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Republican Proposal Give-Back $100 Drop-In-The-Bucket To Drivers = Election Year Gimmick
posted Tuesday, 2 May 2006
Republican Proposal
Give-Back $100
Drop-In-The-Bucket
To Drivers
= Election Year Gimmick
LOU DOBBS TONIGHT
War on Middle Class; Bolivian Government Nationalizes Energy Assets
Aired May 2, 2006 - 18:00 ET
LOU DOBBS, CNN ANCHOR: Tonight, gasoline prices are soaring across the nation. The war on the middle-class is escalating, and neither the White House nor the Congress appears to have immediate solutions.
ANNOUNCER: This is LOU DOBBS TONIGHT, news, debate and opinion for Tuesday, May 2nd.
Live in New York, Lou Dobbs.
DOBBS: Good evening, everybody.
Tonight, lawmakers on Capitol Hill appear to be powerless in the face of rising anger about soaring gasoline prices. The Republican leadership is deeply split as oil prices rise and gasoline prices continue to rise as well.
A Senate Republican proposal to give drivers a $100 check to offset those higher gasoline prices is losing support tonight on Capitol Hill. But no one in the White House nor the Congress seems to have any solutions as to what is part of an outright war on our middle class.
Dana Bash reports on the lawmakers' failures to tackle our energy crisis effectively, and Bill Schneider reports on a Bush presidency that is looking weaker and looking as though the second term of Bush's presidency may be devoid of policy successes.
We turn first to Dana Bash -- Dana.
DANA BASH, CNN CONGRESSIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Well, Lou, last week, Senate Republican leaders thought they could win praise from consumers by trying to put $100 in their pockets to help pay for soaring gas prices. Well, that appears to have had the opposite effect, and now the proposal seems all but dead.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
BASH (voice-over): Just five days after Senate Republican Leader Bill Frist proposed a $100 rebate as one answer to high gas prices, Senate Republicans are already planning to drop the idea after it fell like a brick with the public and within their own party.
SEN. JOHN CORNYN (R), TEXAS: I think it's a silly idea. In a word. And I think most people recognize that it's not a serious response to what is a real crisis. BASH: Texas GOP Senator John Cornyn says his constituents have been calling, complaining the $100 rebate is nothing more than an election year gimmick.
CORNYN: It may be a tank and a half worth of gas in an SUV in Texas.
BASH: And across the capital, House Majority Leader John Boehner called the rebate "insulting". The idea, designed to calm public outrage over gas prices, only further inflamed it. Across the country, letters to the editor, opinion pieces, blogs all calling a $100 rebate pointless. Democrats were quick to jump on the GOP misfire.
SEN. HARRY REID (D-NV), MINORITY LEADER: The hundred-dollar rebate was dead before it was offered. It was ridiculous.
BASH: Senator Rick Santorum, one of the only Republicans standing by the rebate, points out it was just one of several proposals in a multi-part plan.
SEN. RICK SANTORUM (R), PENNSYLVANIA: It wasn't intended to do anything to increase the supply or reduce demand. It was a way of trying to provide some help, some temporary help at a time of gas price spikes this summer -- this summer driving season.
BASH: But GOP leadership aides concede to CNN it was a mistake, rushed out amid the election year frenzy, especially after Democrats proposed suspending the gas tax.
As Senate Republicans scrambled to regroup, House Speaker Dennis Hastert put out word he was meeting with ExxonMobil CEO Rex Tillerson to press the oil executive about soaring gas prices. Afterwards, Tillerson told CNN he can't do much and consumers must conserve.
REX TILLERSON, EXXONMOBIL CEO: There's not anything that can be done that's going to change this situation overnight. It's all about supply and demand fundamentals. And the only thing that can be done is people need to try to use energy efficiently.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
BASH: Tillerson did say that ExxonMobil is investing $20 billion over the next five years to address the lack of energy supply, but he did stress several times that "demand," he thinks, is the biggest problem -- Lou.
DOBBS: Dana, thank you very much.
Dana Bash.
President Bush is paying a heavy political price for his failure to control gasoline prices and to succeed in a host of other policy areas. Two new polls by CBS News and "USA Today"-Gallup poll show the president's approval ratings have fallen to the lowest levels of his presidency. Bill Schneider reports.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
WILLIAM SCHNEIDER, CNN SR. POLITICAL ANALYST (voice over): Most Americans now live in suburbs. Their whole way of life is based on affordable gas. Take that away, and the middle class feels threatened and angry.
President Bush's job approval is down to 33 percent in the latest CBS News poll. His approval rating on gas prices, 17 percent, his worst issue. Is that fair?
SEN. JON KYL (R), ARIZONA: What we need to do here, instead of pointing fingers and demagoguing the issue, is to understand economics and appreciate where the real problem is.
SCHNEIDER: Which is where?
KYL: Why has crude oil price gone up? Because the demand has exceeded the supply.
SCHNEIDER: So what's the solution?
SEN. BILL FRIST (R-TN), MAJORITY LEADER: We need to increase domestic supply, supply right here at home.
SCHNEIDER: Talking about supply and demand gets you an "A" in economics and an "F" in politics, because Americans do not see the sudden rise in gas prices as some kind of natural disaster, like a hurricane.
SEN. RICHARD DURBIN (D), ILLINOIS: Isn't it curious as you drive around your hometown that all the prices on all the pumps seem to go up at the same time and come down at the same time?
SCHNEIDER: The public's instinctive reaction is that somebody's up to no good. They see evidence of that.
SEN. JEFF BINGAMAN (D), NEW MEXICO: Consumers are confused and angry as to why these prices are occurring now. Their anger is stoked by reports of the high salaries and retirement packages being handed out to executives.
SCHNEIDER: Somebody's to blame. Democrats seem to get that. Republicans don't.
Maybe people think because Republicans get more money from business. Maybe because the president and vice president are oilmen. Whatever. But when the public is asked which party is more likely to see to it that gas prices are low, they pick the Democratic Party over the Republican Party by better than two to one.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
SCHNEIDER: Hurricane Katrina was a natural disaster. Gas prices are an unnatural disaster, which is why the issue of gas prices has a much sharper political edge -- Lou.
DOBBS: Bill, thank you very much.
Bill Schneider from Washington.
Those soaring gasoline prices are forcing drivers out of SUVs. Ford Motor Company today reported sales of SUVs and minivans plummeted last month and sales of lighter, fuel-efficient cars rose. GM and Chrysler also reporting lower sales of those fuel-hungry SUVs and pickup trucks.
Energy Secretary Sam Bodman, who admits high gasoline prices constitute a crisis, today failed to convince Saudi Arabia to sell additional oil at a discounted price. One reason may be that communist China beat the United States to Saudi Arabia and is trying to buy large quantities of Saudi oil.
Chinese President Hu Jintao visited Saudi Arabia last month to raise China's oil supplies. China is the world's second largest oil consumer after the United States.
Leftist governments in Latin America are seizing control of vital energy resources. Venezuela has expelled two foreign oil companies and sharply raised taxes on others. Now Bolivian President Evo Morales has ordered his army to occupy the country's oil refineries and natural gas fields. Morales is telling foreign oil companies that they must work with Bolivia's state-owned energy company or be forced to leave.
Kitty Pilgrim reports.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
KITTY PILGRIM, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice over): The sign says "Nationalized Property of the People of Bolivia." Evo Morales, the leftist president of Bolivia, ordered foreign energy companies out of the country in six months if they don't sell their oil to the Bolivian government.
PRES. EVO MORALES, BOLIVIA (through translator): It is the end of the looting of our natural resources by multinational oil companies.
PILGRIM: All across Latin America, leftist-leaning governments are squeezing foreign investors. Bonding together, Bolivia's Morales met in Cuba last weekend with Fidel Castro and Venezuela's president, Hugo Chavez, to work out oil deals. Venezuela's Chavez is talking about demanding more cash from foreign investors. ExxonMobil has half ownership in Venezuela's Cerro Negro oil project and says they are watching developments carefully.
DAVID WYSS, STANDARD & POORS: It's a sign that other countries are following the lead of President Chavez down in Venezuela that they don't quite see why Americans should get all those big, nice, hefty profits now that oil prices are high. PILGRIM: In addition to Venezuela, Ecuador just approved new oil taxes on foreign investors and has elections in October. Peru's lead candidate is running on a nationalistic platform, and Brazil's leftist president, Lula, faces elections this year.
CHRISTOPHER GARMAN, EURASIA GROUP: We have seen the election of some leftist administrations that are starting to squeeze the terms for foreign investors, and in Bolivia's case, an outright nationalization. I would say Bolivia is an extreme case, but we do see a slight deterioration of conditions for foreign investors in other Andean countries.
PILGRIM: Mexico's oil industry has been state run for years, and one of the leading candidates in upcoming elections there, Lopez Obrador, favors keeping it that way.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
PILGRIM: In some cases, countries simply nationalize the oil industry, or they let the foreign companies stay, but then heavily tax them and increase the royalties, which the companies will eventually be forced to pass on to their consumer. Now, Lou, these countries are trying to protect their own interests at the expense of U.S. interests.
DOBBS: And the United states, its strategy and response?
PILGRIM: There was -- they're keeping their eye on it. That was from the State Department today.
DOBBS: The good old U.S. State Department.
Thank you very much, Kitty Pilgrim.
http://transcripts.cnn.com/TRANSCRIPTS/0605/02/ldt.01.html
In 1981's 'Body Heat', Kathleen Turner said, "Knowledge is power".
T.A.B.A.C.C.O. (Truth About Business And Congressional Crimes Organization)
Give-Back $100
Drop-In-The-Bucket
To Drivers
= Election Year Gimmick
LOU DOBBS TONIGHT
War on Middle Class; Bolivian Government Nationalizes Energy Assets
Aired May 2, 2006 - 18:00 ET
LOU DOBBS, CNN ANCHOR: Tonight, gasoline prices are soaring across the nation. The war on the middle-class is escalating, and neither the White House nor the Congress appears to have immediate solutions.
ANNOUNCER: This is LOU DOBBS TONIGHT, news, debate and opinion for Tuesday, May 2nd.
Live in New York, Lou Dobbs.
DOBBS: Good evening, everybody.
Tonight, lawmakers on Capitol Hill appear to be powerless in the face of rising anger about soaring gasoline prices. The Republican leadership is deeply split as oil prices rise and gasoline prices continue to rise as well.
A Senate Republican proposal to give drivers a $100 check to offset those higher gasoline prices is losing support tonight on Capitol Hill. But no one in the White House nor the Congress seems to have any solutions as to what is part of an outright war on our middle class.
Dana Bash reports on the lawmakers' failures to tackle our energy crisis effectively, and Bill Schneider reports on a Bush presidency that is looking weaker and looking as though the second term of Bush's presidency may be devoid of policy successes.
We turn first to Dana Bash -- Dana.
DANA BASH, CNN CONGRESSIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Well, Lou, last week, Senate Republican leaders thought they could win praise from consumers by trying to put $100 in their pockets to help pay for soaring gas prices. Well, that appears to have had the opposite effect, and now the proposal seems all but dead.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
BASH (voice-over): Just five days after Senate Republican Leader Bill Frist proposed a $100 rebate as one answer to high gas prices, Senate Republicans are already planning to drop the idea after it fell like a brick with the public and within their own party.
SEN. JOHN CORNYN (R), TEXAS: I think it's a silly idea. In a word. And I think most people recognize that it's not a serious response to what is a real crisis. BASH: Texas GOP Senator John Cornyn says his constituents have been calling, complaining the $100 rebate is nothing more than an election year gimmick.
CORNYN: It may be a tank and a half worth of gas in an SUV in Texas.
BASH: And across the capital, House Majority Leader John Boehner called the rebate "insulting". The idea, designed to calm public outrage over gas prices, only further inflamed it. Across the country, letters to the editor, opinion pieces, blogs all calling a $100 rebate pointless. Democrats were quick to jump on the GOP misfire.
SEN. HARRY REID (D-NV), MINORITY LEADER: The hundred-dollar rebate was dead before it was offered. It was ridiculous.
BASH: Senator Rick Santorum, one of the only Republicans standing by the rebate, points out it was just one of several proposals in a multi-part plan.
SEN. RICK SANTORUM (R), PENNSYLVANIA: It wasn't intended to do anything to increase the supply or reduce demand. It was a way of trying to provide some help, some temporary help at a time of gas price spikes this summer -- this summer driving season.
BASH: But GOP leadership aides concede to CNN it was a mistake, rushed out amid the election year frenzy, especially after Democrats proposed suspending the gas tax.
As Senate Republicans scrambled to regroup, House Speaker Dennis Hastert put out word he was meeting with ExxonMobil CEO Rex Tillerson to press the oil executive about soaring gas prices. Afterwards, Tillerson told CNN he can't do much and consumers must conserve.
REX TILLERSON, EXXONMOBIL CEO: There's not anything that can be done that's going to change this situation overnight. It's all about supply and demand fundamentals. And the only thing that can be done is people need to try to use energy efficiently.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
BASH: Tillerson did say that ExxonMobil is investing $20 billion over the next five years to address the lack of energy supply, but he did stress several times that "demand," he thinks, is the biggest problem -- Lou.
DOBBS: Dana, thank you very much.
Dana Bash.
President Bush is paying a heavy political price for his failure to control gasoline prices and to succeed in a host of other policy areas. Two new polls by CBS News and "USA Today"-Gallup poll show the president's approval ratings have fallen to the lowest levels of his presidency. Bill Schneider reports.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
WILLIAM SCHNEIDER, CNN SR. POLITICAL ANALYST (voice over): Most Americans now live in suburbs. Their whole way of life is based on affordable gas. Take that away, and the middle class feels threatened and angry.
President Bush's job approval is down to 33 percent in the latest CBS News poll. His approval rating on gas prices, 17 percent, his worst issue. Is that fair?
SEN. JON KYL (R), ARIZONA: What we need to do here, instead of pointing fingers and demagoguing the issue, is to understand economics and appreciate where the real problem is.
SCHNEIDER: Which is where?
KYL: Why has crude oil price gone up? Because the demand has exceeded the supply.
SCHNEIDER: So what's the solution?
SEN. BILL FRIST (R-TN), MAJORITY LEADER: We need to increase domestic supply, supply right here at home.
SCHNEIDER: Talking about supply and demand gets you an "A" in economics and an "F" in politics, because Americans do not see the sudden rise in gas prices as some kind of natural disaster, like a hurricane.
SEN. RICHARD DURBIN (D), ILLINOIS: Isn't it curious as you drive around your hometown that all the prices on all the pumps seem to go up at the same time and come down at the same time?
SCHNEIDER: The public's instinctive reaction is that somebody's up to no good. They see evidence of that.
SEN. JEFF BINGAMAN (D), NEW MEXICO: Consumers are confused and angry as to why these prices are occurring now. Their anger is stoked by reports of the high salaries and retirement packages being handed out to executives.
SCHNEIDER: Somebody's to blame. Democrats seem to get that. Republicans don't.
Maybe people think because Republicans get more money from business. Maybe because the president and vice president are oilmen. Whatever. But when the public is asked which party is more likely to see to it that gas prices are low, they pick the Democratic Party over the Republican Party by better than two to one.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
SCHNEIDER: Hurricane Katrina was a natural disaster. Gas prices are an unnatural disaster, which is why the issue of gas prices has a much sharper political edge -- Lou.
DOBBS: Bill, thank you very much.
Bill Schneider from Washington.
Those soaring gasoline prices are forcing drivers out of SUVs. Ford Motor Company today reported sales of SUVs and minivans plummeted last month and sales of lighter, fuel-efficient cars rose. GM and Chrysler also reporting lower sales of those fuel-hungry SUVs and pickup trucks.
Energy Secretary Sam Bodman, who admits high gasoline prices constitute a crisis, today failed to convince Saudi Arabia to sell additional oil at a discounted price. One reason may be that communist China beat the United States to Saudi Arabia and is trying to buy large quantities of Saudi oil.
Chinese President Hu Jintao visited Saudi Arabia last month to raise China's oil supplies. China is the world's second largest oil consumer after the United States.
Leftist governments in Latin America are seizing control of vital energy resources. Venezuela has expelled two foreign oil companies and sharply raised taxes on others. Now Bolivian President Evo Morales has ordered his army to occupy the country's oil refineries and natural gas fields. Morales is telling foreign oil companies that they must work with Bolivia's state-owned energy company or be forced to leave.
Kitty Pilgrim reports.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
KITTY PILGRIM, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice over): The sign says "Nationalized Property of the People of Bolivia." Evo Morales, the leftist president of Bolivia, ordered foreign energy companies out of the country in six months if they don't sell their oil to the Bolivian government.
PRES. EVO MORALES, BOLIVIA (through translator): It is the end of the looting of our natural resources by multinational oil companies.
PILGRIM: All across Latin America, leftist-leaning governments are squeezing foreign investors. Bonding together, Bolivia's Morales met in Cuba last weekend with Fidel Castro and Venezuela's president, Hugo Chavez, to work out oil deals. Venezuela's Chavez is talking about demanding more cash from foreign investors. ExxonMobil has half ownership in Venezuela's Cerro Negro oil project and says they are watching developments carefully.
DAVID WYSS, STANDARD & POORS: It's a sign that other countries are following the lead of President Chavez down in Venezuela that they don't quite see why Americans should get all those big, nice, hefty profits now that oil prices are high. PILGRIM: In addition to Venezuela, Ecuador just approved new oil taxes on foreign investors and has elections in October. Peru's lead candidate is running on a nationalistic platform, and Brazil's leftist president, Lula, faces elections this year.
CHRISTOPHER GARMAN, EURASIA GROUP: We have seen the election of some leftist administrations that are starting to squeeze the terms for foreign investors, and in Bolivia's case, an outright nationalization. I would say Bolivia is an extreme case, but we do see a slight deterioration of conditions for foreign investors in other Andean countries.
PILGRIM: Mexico's oil industry has been state run for years, and one of the leading candidates in upcoming elections there, Lopez Obrador, favors keeping it that way.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
PILGRIM: In some cases, countries simply nationalize the oil industry, or they let the foreign companies stay, but then heavily tax them and increase the royalties, which the companies will eventually be forced to pass on to their consumer. Now, Lou, these countries are trying to protect their own interests at the expense of U.S. interests.
DOBBS: And the United states, its strategy and response?
PILGRIM: There was -- they're keeping their eye on it. That was from the State Department today.
DOBBS: The good old U.S. State Department.
Thank you very much, Kitty Pilgrim.
http://transcripts.cnn.com/TRANSCRIPTS/0605/02/ldt.01.html
In 1981's 'Body Heat', Kathleen Turner said, "Knowledge is power".
T.A.B.A.C.C.O. (Truth About Business And Congressional Crimes Organization)
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