{"id":8738,"date":"2006-04-27T15:23:56","date_gmt":"2006-04-27T22:23:56","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp\/2006\/04\/27\/the-world-turned-upside-down.html"},"modified":"2006-04-27T15:23:56","modified_gmt":"2006-04-27T22:23:56","slug":"the_world_turne","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/2006\/04\/27\/the_world_turne.html","title":{"rendered":"The World Turned Upside Down"},"content":{"rendered":"

Even though the whole “Conservative Republicans are Skinflints; Liberal Democrats are Spendthrifts” meme has been largely (and shockingly) discarded in just five short years — maybe a bit more if you consider the balancing of the budget under Clinton — some things just make you wonder if they’re all wearing rubber masks of each other back in DC<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Most American taxpayers would get $100 rebate checks to offset the pain of higher pump prices for gasoline, under an amendment Senate Republicans hope to bring to a vote Thursday.<\/p>\n

[…] “Our plan would give taxpayers a hundred dollar gas tax holiday rebate check to help ease the pain that they’re feeling at the pump,” Senate Majority Leader Bill Frist announced Thursday. […] Frist said the rebates would go to single taxpayers making less than $125,000 per year, and couples making less than $150,000.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

What the –? Senate Republicans voting for a government payout <\/em>to fight against market pressures that are driving up prices? Not since Nixon’s wage-price controls have we seen something like this.<\/p>\n

Of course, the bill also has some “anti-gouging” provisions, and, inevitably, authorizes oil drilling in ANWR. Because you can’t swing a dead cat in the Senate without someone trying to tie ANWR drilling to its tail.<\/p>\n

Frist is also quoted as saying, “Our free market system works, but it works best when there’s full accountability and full transparency.” That perhaps follows, rhetorically, from the anti-gouging provisions, but “government tax rebates” and “free market system” don’t seem to mesh all that well.<\/p>\n

Fiscal responsibility aside, you’d think it might make more sense to reduce Federal gas taxes, to lower the price that folks are paying. Though, of course, that wouldn’t be nearly as dramatic as a $100 check. In (ahem) an election year.<\/p>\n

(via DOF<\/a>, who has his own choice comments)<\/small><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Even though the whole “Conservative Republicans are Skinflints; Liberal Democrats are Spendthrifts” meme has been largely (and shockingly) discarded in just five short years — maybe a bit more if…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_seopress_titles_title":"","_seopress_titles_desc":"","_seopress_robots_index":"","_seopress_robots_follow":"","_seopress_robots_imageindex":"","_seopress_robots_snippet":"","_seopress_robots_primary_cat":"","_seopress_robots_breadcrumbs":"","_seopress_robots_freeze_modified_date":"","_seopress_robots_custom_modified_date":"","_seopress_robots_canonical":"","_seopress_social_fb_title":"","_seopress_social_fb_desc":"","_seopress_social_fb_img":"","_seopress_social_fb_img_attachment_id":0,"_seopress_social_fb_img_width":0,"_seopress_social_fb_img_height":0,"_seopress_social_twitter_title":"","_seopress_social_twitter_desc":"","_seopress_social_twitter_img":"","_seopress_social_twitter_img_attachment_id":0,"_seopress_social_twitter_img_width":0,"_seopress_social_twitter_img_height":0,"_seopress_redirections_value":"","_seopress_redirections_enabled":"","_seopress_redirections_enabled_regex":"","_seopress_redirections_logged_status":"","_seopress_redirections_param":"","_seopress_redirections_type":0,"_seopress_analysis_target_kw":"","_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[9],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-8738","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-politics-law"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":9739,"url":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/2006\/11\/08\/jaccuse_3.html","url_meta":{"origin":8738,"position":0},"title":"J’accuse!","author":"***Dave","date":"Wed 8-Nov-06 10:46am","format":false,"excerpt":"Aha! 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But since GOP honcho (and probably '08 candidate)...","rel":"","context":"In "Elections 2008"","block_context":{"text":"Elections 2008","link":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/category\/politics-law\/elections-2008"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":133856,"url":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/2017\/07\/15\/insurance-companies-hate-the-senate-health-insurance-bill-too.html","url_meta":{"origin":8738,"position":3},"title":"Insurance companies hate the Senate Health Insurance Bill, too","author":"***Dave","date":"Sat 15-Jul-17 3:00pm","format":false,"excerpt":"Especially the Cruz Amendment. They even sent a letter to that effect to Senate GOP Leader, Mitch McConnell.\u275d \"It is simply unworkable in any form,\" the letter said. They said it would \"undermine protections for those with pre-existing medical conditions,\" increase premiums and lead many to lose coverage. 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While some of the details are different from the varied attempts in the summer to get rid of the ACA, the end results remain much the same: Getting rid of the ACA individual mandate (thus instantly shrinking\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "~PlusPosts"","block_context":{"text":"~PlusPosts","link":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/category\/blogging\/plusposts"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/09\/US-Capitol-congress.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":10093,"url":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/2006\/09\/06\/a_problem_with.html","url_meta":{"origin":8738,"position":5},"title":"A problem with assumptions","author":"***Dave","date":"Wed 6-Sep-06 11:19am","format":false,"excerpt":"As part of the pre-election terrorism sabre-rattling -- and for fear of having still not made any progress on dealing with the indefinitely detained prisoners at Guantanamo Bay, the Bush...","rel":"","context":"In "Geopolitical Brouhaha"","block_context":{"text":"Geopolitical Brouhaha","link":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/category\/geopolitical-brouhaha"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]}],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8738","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=8738"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8738\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=8738"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=8738"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=8738"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}