Clown Wars! Norquist, Coburn Square Off Over Ethanol Fuel Blending Subsidy - NYT

[hatrack]

Two conservative heavyweights yesterday traded jabs over ethanol, as Sen. Tom Coburn (R-Okla.) took aim at the group founded by anti-tax activist Grover Norquist for opposing his plan to end tax credits for companies that blend the biofuel. The clash between Coburn and the group Americans for Tax Reform (ATR) flared over a bid by the Oklahoman and Sen. Ben Cardin (D-Md.) to end the 45-cent-per-gallon federal tax credit for ethanol blenders. A passel of leading conservative groups are backing Coburn's plan, but ATR is the fly in the ointment -- insisting that without an equivalent reduction elsewhere in the tax code, the proposal amounts to a net tax increase.

"By opposing my amendment, you are defending wasteful spending and a de facto tax increase on every American," Coburn told Norquist in a letter yesterday. "Ethanol subsidies are a spending program placed in the tax code that increases the burden of government, keeps tax rates artificially high, and forces consumers to pay more for food and energy."

ATR tax policy director Ryan Ellis responded within hours in a letter of his own that took no issue with Coburn's criticism of government ethanol supports. "he best policy outcome is to eliminate the ethanol tax credit in a way that leaves money in the hands of taxpayers, not increases the amount of money going to Washington for the Appropriations Committees to spend," Ellis told Coburn. "Your amendment as written to repeal the ethanol credit (unfortunately) does the latter."

The daylong back-and-forth illuminates a broader, still-simmering debate among conservatives over energy subsidies as well as the role taxes should play in any future bipartisan deal to slash the federal deficit.

EDIT

http://www.nytimes.com/gwire/2011/03/30/30greenwire-big-time-conservatives-squabble-over-ethanol-72359.html

[EC]

1. I thought the purpose of finding places to cut in the

budget was to use the money to cover other parts of the budget deemed necessary, not to give more tax breaks.

[guardian]

2. The new ethanol slogan

"starving the world's poor with higher food prices, so latte sipping doomers can feel good about themselves"