The Senate held a cloture vote this morning to overcome a threatened filibuster from Senate Republicans. It failed 59-40 -- one vote short of the 60 votes needed. Reid now says he'll introduce the bill again later today without the clean-energy tax provisions.
More later. Right now I'm so disgusted and pissed off I don't know what to say.
UPDATE: Well, here's one thing to say, to the Associated Press: the first line of your article says that Republicans blocked the bill because of "new taxes" on oil companies. That is straightforwardly false, and deserves a correction. Nobody proposed any new taxes. The proposal was to rescind the sweetheart tax breaks the oil and gas industry got in the 2005 Energy Act. Removing a tax break is not raising taxes, as you acknowledge later in the piece:
The oil companies had pressed lawmakers to oppose repeal of the $13.5 billion in tax breaks provided them by Congress in 2004 and 2005. They argued the tax relief was essential as an incentive for domestic oil and gas production and refinery expansion and that rolling back the tax breaks would lead to higher energy prices. [my emphasis]
Please do the world a favor and don't parrot Republican talking points in the first sentence of your $%#! piece.
Also, you note that a report from the Joint Economic Committee refutes the oil company contention that removing tax breaks will raise energy prices for consumers. You might have cited other studies. Or you might -- stop me if this sounds too crazy -- have said the following: "The contention by oil companies that repealing tax breaks will raise consumer energy prices is false." That's called giving readers the information they need to assess current events, as opposed to dutifully transcribing both sides' talking points.
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Comments
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josullivan58 Posted 2:20 am
13 Dec 2007
I'm embarrassed
I saw this happening from the very start. The democrats were played from day one.
The republicans were never going to cooperate. The "if you compromise a little, we'll vote for the bill" was a ruse from the very start. Even if the oil companies stop getting tax breaks and the bill gets out congress Bush will sure as hell veto it.
If a man will reject something that has broad bipartisan support like health care for children, he'll never sign a bill that his allies in the auto and oil industries don't like.
The democrats should have forced a filibuster immediately. The net results would have been the same but without the public embarrassment.
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GreenEngineer Posted 3:32 am
13 Dec 2007
Without the solar tax breaks
This bill is now utterly worthless. The progressive community should mobilize to block its passage. Repealing some taxes on the oil companies, at the price of an ethanol mandate, just isn't worth it. Plus we need to send a message to the conservatives: We're right, and we represent the majority position of the population. If they won't play, then we should kill the bill.
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Beth Wellington Posted 4:05 am
13 Dec 2007
Energy bill
Actually, the one vote short resulted from a Dem--Mary Landrieu of LA beholden to the oil industry. Lugar, a Republican, and Bayh, a Democrat, both from IN switched their vote from the last measure.
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Erik Hoffner Posted 5:57 am
13 Dec 2007
awful
Just awful. Still losing faith in the Dems...
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meander Posted 6:07 am
13 Dec 2007
Time for new strategy. Or new leaders
It might be time for Sen. Reid to step down as Majority Leader. His approach to breaking the record number of GOP filibusters is not working. The Dems should force the GOP to actually filibuster -- it's not like the time wasted by endless GOP speeches during a filibuster would be better spent doing what they are doing now: basically nothing (almost none of the budget resolutions have passed, the food and farm bill is months behind schedule, etc.).
Dan Froomkin's invaluable White House Watch in the Washington Post sums up the situation nicely:
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