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Gas rebate idea dying a slow and deserved death

Frist backs off…not on that proposed $100 gas rebate check, but on having oil companies pay for it.

Senate Majority Leader Bill Frist, under pressure from business leaders, retreated Monday from a plan that would have used a tax increase on oil companies and other businesses to pay for a $100 gasoline rebate for millions of motorists.

Frist had proposed an accounting change that would have required oil companies to pay more taxes on their inventory of crude as a way to pay the one-time rebate that GOP leaders rolled out last week as they scrambled to find ways to ease public anger over soaring gasoline prices.

In a statement, Frist said he will still push the rebate, but abandoned the accounting change and said the Senate Finance Committee planned a hearing on the issue in the near future.

It’s still the height of political pandering - as well as cover for sneaking in oil drilling in the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge - and nobody’s falling for it. Another bad idea from desperate Senate incumbent Jim Talent of Missouri. Talent better think of something else to save his job, and quick.

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