Orrin Hatch: “One after one, my Democratic colleagues acknowledged the obvious. The policies they were proposing--higher taxes on oil…”

“One after one, my Democratic colleagues acknowledged the obvious. The policies they were proposing--higher taxes on oil companies--had absolutely nothing to do with energy policy or sound tax policy and everything to do with generating more revenue for more government spending. They acknowledged that this legislation would do nothing--I repeat, nothing--to lower the price of gas at the pump. Not a thing. They acknowledged that. I can see now why Senator Landrieu of Louisiana and Senator Begich of Alaska called this tax increase proposal a ``gimmick'' and ``laughable.'' These are two Democrats who have been honest about what is going on here. Raising taxes will do nothing to lower the cost of fuel. And for what it is worth, this bill will not help pay down the deficit either. Nothing in this bill mandates that these new revenues would be dedicated to deficit reduction. In fact, any net revenue increase in this bill would be set aside and added to what we call savings on OMB's pay-go scorecard, revenue that can be used to pay for future legislation. We all know that when we increase taxes, our colleagues on the other side are going to spend every dime of it. That has been a matter of fact. So let's be clear about what is going on here. Democrats want to increase taxes to pay for more government spending. They have been refreshingly open about their intentions. One of my colleagues stated that this bill will allow us to spend money on cops and kids.…”