All About the Benjamin

It was absolutely comical to see the Republicans propose a $100 rebate (since killed) to help citizens making under $125,000 deal with rising gas prices. It was truly their Dr. Evil moment. "ONE HUNDRED DOLLARS!" (hold pinky to lips)

How anyone can take these guys seriously is beyond me. Not only are they trying to buy us off, they're trying to buy us off for less than my monthly cable bill!

What's interesting is that the real reason the hundred-dollar rebate was shelved was because Big Oil didn't like the funding structure:

Senate Republicans on Monday hurriedly abandoned a broad tax proposal opposed by the oil industry and business leaders, another sign of their struggle to come up with an acceptable political and legislative answer to high gasoline prices.

Senator Bill Frist of Tennessee, the majority leader, said he had decided to jettison the provision, which would have generated billions of dollars by changing the way businesses treat inventories for tax purposes. [...]

The retreat came after a torrent of objections from business leaders and their advocates, who typically view Republicans in Congress as allies. They said they had been blindsided by the inclusion of the proposal as a central element of the Republican leadership's energy package late last week.

A hundred-dollar rebate sounds small, but when you multiply it by every upper-middle, middle- and lower-income American it comes out to upwards of $20 billion dollars. Big Oil didn't want to shoulder the burden.

In addition, there's something perverse about giving Americans more money to spend on gas so they can contribute to Big Oil's record profits. It's something like a corporate welfare plan.

There may be solutions government can take to combat our energy crisis, but giving away money like a morning radio show definitely is not one of them.