Normally, I try to understand what’s going on in Washington DC so I can give you an informed opinion. But I’m a little flummoxed about what the GOP is doing here. The Senate Republicans changed course and voted overwhelmingly for cloture on a bill that would strip Big Oil of a lot of their tax breaks. Then Mitch McConnell indicated that he’s eager to have a debate on the issue:
Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) said on the floor Monday that “common sense and basic economics” show that raising industry taxes will send gasoline prices even higher.
“This is the Democrat response to high gas prices,” he said ahead of the vote.
“And frankly, I can’t think of a better way to illustrate how completely out of touch they are on this issue. And that’s why Republicans plan to support moving forward on a debate over this legislation, because it’s a debate the country deserves,” McConnell said.
So, it seems plain that the GOP thinks they can win a debate over protecting Big Oil’s tax breaks by arguing that the those tax breaks will lower prices at the pump. I think that’s dubious. What this also seems to demonstrate is that the Republicans think they can get a few straying Democrats to kill the bill. And they could be right. Sens. Mary Landrieu of Louisiana, Ben Nelson of Nebraska, and Mark Begich of Alaska all voted against cloture. We know how Big Oil rules Louisiana and Alaska, so I am not surprised by these defections. But if those are the only three Democratic senators who will vote with Big Oil, the bill will pass at 50-50 with the vice-president breaking the tie.
But I guess McConnell can risk losing since the House won’t do ANYTHING to upset the energy industry.
My sense is they think they can get mileage (ha!) out of demagoguing gas prices with no real risk to their friends in big oil, putting the spotlight on Obama and the Democrats in a negative way. The risk is it might reinforce their reputation as friends of the uberwealthy. But it’s also a way to construct a seemingly coherent narrative for supporting big oil that will sell with the base and might sell with low information voters.
Whether or not it’s a smart move remains to be seen. They misjudged badly on birth control. Perhaps their thinking is, already less popular than venereal disease, anything they do to change the narrative might help.
But I guess McConnell can risk losing since the House won’t do ANYTHING to upset the energy industry.
Two things. He’s hanging Orange Julius out to dry. Second, given that, he’s getting free mileage out of this since it will never actually become law. Remember the EFCA vote while W was still President? Didn’t every Democrat(including Bad Nelson and the two Senators from Walmart) vote for it? That was a freebie, also, too, since they knew it wouldn’t become law while W was President.
wouldn’t you hang Orange Julius out to dry, with his incompetent ass?
The words “dry” and “orange Julius” don’t belong in the same sentance.
EFCA didn’t make it to the W’s desk during the 110th Congress (’07-’08), even though the House passed it by about 60 votes. The Senate Republicans refused to allow cloture of EFCA debate; the bill never recieved a vote in the Senate.
Stockholm syndrome — McConnell knows that, with regard to big business, most Americans have it. “Oh, we’re sorry that evil socialist Obama won’t let you drill irresponsibly on our coastlines! Please destroy our waterways! And the rest of you businessmen, please have more tax cuts,. so you can pretend you’re going to give us good jobs, then either give us shitty low-wage jobs with no benefits or create all the jobs overseas! We love you, Daddy, even when you beat us!”
These people thought that the Terry Schiavo situation, the contraception coverage debate, and Obama’s use of the phrase “spread the wealth” would be big political winners.
I can understand wanting to demagogue gas prices, but linking that issue to tax breaks for giant corporations is exactly the wrong way to go about it. Isn’t there some federal regulation on gas station owners they could highlight instead?
This is so easy. Democrats should link the closing of tax loopholes for big oil to gas tax credits for ordinary Americans. It’s not like this thing is going to wind up on the president’s desk anyway. Structure it like that and then dare the Republicans to vote against it.