REAL CYNICAL
by Molly Ivins
If you thought corporations were grabbing your tax dollars, you're
right.
http://www.tompaine.com/feature2.cfm/ID/9385
[snip]
If you think that's a loverly bunch of coconuts, wait'll you see the energy
bill!
Holy pig, what a staggering piece of pork this is-what a beauty, what a
lulu, what a special-interest bonanza. The corporate giveaways in this thing
are just staggering.
We're not just talking tax breaks here. There are billions and billions in
actual giveaways of taxpayer money to these immensely profitable-and
immensely polluting-industries.
Oil and gas, which paid an effective tax rate of 12.5 percent in the late
1990s (would you like that rate?) already have gotten $10 billion in tax
breaks from this administration over the next five years. Now they get
another $10 billion from the energy bill.
Thank goodness Santa didn't forget the coal industry, or for that matter the
singularly repulsive coal-bed methane industry, or the absolutely amazing
alchemical synfuel industry, which gets $1 billion in tax credits each year
for transforming coal into coal. (You really must read up on that one.)
Here's one I especially like: a $2.5 billion tax break for ExxonMobil,
ConocoPhillips and ChevronTexaco to write off the cost of exploring for oil
on our public lands and off our coasts.
Oh, this bill is so cool. Research subsidies, development subsidies,
construction subsidies-and that's just the beginning of the goodies. The big
polluters won't have to pay to clean up their toxic pollution anymore,
especially water polluted with MTBE. And, as usual, your nonpolluting
renewable energy industries-solar, wind, geothermal-get peanuts.
But hey, lots of people are getting peanuts from this Congress. They cut
Pell grants for college students, and they left 12 million children out of
the child tax credit.
Nobody except students of politics worries much about process-everyone else
knows it's like sausage-making and wisely averts his eyes. But you might wan
t to keep an eye on some chilling procedural signs.
Democrats are now being shut out of some conference committees entirely.
That's new. What we're seeing more and more is less a pragmatic approach to
problem-solving, which used to be the way things got done in politics, and
more and more straight party-ideology voting.
Compromise is becoming unfashionable.
As Texas Sen. Gonzalo Barrientos said of his Republican colleagues: "They
don't want to govern. They want to rule."
------------------------ Yahoo! Groups Sponsor ---------------------~-->
Buy Ink Cartridges or Refill Kits for your HP, Epson, Canon or Lexmark
Printer at MyInks.com. Free s/h on orders $50 or more to the US & Canada.
http://www.c1tracking.com/l.asp?cid=5511
http://us.click.yahoo.com/mOAaAA/3exGAA/qnsNAA/FGYolB/TM
---------------------------------------------------------------------~->
Biofuel at Journey to Forever:
http://journeytoforever.org/biofuel.html
Biofuels list archives:
http://archive.nnytech.net/index.php?list=biofuel
Please do NOT send Unsubscribe messages to the list address.
To unsubscribe, send an email to:
[EMAIL PROTECTED]
Your use of Yahoo! Groups is subject to http://docs.yahoo.com/info/terms/
