Political Quotes

“Mr. President, I wish to speak in opposition to the Vitter amendment. The Senator from Louisiana is essentially offering an amendment which has the effect of preventing the oilspill liability tax from going into effect. This is a head-scratching amendment. Why in the world would any Senator suggest there be no increase in the oilspill liability tax? Right now, beginning in about--let's see, what year was it?--1990, Congress, in the wake of the Exxon Valdez oilspill, enacted an Oil Spill Liability Trust Fund and oilspill liability tax, obviously, to pay for potential or future oilspills. The tax was set at 5 cents a barrel. In the 20 years since that time, the tax has been increased just 3 cents to 8 cents a barrel. At the same time, the price of oil has increased, since 1990, from the neighborhood of $20 a barrel to $72 a barrel today. Within the last 2 years, oil has been as high as $147 a barrel. So with the increased evidence of the damage oilspills can create, and with the increased price of oil, we thought it was an appropriate time to raise the oilspill liability tax on oil companies to help pay for future spills. That is why we are doing this. In this bill, we propose to raise that tax to 41 cents a barrel. That is a very modest increase, where today oil in the market is roughly $72 a barrel. You hear this argument--it is not even an argument. It is like Alice in Wonderland stuff. I do not know where this stuff comes from.…”