Btu Tax

WASHINGTON -- President Clinton abandoned his controversial Btu tax on the heat content of fuel yesterday and signaled his willingness to accept a new form of energy tax based on consumption.Treasury Secretary Lloyd Bentsen said last night in a television interview that the Btu tax had been "put aside" in the face of opposition from conservative senators and indicated that it would be replaced with some other kind of tax."As a Btu tax, I don't think you're going to see it," Mr. Bentsen said on the "MacNeil-Lehrer News Hour" last night.

WASHINGTON -- When Sen. Richard Shelby of Alabama decided to vote with the Republicans against President Clinton's economic plan earlier this year, the White House sought to retaliate by depriving Shelby of small favors it bestowed on more loyal Democrats.But the result was a conspicuous rise in Shelby's popularity back home. And the lesson was not lost on other Senate Democrats -- or, for that matter, many in the House of Representatives. The result all through the spring and summer has been one small rebellion after another against the first Democratic presi dent in 12 years.

WASHINGTON -- Day after day, radio ads in the Louisiana bayous warned Cajuns of a Washington plot to tax them every time they turned on the air conditioners, televisions or even took "a cold one out of the fridge."In South Dakota, thousands of fliers were distributed that threatened higher prices on all goods from food to fertilizer and a loss of 600,000 American jobs if President Clinton's Btu tax on energy was enacted. The fliers included postage-paid protest notes to be sent to the state's U.S. senators.

WASHINGTON -- After an unexpectedly fractious start yesterday to the House-Senate conference on President Clinton's tax proposals, an exasperated Sen. Daniel P. Moynihan pulled aside his chief tormentor with a pointed question."

PHILADELPHIA -- In a deft pirouette one day after his crucial victory in the House, President Clinton began yesterday to back away from the most controversial part of his economic program -- a huge nationwide energy tax.At the same time, there were indications in the Senate that his critics are giving ground as well. All indications seemed to imply a potential compromise that may involve some combination of a smaller energy tax, perhaps an increased gasoline tax and deeper spending cuts.Sen.

WASHINGTON -- Democratic members of the Senate Financ committee neared agreement yesterday on a rewrite of President Clinton's tax package that would replace his broad Btu tax on energy with a smaller levy on transportation fuels.After a lengthy day of consultations with administration officials and House members, the committee members left a meeting last night saying they had the broad outlines of an agreement with details to be ironed out, possibly today."We've made good progress but no decisions," said Sen. David G. Boren, an Oklahoma Democrat whose objections to the proposed tax on the heat content of fuel helped doom it.The basis of the new package was a proposal offered by Democratic Sen. John B. Breaux of Louisiana that would raise the tax on gasoline and other fuels by 7.3 cents per gallon.

ONE of the greatest confluences of lobbyists ever seen wil soon besiege Capitol Hill as the real work of writing a budget bill begins.Forget about everything you've heard so far, how the House passed the president's budget largely intact, how the Senate Finance Committee tore up the Btu tax and passed its own version and how the full Senate is expected to approve the bill sometime this month. Everything will be back on the table when the measure goes to a House-Senate conference committee which will write what is virtually certain to be the final version.

President Clinton stayed deftly above the fray in squeezing his massive economic plan past the Senate by the margin of Vice President Al Gore's tie-breaking vote. It was a critical victory for the new administration after so many months of blunder. Now the showdown test comes in a Senate-House conference where trading and compromising will go on in full fury, with the White House as a very active third-player.In its legislative tactics, the White House first made the crucial decision that the details of what came out of the Senate mattered a lot less than getting something -- anything -- passed.

BATON ROUGE -- John B. Breaux, friend of Bill Clinton, ally of Louisiana's energy industry and the senator who figures to broker the deal that will save the president's energy tax, couldn't resist invoking the Kingfish.Pointing from a window in his 20th-floor office to Huey Long's statue on the state Capitol grounds, Mr. Breaux noted that the legendary governor is buried beneath the monument and that his likeness faces the state house to make sure the legislators "don't screw up."Mr. Breaux predicted that after the Senate Finance Committee votes on the tax bill later this month, "I'm going to be buried right next to him -- facing down into the ground."

WASHINGTON -- After an unexpectedly fractious start yesterday to the House-Senate conference on President Clinton's tax proposals, an exasperated Sen. Daniel P. Moynihan pulled aside his chief tormentor with a pointed question."

WASHINGTON -- When Rep. Mike Synar returned to his district for the July 4 congressional recess he met with about 25 groups of constituents in 10 counties -- without ever hearing a word about the Btu tax.This is passing remarkable when you realize that Democrat Synar hails from Oklahoma, an Oil Patch state also represented by Sen. David Boren, who made the scuttling of the energy tax his prime goal during the Senate deliberations on President Clinton's economic...

The Pam Davis Case: A System Of InjusticeI am a 15-year-old freshman at Westminster High School. Maybe I'm young, arrogant and stupid, but something seems bitterly wrong in our judicial system right now.Pamela S. Davis did commit a crime and did deserve some type of penalty for that. I can admit that much with a clear conscience. And maybe I could even accept the excessive punishment heaped upon Ms. Davis if this kind of unfairness was consistent.But it makes me want to cry when I hear that a convicted rapist doesn't even go to jail when he's taken so much from society and all Ms. Davis did in her advocacy for the legalization of marijuana was to encourage free thinking and education.

President Clinton stayed deftly above the fray in squeezing his massive economic plan past the Senate by the margin of Vice President Al Gore's tie-breaking vote. It was a critical victory for the new administration after so many months of blunder. Now the showdown test comes in a Senate-House conference where trading and compromising will go on in full fury, with the White House as a very active third-player.In its legislative tactics, the White House first made the crucial decision that the details of what came out of the Senate mattered a lot less than getting something -- anything -- passed.

ONE of the greatest confluences of lobbyists ever seen wil soon besiege Capitol Hill as the real work of writing a budget bill begins.Forget about everything you've heard so far, how the House passed the president's budget largely intact, how the Senate Finance Committee tore up the Btu tax and passed its own version and how the full Senate is expected to approve the bill sometime this month. Everything will be back on the table when the measure goes to a House-Senate conference committee which will write what is virtually certain to be the final version.

WASHINGTON -- Day after day, radio ads in the Louisiana bayous warned Cajuns of a Washington plot to tax them every time they turned on the air conditioners, televisions or even took "a cold one out of the fridge."In South Dakota, thousands of fliers were distributed that threatened higher prices on all goods from food to fertilizer and a loss of 600,000 American jobs if President Clinton's Btu tax on energy was enacted. The fliers included postage-paid protest notes to be sent to the state's U.S. senators.

WASHINGTON -- Democratic members of the Senate Financ committee neared agreement yesterday on a rewrite of President Clinton's tax package that would replace his broad Btu tax on energy with a smaller levy on transportation fuels.After a lengthy day of consultations with administration officials and House members, the committee members left a meeting last night saying they had the broad outlines of an agreement with details to be ironed out, possibly today."We've made good progress but no decisions," said Sen. David G. Boren, an Oklahoma Democrat whose objections to the proposed tax on the heat content of fuel helped doom it.The basis of the new package was a proposal offered by Democratic Sen. John B. Breaux of Louisiana that would raise the tax on gasoline and other fuels by 7.3 cents per gallon.

WASHINGTON -- When Rep. Mike Synar returned to his district for the July 4 congressional recess he met with about 25 groups of constituents in 10 counties -- without ever hearing a word about the Btu tax.This is passing remarkable when you realize that Democrat Synar hails from Oklahoma, an Oil Patch state also represented by Sen. David Boren, who made the scuttling of the energy tax his prime goal during the Senate deliberations on President Clinton's economic...

WASHINGTON -- President Clinton's proposed energy tax came under sudden attack yesterday by a key Senate Democrat -- a development that signaled serious trouble for the administration's already imperiled deficit reduction plan.Seeking to sabotage the controversial energy tax before the House considers it next week, Oklahoma Sen. David L. Boren announced yesterday that he would provide a pivotal vote to kill it in a Senate committee.fTC Mr. Boren's tactic, which was intended to force the White House into negotiations to replace the energy tax with spending cuts, was roundly denounced by Mr. Clinton, administration officials and House and Senate Democratic leaders.

WASHINGTON -- President Clinton abandoned his controversial Btu tax on the heat content of fuel yesterday and signaled his willingness to accept a new form of energy tax based on consumption.Treasury Secretary Lloyd Bentsen said last night in a television interview that the Btu tax had been "put aside" in the face of opposition from conservative senators and indicated that it would be replaced with some other kind of tax."As a Btu tax, I don't think you're going to see it," Mr. Bentsen said on the "MacNeil-Lehrer News Hour" last night.

BATON ROUGE -- John B. Breaux, friend of Bill Clinton, ally of Louisiana's energy industry and the senator who figures to broker the deal that will save the president's energy tax, couldn't resist invoking the Kingfish.Pointing from a window in his 20th-floor office to Huey Long's statue on the state Capitol grounds, Mr. Breaux noted that the legendary governor is buried beneath the monument and that his likeness faces the state house to make sure the legislators "don't screw up."Mr. Breaux predicted that after the Senate Finance Committee votes on the tax bill later this month, "I'm going to be buried right next to him -- facing down into the ground."