Frank Lautenberg: “I have an amendment to reinstate the Superfund tax that was in place for so many years and produced a very successful…”

“I have an amendment to reinstate the Superfund tax that was in place for so many years and produced a very successful program. It has been said that I want to tax people. Don't believe that this is a tax-free exchange, as we heard from the Senator from Oklahoma before when he accused me of loving taxes. He loves taxes, but he wants to put it on the average citizen. He does not want the polluters to pay. He said that very directly. He raised a question rhetorically, I guess, that asked: Who among those who are accused of polluting did not pay their fair share? I will tell you one. Halliburton. Halliburton never pays their fair share where they can get it and owes the Defense Department $61 million in overcharges; Halliburton which manages to put their business offshore so they escape taxes. Is that the example we want to look at, not whether the people who have been paying the taxes, the average working person, will pay two-tenths of a cent more per gallon?”