UPDATE, June 14: The Senate defeated Coburn's amendment by a vote of 59 to 40. After Senate Democratic leaders worked against it, one of his initial co-sponsors, Sen. Dianne Feinstein, D-Calif., withdrew her support, citing "real concerns about the process used to bring this amendment to the floor." Majoriy Leader Harry Reid said he would hold a vote on ethanol June 24, but "It is unclear whether there will be a vote only on the amendment from Feinstein or whether an additional vote on an alternative measure, like the one offered from Sen. John Thune (R-S.D.) and Amy Klobuchar (D-Minn.), will be allowed," Darren Goode of Politico reports.
Republican Sen. Tom Coburn of Oklahoma, right, says he has the votes needed to pass legislation in the Senate that would repeal the federal tax credit for ethanol. The vote, set for Tuesday, will be on "an amendment to unrelated legislation that is not expected to pass," but a vote to kill the ethanol credit would be "a signficant break with more than two decades of GOP tax orthodoxy, which prohibits increasing revenue by any means other than economic growth," reports Lori Montgomery of The Washington Post.
"Coburn has argued that Republicans must abandon that orthodoxy to forge a compromise with Democrats on a viable plan to rein in the spiraling national debt," Montgomery writes, noting that the no-tax pledge signed by almost all congressional Republicans casts such a vote as a tax increase. Coburn told her, "I don’t think this is a tax increase. This is stupidity at its height. If you vote to give the richest oil companies in this country $3 billion between now and the end of December, then you don’t get it. You are absolutely confused about what the problems are in this country." (Read more)
Republican Sen. Tom Coburn of Oklahoma, right, says he has the votes needed to pass legislation in the Senate that would repeal the federal tax credit for ethanol. The vote, set for Tuesday, will be on "an amendment to unrelated legislation that is not expected to pass," but a vote to kill the ethanol credit would be "a signficant break with more than two decades of GOP tax orthodoxy, which prohibits increasing revenue by any means other than economic growth," reports Lori Montgomery of The Washington Post."Coburn has argued that Republicans must abandon that orthodoxy to forge a compromise with Democrats on a viable plan to rein in the spiraling national debt," Montgomery writes, noting that the no-tax pledge signed by almost all congressional Republicans casts such a vote as a tax increase. Coburn told her, "I don’t think this is a tax increase. This is stupidity at its height. If you vote to give the richest oil companies in this country $3 billion between now and the end of December, then you don’t get it. You are absolutely confused about what the problems are in this country." (Read more)
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