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Politics : PRESIDENT GEORGE W. BUSH

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To: DuckTapeSunroof who wrote (494739)11/19/2003 12:30:04 PM
From: Gordon A. Langston  Read Replies (1) of 769670
 
Wednesday, November 19, 2003

Energy bill a waste
















The House of Representatives passed a compromise energy bill, 246-180, yesterday. Senate Republican leaders would like to pass it today; Senate Democrats are considering a filibuster.

In this case, we hope the Democrats are successful.

The Democrats object to a provision shielding the makers of the additive MTBE from lawsuits. We are almost but not quite sympathetic to this provision because MTBE was added due to a mandate from the government.

It's most of the rest of the bill that is objectionable to anybody who believes in reasonably free markets, which should include most Republicans. But the Bush administration has perversely decided to embrace this ill-considered collection of pork and corporate welfare.

As Citizens Against Government Waste has pointed out, most of the $32 billion in this bill consists of unnecessary subsidies, two-thirds to the oil and gas industry, and $2 billion to the ethanol industry. There's $1 billion to subsidize a nuclear reactor and $1.2 billion for the fanciful hydrogen car project.

Filibuster away. This turkey deserves to die.

From the editorial page of the Orange County Register
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