Senators to push for $100 gas rebate checks

[JesterCS]

WASHINGTON (CNN) -- Every American taxpayer would get a $100 rebate check to offset the pain of higher pump prices for gasoline, under an amendment Senate Republicans hope to bring to a vote Thursday.

http://www.cnn.com/2006/POLITICS/04/27/gas.rebate/index.html

[salin]

1. er... two problems

first that won't go very far to cover the .68 per gallon increase over the past year (would recoup those .68 cents on about 150 gallons) - and certainly will go less far if the predicted increases continue.

second, unless the money comes straight from the oil companies (via taxes), then this is simply taking more money out of the fed govt and away from other already cash strapped programs.

[dmr4567]

3. I agree

unless the money comes from the oil companies its a dumb idea

[lonestarnot]

4. Should come directly out of the CEO's golden parachute exxon mobile.

[RUMMYisFROSTED]

49. My proposal: They can have the parachute, we'll keep the strings.

[Maddy McCall]

28. They're trying to buy us like they bought us with that other mid-summer...

tax refund. This isn't about helping "taxpayers." This is about helping Republicans.

[sutz12]

43. Pre-cisely....it's a bribe, Nothing less.

And a cheap one at best. Here guys, have a free tank of gas, paid for by.......you.

[howmad1]

55. And let's not forget the other half of this deal:

The sheeple get $100.00 and the repigs get to drill in ANWAR for about 10 minutes worth of oil. Some deal, huh? Bet the sheeple are dreaming of spending that $100.00 at Wal-mart. Ass hole politicians if they buy into this crock of shit.

[shaniqua6392]

2. No thank you.

I will have to see the fine print on that one. Leave Anwar alone. If they are ever allowed to drill in the areas they want to, there is no guarantee that the oil will be for Americans. Knowing how repukes do things, they will drill for the oil, kill off animals, destroy the environment, and then sell the oil to India or something. Thanks, but no thanks. They are just trying to buy people off again. Anyway, what is $100.00 worth after taxes?

[Delphinus]

5. You know,

I'd rather them push for a real energy policy. I'd rather the boy king come up with a real plan, like Jimmy Carter did during that oil crisis. I'd rather see some conservation measures, something that will really make a difference.

[kevinmc]

6. How would Limbaugh list this if Democrat Senator's came up with it......

would it be welfare, socialism, or trying to buy votes?

[RebelOne]

7. Thanks, but no thanks.

Anyway, what will $100 buy nowadays? Maybe 2 weeks worth of gas.

[Name removed]

8. Deleted message

Message removed by moderator. Click here to review the message board rules.

[bowens43]

9. Wow! Talk about a stupid idea!!!

It will be no help AND it will include drilling in ANWR

Fuck you very much , you republican assholes.

[toopers]

34. What is wrong with drilling in ANWR?

I am not too educated on this area of Alaska?

[Flirtus]

37. Arctic National Wildlife Reserve

Maybe you have to see it to believe it.

One last unspoiled place.

[Midlodemocrat]

42. Everything. It is the last unspoiled place on the planet.

Drilling there would be a travesty.

[karlrschneider]

45. It has about a years worth of oil (at current usage). Many people

don't think that little bit is worth destroying one of the last pristine areas of the planet.

[TexasLawyer]

36. I heard this on the radio

driving my 14 year old to school. Even HE rolled his eyes at that idea.

My Tommy's take: "Oh, yeah right. Like THAT's gunna do anything."

[meganmonkey]

10. Yeah, that's about as helpful

as the $300 'tax refund' we all got a few years back.

Only this is even better because it lets them drill in ANWR :sarcasm:

"However, the GOP energy package may face tough sledding because it also includes a controversial proposal to open part of the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge in Alaska to oil exploration, which most Democrats and some moderate Republicans oppose."

[KeepItReal]

11. I want a rebate to come straight from BIG OIL, not the U.S. Treasury Dept

...as a settlement for the price gouging they have been engaged in.

Another GOP election year bribe.

Transparent suckas...

[bigscott]

12. these nasty bastards

i fucking hate them - 100 would not last me a week in gas, and in return they get Alaska?? Fuck them

[burrowowl]

53. Exactly!

The oil companies shold be paying taxes not getting subsidies.
And to pay for the rebate they will raisw taxes on the disappearing muddle class.

[Vinca]

13. If it comes directly from the oil companies, fine.

If not, it will probably cost the government more to institute the program than it's worth for $100 a head.

[trof]

14. Couple of fill-ups. woopee

[DS1]

15. Yay for Big Government Subsidies!!

assholes

[RawMaterials]

16. Thats just inflationary

to give everyone 100$ will just devalue the 100$.

[KittyWampus]

48. Is that because that $100 would come with debt attached?

[Tracer]

17. How very insulting.

Attempt to buy people off cheap --- and then stick in the Anwar drilling provision.

As above poster said, I loathe them with a white hot flame.

[onehandle]

18. Brave GOP Senators push plan that they Know won't pass. nt

[BigDDem]

19. No, no

please use my $100 towards another tax cut for Exxon.

[LiberalEsto]

20. How about a Living Wage for all?

With the cost of gasoline factored into the wage.

[Maggie_May]

21. What a bunch of crap

This is no rebate do they really think we are idiots. So let me see if I get this right. We give oil companies big tax breaks than we take our own tax money and again if give back to the oil companies because you know that $100 bucks is going into our tanks. So all in all the oil companies get more of our money. How about just telling us the truth and say bend over you are getting screwed by big oil.

[earthside]

22. God! What is Wrong With These People?

Really, maybe God knows ... 'cause I sure cannot figure it out.

The federal government is bankrupt, running multi-hundred billion dallor deficits and the politicians in D.C. want to give us a 'rebate' of $100 (and the Menedez gas tax holiday is just as stupid, by the way).

Giving the oil corporations giant tax cuts PLUS now giving rebates or tax cuts to us will only make the deficit worse ... also imperiling the economy.

Please give us a real, genuine energy policy that will take care of our dependency on fossil fuels over the next ten years -- and I will suck-up and bear the higher gasoline prices now.

But this is just plain old crass politics that will not really do anything.

I'll tell you one thing though, the politicians -- Dems and Repugs -- must be petrified of something pretty bad happening by the way they seem to be freaking out in the past couple of days.

My hunch is that the stock market may be in for a big sell-off soon. See: Economic Trouble Looming

[trogdor]

23. Nice. A band-aid with Ben Franklin's picture on it.

Not to mention a needless subsidy that will be quickly gobbled up by yet more price increases. How about some real leadership instead? How about a "if it has a back seat, it's a car" rule? How about ending the tax incentives on SUV purchases by "businesses?" How about a progressive federal excise tax based on vehicle weight? Or engine displacement? How about a subsidy on fuel efficient cars, REGARDLESS of the under-hood technology?

How about, dare I say it, rationing? Yes, that's an extreme step, but a temporary one, and forcibly reducing demand would be arguably better for consumers than letting the "market" ration gas. Besides, if you were limited to, say, 10 gal. a week per car, you'd find a way to stretch it. Lots of you Prius drivers would be selling your surplus coupons to your dumber neighbors (or on eBay), and that would be OK too, I suppose. It would probably give you a certain sense of smug satisfaction, at the very least.

[4_TN_TITANS]

24. Keep your GD chump change....

Unless this money comes directly out of the tax breaks given to BIG OIL and is given to the people instead, I want no part of it.

I would think most people would see this as the pitiful political bribe that it is. It also shows how much these Senators fill up their own tanks. $100 will soon be a week's worth of gas for me and the wife.

[ForPeace]

25. How much would this cost?

By the time they've built the database of all eligible people, (I wonder if that would include illegal immigrants, hmmm) and then printed the checks and stuffed the envelopes, it would probably cost the treasury twice that. Oh, I get it - another lucrative contract for some crony.

[grasswire]

26. what is the cost of this program?

Doesn't the actual processing of checks cost hundreds of millions of dollars?

Gee. Isn't there a better idea?

[IChing]

27. So the rebate is coming from the oil companies right?

Or is it coming out of the taxpayers pocket? LOL

[Maddy McCall]

29. It will create a class division...low-income people who get...

tax rebates because EIC won't get these checks, I bet.

They aren't considered "taxpayers." They didn't get the $300 mid-summer check when those were handed out.

[lutefisk]

30. What a dumb idea!!!

What's next- a $1000.00 rebate for what the Iraq occupation is costing us?

[American liberal]

31. gee, that would be the equivalent of two fillups at today's prices

In 1999, a scant 6 years ago, I was able to fill my tank for $10.

No thanks, I'd rather see gas prices set at below $2/gallon than get a friggin' "rebate."

[BraveDave]

32. I could almost fill my SUV twice!!!!

[BigDDem]

33. This just in...

Halliburton receives no bid contract to disburse $100 checks.

[DearAbby]

35. Why go through all this bullshit...

for chrissakes, it would take more than it's worth to print up the gawd damned checks, just force the oil companies to lower the gawd damned price at the pump for a few weeks?

Why do they have to take the long convoluted path...oh yeah...Drilling rights in a pristine reserve :thumps forehead:

Can't you guys be a little less obvious in your fucking greed?

[demo dutch]

38. This is soooo stupid!

[killbotfactory]

39. Awesome!

Gosh, thanks! This will solve everything, like those $300 dollar rebate checks people got!

[Haole Girl]

40. The only way to send a message to senate is to

vote them all out of office!

[Kixel]

41. A Jesse check!

Ask any of us in Minnesota how well those work on a small scale-then, ask Jesse how much they did for his popularity-for a bit? Of course, I was still being claimed by my folks when the first one came out. It was a whopping $30. Seriously, can we have a real solution? The resources it would take the government to appropriate the funds and distribute the checks would most likely negate any real benifit.

Short sighted people...this is a mess waiting to happen. The government is not here to give us money. Lord knows we are in debt enough, giving us all $100 is NOT going to help anything.

[BrightKnight]

44. fiscal conservatives and good government Democrats

There is a lot of common ground there.

Somebody should lighting the Welcome sign and dusting off the doormat.

[skipos]

46. Yeah, lets treat the symptoms and not the disease! nt

[Endangered Specie]

47. That will cost around $20 billion dollars...

take a SWAG where they will take it from :eyes:

and, to be frank, I think high gas prices will, in the long run, be good for us, conservation is a valuable lesson to learn, and people are most likely to change their habits when desperate for alternatives.




(SWAG = scientific wild ass guess)

[pitohui]

50. i need way more than $100

$100 doesn't even make up for what i was gouged in the aftermath of katrina, when i was forced to travel thousands of miles back and forth because my home was uninhabitable

it does fuck-all to help out with prices stuck in gouging zone

[Rex]

51. You can take my $100 dollar 'rebate' check and put it toward my part

of the 28,000 dollars I owe to 'our' national debt. :eyes:

Congress - lazy fuckers who can't think.

[windy252]

52. I still feel screwed n/t

[hippiechick]

54. They can stuff their $100 ...

... it's not just 'at the pump' that these outrageous prices are affecting folks.
$100 doesn't even begin to cover what most families are going to suffer.

Instead of their little bribe, the legislators can put a stop to the disgusting CEO salaries and stockholder perks and re-regulate the fucking market so that we're not financially raped every time we turn around.


Bastards. :mad: :mad:

[Trajan]

56. "Here's a hundred bucks for letting us gouge your families" ....

FILTHY Lucre ! ....

A PITTANCE ! ....

This is a microcosm of what these buffoons have done: Emptied the 'strongbox' of the National Treasure, and pilfered it to fill the pockets of their RICH, FAT CAT friends in Texas ....

YOUR tax money: STRAIGHT from the tax coffers into the hands of the Oil Barons of the GOP .....

This is obscene .....

[WhiteTara]

57. How stupid. n/t

[mtnester]

58. BFD....

SO helpful

You got folks with book smarts, and you got folks with common sense, and sometimes ne'er do the two meet up.

[DearAbby]

59. What about a rebate for everything else that has gone up

because of the fuel prices.


its the see this check in my right hand, do look at what the left hand is doing, don't look that the left hand is stealing from you.

greedy bastards