Jim Inhofe: “I wanted to make sure he was aware, which I think he is, that the Bush request for 2004 is the second largest request…”

“I wanted to make sure he was aware, which I think he is, that the Bush request for 2004 is the second largest request since the date he mentioned being on the floor in 1980. Right now his request is $1.38 billion. As far as the tax is concerned, we have never left the idea of polluter pays. Right now, polluter pays. In 70 percent of the cases, if there is a polluter who can be identified, the polluter pays. The problem you are coming up with, when you talk about the tax--which expired in 1995 under the Clinton administration, and President Clinton did not ask for its reinstatement or for a tax--is that that is not polluter pays. That takes care of some orphan cases, either general funds or that tax. Is that fair, to have businesses paying into a fund that pays for pollution cleanup that they didn't cause? That is a bad policy to do that.”