With One Eye on Gasoline and the Economy, Congress Keeps the Other on November
WASHINGTON — Congress is shifting quickly to a general election footing, with lawmakers of both parties intensifying efforts to exploit public alarm about gasoline prices and the economy as a way of making the political case for themselves and their respective White House contenders.
With the presidential field settled, Congressional Democrats put on a show of unity Tuesday while trying to put Republicans on the defensive over soaring energy costs. In the Senate, the majority forced votes on extending tax incentives for alternative power sources and on new taxes on oil companies to pay for energy research.
After Republicans blocked debate on both measures by denying Democrats the 60 votes needed to move forward, Senator Harry Reid of Nevada, the majority leader, did not try to disguise what was shaping the oil and economic fights on Capitol Hill.
“This is framed,” Mr. Reid said on the floor, “with the picture of a presidential campaign going on.”
Later this week, House Democrats intend to push legislation opposed by many Republicans that would grant additional unemployment benefits to those whose aid is running out, an effort to present Republicans with a choice between helping jobless workers and supporting a potential White House veto.
The legislative maneuvering, conducted as operatives for the two presidential candidates confer daily with their allies on Capitol Hill, is a response to what lawmakers describe as widespread public outrage over the price of gasoline and general anxiety about the economy.
“You know, you cannot walk around America right now without being assaulted by people,” said Senator Claire McCaskill, Democrat of Missouri. “As I went to the grocery store this weekend, as I went to the mall with my daughter, people that had no idea for sure who I was but thought I might be somebody because they maybe recognized me confronted me with incredible passion and frustration.”
Republicans are pushing back. Deeming the legislation they blocked Tuesday as insufficient and shortsighted, they say that Democrats are proposing nothing that would lower the cost of gasoline in the short term and that by refusing to open more of the American coastline and a strip of the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge to oil production, the majority is thwarting any increase in domestic supplies.
“Let the states have the option of exploring off the coasts,” said Senator Jon Kyl of Arizona, the No. 2 Senate Republican. “Let’s look at ANWR, which is a grassy plain, 2,000 acres in the middle of an area the size of the state of South Carolina, if that will make us more energy independent. Let’s set a goal for America: energy independence in 10 years.”
Senator John Cornyn, Republican of Texas, said, “We have a winning argument as long as we keep making it.”
In the House, Republicans have undertaken a coordinated effort to remind the public that it is Democrats who have run Congress during the last 17 months as gasoline costs have jumped. Democrats respond that the cost of gasoline has risen to over $4 a gallon from $1.46 at the start of the Bush administration.
At the same time, Republicans have some internal conflicts. Senator John McCain of Arizona, the party’s presidential choice, has opposed opening the Arctic refuge to drilling in the past, splitting with many of his colleagues who see production there as the holy grail of new domestic sources of oil. In addition, Mr. McCain indicated on Tuesday that he would favor an extension in unemployment benefits.
And another Republican, Senator Olympia J. Snowe of Maine, was critical of the decision Tuesday to block the extension of tax credits for alternative energy.
“This issue whether to extend critical tax incentives right now should be, frankly, a straightforward decision,” Ms. Snowe said. “This country is in an energy crisis, but by the way Congress acts, you wouldn’t know.”
As the Senate fought over oil, top Democrats gathered down the street at national party headquarters to show that they were rallying together now that Senator Hillary Rodham Clinton of New York had dropped her presidential bid, leaving Senator Barack Obama of Illinois as the party’s presidential contender.
The Democratic leaders of both the House and the Senate joined with the party chairman, Howard Dean, and Gov. Joe Manchin III of West Virginia, chairman of the Democratic Governors Association, to make clear that they would be working in concert with Mr. Obama to ensure his election.
Because of the extended primary fight, Congressional Democrats are only now putting together a framework for coordinating their efforts with Mr. Obama, but they intend to be as cooperative as possible.
Mr. Obama has close Illinois colleagues in top slots both in the Senate, where Senator Richard J. Durbin is the No. 2 Democrat, and in the House, where Representative Rahm Emanuel heads the Democratic caucus. Party aides said they would move beginning this week to focus the party’s regular strategy conference calls on how better to mesh the messages of the Congressional majority with those of the presidential campaign.
Republicans have been engaged in their own such effort for weeks, with a regular daily conference call involving Republican communications aides, party officials and the McCain campaign, as well as a weekly opportunity for senators to hear from senior party strategists.
With time running out in the Congressional schedule, both sides expect the fight over gasoline prices and the economy to continue, with the bills blocked Tuesday making a reappearance.
“We are going to bring them back,” said Senator Max Baucus, the Montana Democrat who heads the Senate Finance Committee. “We are going to bring them back because it is the right thing to do.”
Lee ADDS: It almost gets boring to point out the obvious but here goes.
For 30 years the Democrats have been blocking oil production here in America. For that same length of time they, the Democrats have been blocking the building of new refineries as well as Atomic Power Platns.
What if we had drilled offshore, in ANWR and in the Continental US where there is a spate of oil? I’ll tell you where we would be. We would be selling our EXCESS oil to India and China after having FORCED THEM. with DIPLOMACY, to endorse a treaty that made it mandatory to CLEAN UP THEIR EXHAUST EMISSIONS.
Think of it! LOW fuel prices, clean air, no trade imbalance, no national debt, 100 percent employment, lower taxes, world respect and no Lierals to carp about their needs for power!
All this is possible but requires an act on your part! Vote for Candidate that will ANSWER TO YOU not to their CONTRIBUTORS! Take POWER away from the Liberals and vest it in TRUE Democrats and Republicans that HAVE YOUR interests in mind!
