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DEL.ICIO.US‘Gang of Ten’ energy bill put on hold until after November
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
With Washington swamped by the crisis on Wall Street, U.S. Sen. Saxby Chambliss and his Democratic partner have pulled the plug on their bipartisan “Gang of Ten” energy bill until after the November elections.
Chambliss phoned this evening with the news.
But before the Senate adjourns next week, the Georgia senator said a revised version of the bill will be unveiled — one that will feature expanded territory for offshore oil drilling.
Chambliss, a Republican up for re-election, had formed an alliance with Sen. Kent Conrad (D-N.D.) this summer. Support had grown from the original 10 senators to 20.
“When you look at the atmosphere that’s in Washington right now — all of a sudden, the focus is on the financial side rather than energy. Kent and my thought is that this issue is such a critical issue, that it deserves a lot of time, a lot of thought, a lot of debate,” Chambliss said.
A House energy bill passed this week would go nowhere in the Senate, Chambliss predicted.
Republican members of the “Gang of Ten” — who include Georgia’s other senator, Johnny Isakson — had been criticized for working with Democrats on the bill, which mixes increased territory for drilling with incentives for conservation and the development of alternative sources of energy.
The “Gang of Ten” plan expanded offshore drilling into much of the Gulf of Mexico,and the Atlantic coasts of some southeastern states — but not Florida.
Both House Republicans and presidential candidate John McCain had adopted the call for nearly unlimited drilling in American territory, as espoused by former House speaker Newt Gingrich with his slogan of “Drill here, drill now.”
Even so, Chambliss said his “Gang of Ten” approach deserves credit for moving many Democrats, including U.S. House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, from a hardened stance against offshore drilling.
“Now you look where everybody is — they’re trying to out-offshore drill one another,” Chambliss said. “We decided that, if the ball has moved down the court, we’re changing our proposal.”
Chambliss skimped when it came to details of a revised “Gang of Ten” bill. But the senator said another reason for the delay was the loss of a means to pay for much of it.
In the original version, the “Gang of Ten” proposal envisioned repealing a 6-year-old, $30 billion tax credit for oil companies. That money would have gone to pay for alternative energy incentives. On talk radio and elsewhere, this was condemned as a tax increase.
The tax credit will in fact be repealed next week, Chambliss said. But now it will be used to help pay for the Wall Street bailout.
“Republicans are going to be voting for that on a wholesale basis,” Chambliss said. “Go figure.”
Photo credit: Jenni Girtman/AJC
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Comments
By RJ
September 19, 2008 7:38 PM | Link to this
Chambliss…I do indeed understand your predicament. On the one hand, Georgia’s Republican electorate says it wants more bi-partisanship to solve the nation’s problems and when you try it they curse you. You have no real reason to worry though. Why? Because Georgia’s Republican electorate is schizoid…they will curse you for working with those “darn Democrats” and at the same time reward you for just being a Republican. They are a cheap date aren’t they?
By NoMoreLies
September 19, 2008 7:45 PM | Link to this
Let’s see, the total cost for the bailout of the financial companies could end up at as much as $2 trillion. So, we subtract $30 billion that the oil companies will have to give up and we only need how much more — that’s a lot of bridges to nowhere. Maybe the Republicans can figure out a way to de-regulate some money trees. I just cannot think of a single Republican worth voting for this time around. This country needs real change.
By Saxby's Got To Go.
September 20, 2008 6:40 AM | Link to this
Guess the oil companies were not paying enough. McCain says COUNTRY FIRST Saxby says LOBBYIST FIRST.
Where Saxby Chambliss gets his money::
Agri Business—-$1,368,000 Banks, Insurance, Real Estate—-$1,332,000 Lawyers & Individual Lobbyist——$641,000 Misc Business —-$679,000 Other ——$606,000..
The Agi Business got a gift of $20 billion waste from Saxby’s Farm Bill. The Banks, Real Estate & Lawyers just got a $2 TRILLION gift from the Bail Out the Banks act which Saxby & Johnny voted for. Not a bad return on your money.Saxby Has Got To Go.
Source:http://www.opensecrets.org/politicia…&cid=N00002685
By Will Jones
September 20, 2008 7:11 AM | Link to this
Financial, energy…energy, financial…these clowns are running around with no principled analysis of the situation or any motivation to actually solve the “problem” of the “many fanged wolf” which is at Our Nation’s door.
Chambliss is showing good “energy conservation” by doing no more work in the Senate until after the November election. He knows it’s likely, given his complicity with Bush in bringing this evil upon Georgia and America, it won’t be his job anymore to bother with finding solutions to the problems he helped create or sustain,
Unconstitutional money…The Fed…is at the root of our difficulties. Alan Greespan wrote an excellent essay on the subject before the false-elite, fascist plutocracy, hired him to shut him up.
The fiat-money, fractional banking scheme foisted off on the American People in 1913 by a Rockefeller-Father-in-Law Aldrich, permits those on the “in” to extract a hidden tax from the capital of the society as a whole through inflation…printing more money, and to build a network of fellow traitors against the People willing to extract “rent” from every homeowner unable to avoid having a mortgage: usury from their own countrymen…an ancient Scriptural taboo…showing bankers to be hypocrites, if they call themselves American, or interlopers, if they admit they are but feeding off the substance of those among whom they profit…whether banks known to be made up of Organized Crime figures historically, or banks absorbed by foreign interests ruling over us.
“Debasement of currency” is an ancient technique of tyrants to usurp wealth from everyone using the “coin of the realm.”
Bush as representative of this false-elite (his family has worked for the Rockefeller Pyramid for five generations…since Standard Oil was built on unredressed murder and arson) had to shore up its international “House of Cards,” by invading Iraq after Saddam Hussein ceased taking Federal Reserve Notes/$ payment for oil sales in the global market.
John Kennedy was assassinated after “crossing” this false money crowd by issuing Exec Order 11,100 and ordering us out of their slave plantation of Indochina.
The economic costs of Bush’s illegal invasion would almost be measurable (other than that his father’s killing John Kennedy was his only “qualification” for public office) precipitating our future requirement of repudiating the debt Our Nation’s Founder explained is morally unsustainable (No generation can rightfully enslave a future generation through debt obligation.), but it is rendered completely philosophical, transcending mere economic analysis, when we recognize that he committed 9/11, under PNAC guidelines, to accomplish the false war needed to halt the erosion of support for our fiat money, internationally.
Now the costs spiral up to Heaven and each of We sovereign People must, as is our civic duty, enlighten ourselves: What role are we playing in this contest between “The King of America” - where Truth and Justice rule alone, supported by the righteous care and protection of The Constitution, but most important - by Creed-believing Americans conscious of the battle…against earthy evil correctly threatened more than two hundred years ago by the emergence on the Planet of a society wishing to free Mankind (America first) from the ignorance and bondage by which despotism has ruled the Earth for thousands upon thousands of years?
America’s Whig Founders accomplished this utopian vision by establishing The New Secular Order. It is easy to see how the historically identifiable “Anti-Christ”/”Amalek” has been encroaching on this once free and wealthy People since just after Our Republic was founded.
The “few” who obviously wish to continue enslaving the American People cry foul! How dare someone hurt the feelings of those whose choice it is to do that which our Puritan and Huguenot ancestors saw was evil…submit to tyranny and perversion?
We, the Many, The People of the United States of America, must relearn the “markers” by which to identify “the few” of fascist plutocracy, an alien interest, which has been compromising and degrading The Constitution.
Silence on the subject of Bush/Cheney’s proven 9/11 treason speaks volumes. Nothing can be more pernicious, to a free and proud People that would be, under Creed, obedient individually only to the Creator by Annuit Coeptis and righteous American Law, than to be gulled by agents “hired” to serve…in government, state-incorporated business, the courts, or military… reduced to bondslaves by what should have been servants, but were betrayed by complicit, fraudulently “elected” public officials like Saxby Chambliss.
Any who say Bush did not commit this treason are Aiding and Abetting Treason through complicity or Pollyanna-ignorance.
The financial and energy issues confronting the craven and complicit Chambliss pale next to the threat posed to the Covenant, established in 1776, by his willingness to support the treason of a draft-dodging closet-queen instead of the principles of Our Founding and the strictures of Our Creed.
Georgia must move to the fore in the battle against “Anti-Christ”/”Amalek” for the American Dream. The energy and financial crises are merely symptoms. The “cure” for the actual “disease” is nothing short of a New American Revolution against Tory treason.
Martin, like Obama, is only a small step in the right direction…but at least the evil Bush and Chambliss represent may, for a time, go no farther.
http://www.theamericanfundament.blogspot.com
By SC Conservative
September 20, 2008 7:32 AM | Link to this
Glad to see that the GA Senator has some sense, the country needs to recover all forms of energy avaiable and when this ban ends on 9/1/08 we need to get busy. does anyone wonder why the AJC always attracts such partison hacks in the comments? I know most Georgians have a lot more intelligence and probably don’t waste any time with the dying Moron Media…like this rag!
By Saxby's Got To Go.
September 20, 2008 8:05 AM | Link to this
SC Conservative
Georgia will trade you both of our big spending, big government, pro amnesty RINO Senators for your Conservative Jim Demint. Then we both will be happy. Saxby is big buddies with Lindsey Graham & Teddy Kennedy.
By Will Jones
September 20, 2008 9:13 AM | Link to this
One more of Gay Graham’s “good buddies” trying to shore up Lindsey’s “good buddy” Saxby and $200/hr homosexual prostitute James Guckert/”Jeff Gannon’s” lover, draft-dodger George W. Bush…avoiding the facts just using logical fallacy to mislead…and to prosper treason by Gay Old Perverts.
By Saxby's Got To Go.
September 20, 2008 9:26 AM | Link to this
Saxby with his BUDDIES…
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cK5TprmkgRw&feature=related
By Will Jones
September 20, 2008 2:43 PM | Link to this
Saxby Does Have to Go…thanks for the video link.
Saxby Chambliss: legitimizing illegal immigration is in “the best interest of the American People.”
Seems he spends too much time at the fakers at the country club and not enough time with the American People - the People of the Great State of Georgia.
There is no benefit to the eighty percent Working Class in illegal immigration.
We “who do honest work with our own hands” are The People, and neither need nor want to profit off the Roman Church’s stratagem for usurping Our Republic by its organized invasion of conquest through illegal immigration outlined in the USCCB’s “National Pastoral Plan for Hispanic Ministry.”
Chambliss, with closet-queen Lindsey Giraham standing at his rear, thinks the fascist plutocracy’s promotion and legitimization of illegal immigrants is “in the best interests of the American People.”
It’s time for the good and decent American People to give draft-dodger Chambliss his final walking papers and let him find some honest work instead of stealing our money and helping fascists destroy Our Nation.
By Bo Chambliss LOBBYIST
September 20, 2008 3:00 PM | Link to this
Daddy delivering the bacon for my clients.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cK5TprmkgRw&feature=related
By Saxby's Got To Go
September 20, 2008 3:05 PM | Link to this
Saxby’s son Bo is a LOBBYIST for the Chicago Merc. Board. This bill contains massive subsidies for the CORN bases ETHANOL industry. 1+1=2. President Bush has said he will veto this waste but I am sure Saxby will work with OBAMA, Kennedy, Reid & Pelosi to over ride this veto. Saxby did the Same thing on his farm bill which contained among other things $437 Million in subsidies to RACEHORSES, a $1.1 BILLION bail out for NYC land speculators with a total of over $20 Billion of pork. McCain says country First, Saxby says LOBBYIST first.
By Bo Chambliss LOBBYIST
September 20, 2008 3:19 PM | Link to this
Daddy delivers for my clients, Once bought Saxby stays bought..
http://www.buckleyforsenate.com/saxbysscandaloussubsidies.asp
By Larry Clifton
September 20, 2008 8:22 PM | Link to this
We need a democrat drilling bill like we need another hole drilled in each of our heads. The dems have staked their entire energy policy on dependency and environmental extemism. Any serious-minded person knows they haven’t changed. They are baiting voters, or trying to, but it won’t work.
By Saxby's Got To Go
September 21, 2008 6:31 AM | Link to this
Saxby Chambliss has turned a blind eye to hardworking every-day Georgians who are struggling to stay afloat in tough economic times.
This week, we hear from Twiggs County farmer George Rouse. Skyrocketing costs on everything from groceries to gas to health care are making it harder than ever for George, and millions of other Georgians, to get by. Food prices have almost doubled since 2005 [Source: ERS/USDA]. The price of gas has more than tripled since Saxby was elected to the Senate [Source: Energy Information Administration]. But unfortunately, Saxby is just too busy helping out his lobbyist and special interest pals to help out hard-working Georgians who deserve a fair shake from Washington.
We need a Senator in Washington to fight for George Rouse and folks like him, not the special interests and lobbyists.
When it comes to looking out for Georgia’s working families, Saxby looked the other way:
No help for farmers and ranchers. Chambliss voted against assistance to farmers and ranchers making less than $750,000 a year and a program that would have helped train and encourage the next generation of American farmers and ranchers. [Vote #426, 12/13/07].
No help for working families either. And while prices for food, housing, health care and other necessities have gone up, Chambliss voted multiple times against raising the minimum wage [Vote #179, 6/21/06, Vote #26, 3/7/05]
Meanwhile, Saxby has worked hard to get things done for his friends on Wall Street.
Yes to rewarding companies that send American jobs to China, India, and other countries. In 2004, Chambliss voted against closing up $39 billion in tax breaks for companies that outsource their jobs. [Vote 90, 5/11/04] In 2005, Chambliss voted against against repealing tax incentives for domestic companies that move their manufacturing plants out of the U.S. [Vote 63, 3/17/05] He even gave those same companies a tax cut. In 2003, Chambliss voted to cut taxes on U.S. companies’ overseas income from 35% to 5.25%. [Vote 165, 5/15/03]
Won’t hold U.S. companies accountable if they deal with terrorists. Chambliss even voted against an amendment that makes U.S. businesses liable for dealing with foreign businesses that have links to terrorism. [Vote 203, 7/26/05]