GOP to public: "Don't go there"

GOP Blocks Measures Boosting Taxes on Oil Company Profits:

The actions of Republicans hashing out a tax bill behind closed doors indicate that, despite tough talk from the White House and Capitol Hill, the party is not ready to hit the oil companies hard -- even on measures that have broad support in the Senate.

House Majority Leader John A. Boehner (R-Ohio) made it clear yesterday that the leadership would only go so far in punishing an industry enjoying record-breaking profits if that punishment could have broader negative consequences. In January, Exxon Mobil Corp. alone reported the highest corporate profit in U.S. history: $10.71 billion for the fourth quarter of 2005 and $36.13 billion for the entire year.

"The windfall profits [tax], when it was tried in the '80s, failed miserably because it led to less discovery. It led to less production and was a failure," Boehner said. "There is no reason for us . . . to go there again."

To quote the President, "Every little bit helps." (n.b. Bush is on the record today as advocating a repeal of the oil company tax breaks: whether or not he plans to push harder against Boehner, we'll see). I actually like the Menendez Plan, which calls for a 60-day repeal of the federal gasoline sales tax, to be paid for by lifting oil company tax breaks. Sen. Lautenberg's quote today bears repeating: "President Bush investigating the big oil companies is like Bonnie investigating Clyde." (Fascinating fact! 84-year-old Lautenberg is one of the few current Senators who could actually recall the Bonnie & Clyde spree of the early 1930's. The others are Byrd, Stevens, Akaka, and Inouye. Possibly Specter too.)

Slightly on-topic: wind farm development is erratic because there is no permanent tax credit (or so the wind farm industry says).