Today in Washington D. C. - June 11, 2008

On The Floor: The Senate will then resume consideration of the motion to proceed to the Democrats’ energy bill (S. 3044). one in Virginia and two in Missouri. Sen. Reid filed cloture last night on the motion to proceed to the Democrats’ Medicare payment fix bill, setting up a likely cloture vote tomorrow. Yesterday, the Senate confirmed 3 district judges.

Also, yesterday, Democrats failed to get cloture on their energy package (S. 3044) that featured a windfall profits tax on oil companies and also failed to get cloture on a House bill (H.R. 6049) to extend some tax breaks while raising other taxes. Senate Republicans blocked the Democrat energy bill full of “the same failed ideas from the 1970s” which included a windfall profits tax on oil companies and price gouging investigations. Republicans have offered legislation that would actually increase domestic energy production and create American jobs, but Democrats continue to prevent it from coming to the floor.

From Senate & News Sources: Yesterday, in a CNBC interview, Sen. Barack Obama was asked whether increases in gas prices were a good thing and his response was that he “would have preferred a gradual adjustment.” Is he saying he has no problem with high gas prices? His Senate Democrat colleagues seem to agree, given the legislation they tried to move yesterday would have done nothing to lower the price of gas.


This morning, Sen. Mitch McConnell criticized Sen. Obama and Senate Democrats: “The position outlined by the Democratic nominee shouldn’t be a surprise to most Americans, given that Washington Democrats have repeatedly refused to allow increased energy production here at home — even though, as we all know, increased supply leads to lower prices. It’s as if they are doing everything in their power to keep gas prices from going down.”

Today the Los Angeles Times, not known for having a conservative editorial board, lambasted the Senate: “Trying to find an economist who thinks a windfall-profits tax is a good idea is like searching for a climatologist who thinks global warming is caused by trees. Such a tax unfairly targets the oil industry, which is already amply taxed and whose profits aren’t far out of line with other U.S. industries when considered as a percentage of sales. It also would discourage oil companies from investing in new supply, which is precisely what happened when Congress imposed a similar tax in 1980. The result might be even higher oil prices.”

---

Tags: US Congress, US House, US Senate, Washington D.C., Democrat, Medicare payment fix bill To share or post to your site, click on "Post Link". Please mention / link to the ARRA News Service. Thanks!