GOP plan ties road projects to oil drilling
By Susan Ferrechio
The Washington Examiner
November 3, 2011
http://campaign2012.washingtonexaminer.com/article/gop-plan-ties-road-projects-oil-drilling
House Speaker John Boehner said Thursday he will soon introduce legislation that would pay to fix the nation's crumbling infrastructure by increasing domestic energy production.
Money for roads, bridges and water projects would be financed through existing royalties and other taxes paid by companies allowed to expand domestic oil and gas drilling. The bill would make it easier for those companies to obtain drilling permits and make it easier to build nuclear power plants.
"This is a new, devoted revenue stream," Boehner, R-Ohio, told a group of reporters. "As American-made energy production increases, so too does the revenue for infrastructure projects."
Just an hour or so after Boehner's announcement, Senate Republicans blocked a $60 billion infrastructure bill proposed by Democrats that would have paid for the infrastructure projects with a .07 percent tax increase on those earning $1 million a year or more. The proposal had been part of President Obama's $447 billion job creation package, which failed earlier in Congress.
"This infrastructure bill is the kind of bold new action that we need as a nation right now," Sen. Amy Klobuchar, D-Minn., said of the Democratic bill.
Senate Republicans, however, refused to back the bill in part because it would raise taxes.
Obama has been bashing Republicans for blocking legislation, including the infrastructure bill, that the president said is needed to create thousands of jobs. Republicans are hoping to blunt those attacks by offering an alternative that would accomplish the same goals without the tax increase.
Boehner and Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., say they agree with Democrats that the nation's infrastructure needs more money. But Boehner called his plan "a better way" to pay for it.
Boehner told reporters that he never voted for an infrastructure spending bill during two decades in Congress because the legislation was traditionally loaded with pork-barrel pet projects of individual lawmakers.
This bill, Boehner said, would exclude such earmarks and add "reforms" that would prevent the money from being spent on what he called frivolous projects, including "baseball parks, parking garages, all kinds of examples I've seen over the years."
The bill, Boehner said, "is the opposite of a stimulus bill, by linking infrastructure to energy reform and permanently removing barriers to job growth instead of just spending money on short-term fixes."
Boehner said he hopes to pass the bill by year's end and will probably do so easily in the House where Republicans have a 24-seat majority and are eager to present an alternative to Obama's plan.
"I will support anything that allows us to raise revenues for this country and not have it come through raising taxes on Americans," said Rep. Allen West, R-Fla.
Senate Republican leaders are on board with the proposal, House GOP aides said. Boehner's biggest obstacle will be Senate Democrats who are unlikely to approve any bill that might allow more off-shore drilling or allow drilling in Alaska's Arctic National Wildlife Refuge. Instead, many congressional Democrats want to raise revenue by eliminating billion-dollar tax breaks for oil companies.
Rep. Henry Waxman of California, the top Democrat on the House Energy and Commerce Committee and an opponent of expanded drilling, had little enthusiasm for Boehner's proposal.
"Why doesn't he raise taxes on the oil companies first?" Waxman suggested. [Because, you moron, oil companies are already paying a huge amount of taxes, now ... unlike Democrat-beloved corporations like GE, GM & Chysler who aren't paying anything ... and this way the government will still get revenue, but the energy companies will get something in return for their outlays - the ability to put people to work and generate revenue of their own, on which they will pay more income taxes, as well. Good grief, Waxman, you truly are a clueless idiot - get in the shower with KTC. 
B.]
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