$100 Rebate: Rise and Fall of Capitol Idea

[cal04]

Senate Republicans were frantic. Returning from a two-week recess that had been dominated by a spike in gasoline prices — and heading into a midterm election looking increasingly good for Democrats — they began scrambling for ways to calm angry voters. The date was Wednesday, April 26. Inside the Capitol complex, Senator John Thune, a first-term Republican from South Dakota, pressed his idea for a gas-tax holiday before a handful of colleagues who called themselves the Energy Working Group. But the group rejected the idea, leaving aides to the Republican leader, Senator Bill Frist, groping for another way to address the issue.

That night, Mr. Frist's chief of staff, Eric Ueland, and a handful of other Senate staffers — the worker bees who drive the machinery of Congress while their bosses take either the credit or the heat — came up with their own version of an idea that had been circulating among Democrats: a rebate to taxpayers, in this case for $100. Mr. Frist signed off and made plans to introduce it at a news conference the next day. But the idea, part of a larger eight-point plan, fell flat. It was ridiculed by consumers and scorned by fellow Republicans in and out of Congress, including some of the seven senators who, like Mr. Thune, had stood beside Mr. Frist to announce it. "I never was in favor of that," Mr. Thune said Thursday. "We all got out there and tried to put our best face on it."


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The story of the $100 rebate began with a proposal from Democrats, who are trying to use the high price of gasoline against Republicans. Senator Robert Menendez, Democrat of New Jersey, was pushing his own proposal for a gas-tax holiday, different from Mr. Thune's, and Senator Debbie Stabenow, Democrat of Michigan, had been promoting a $500 rebate. The Democrats were trying to attach their proposals as amendments to an emergency spending bill.

Senate Republicans, fearing they would be forced into the uncomfortable position of voting against the Democratic amendments, began pushing Mr. Frist to come up with an alternative. That set the stage for the April 26 meeting of the Energy Working Group, where Mr. Thune pitched his idea for a temporary suspension of the 18.4-cent-a-gallon federal gasoline tax. But it was rejected as unworkable, partly because there were no guarantees that the oil companies would pass the savings onto consumers, partly because the tax pays for federal highway projects, and partly because many Republicans say the only answer to the problem of high gas prices is to increase supply.

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http://www.nytimes.com/2006/05/05/washington/05rebate.html?hp&ex=1146801600&en=c00df31c957dd00e&ei=5094&partner=homepage

[Maven]

1. "We all got out there and tried to put our best face on it"

Right. So you just admitted that most of what you say is totally false.

[TheFarseer]

2. Thune is such a piece of garbage

he just admitted he will go along with anything they say even if he knows it's a stupid idea.