Now here’s a brilliant idea: cut taxes, and get more revenue for highways. That story is below, but first- this is supposed to be it. The final Keystone pipeline vote is expected Thursday, according to The Hill.
POLITICO (1/29, Schor) reports:
“The Senate is set to greenlight its Keystone XL bill on Thursday, just 48 hours after Democrats forced Majority Leader Mitch McConnell to postpone victory on the oil pipeline he has made the GOP’s first priority for 2015. The final Keystone vote comes after a Wednesday voting marathon and brings Republicans to the edge of success on their first bill of the year. But it’s only an incremental step in their years-long battle with President Barack Obama over the $8 billion pipeline…McConnell urged Obama to reconsider his threat to veto the Keystone bill, touting the new Senate’s weeks-long debate — which saw more amendment votes than in all of 2014 under Democratic control — as a sign that gridlock in the Capital can ebb. “We want to get Washington functioning again,” the Kentucky Republican said on the floor. “And we want to pass common-sense ideas. The Keystone debate is showing how we can do both.”
The Hill: Final Keystone vote expected Thursday in Senate
The Senate is poised to vote Thursday on final passage of a bill to approve the Keystone XL pipeline, bringing the legislation one step closer to President Obama’s desk.
At least 60 senators are expected to vote to approve the pipeline.
Washington Examiner: GOP doubles 2014’s Senate votes in under 3 weeks
Acting on a promise to put the Senate back to work after a lazy 2014 when just 15 assorted amendments were debated in the grand body, the new GOP leadership has pushed through 38 amendment votes in less than three weeks.
The return to regular business is a success for the GOP leadership, led by Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, who promised an end to the chokehold that Senate Minority Leader Harry Reid had on the body last year when he was the majority leader.
Speaking of action on Capitol Hill…this sounds like a great idea to fund our nation’s highways: cut taxes (which will bring in more revenue)
USA Today: Bipartisan bill could break highway funding gridlock
A bipartisan group of lawmakers is working on legislation supporters say would solve one of Washington’s most vexing problems: how to pay for the nation’s massive infrastructure needs without raising taxes.
The legislation is still a work in progress. But the broad outlines call for giving U.S. corporations a tax break on profits earned overseas — bringing much of that money back to the U.S. and raising an estimated $170 billion in new revenue.
Lawmakers want to use $120 billion of that windfall to shore up the nearly empty Highway Trust Fund for the next six years and direct another $50 billion to the creation of an American Infrastructure Fund.
In other news…
The Daily Caller- ‘DO NOT DISCLOSE’: Obama Admin Tells Banks To Shut Up About Its Targeting of Consumers, Gun Dealers
The Obama administration’s Consumer Financial Protection Bureau is threatening banks to be silent about the administration’s new programs supervising and investigating private bank account holders.
A shocking bulletin that CFPB issued to banks, which was obtained by The Daily Caller, was sent around this week in the midst of controversy regarding the administration’s Operation Choke Point program, by which the administration pressures banks to cut off accounts for supposedly suspicious businesses, including gun dealers. Operation Choke Point’s anti-gun mission was recently confirmed in a series of audiotapes published by the US Consumer Coalition, in which a bank teller explained to a gun dealer why his account was being shut down.
Via TheBlaze.com: Girl scares off armed invaders