/2006/05/02/w...&en=363b69d62a9f58c8&ei=5094&partner=homepage