Questioning a Member of the Gang of Ten

These are the pictures I took at the Senator Saxby Chambliss reception in Commerce, Georgia.  There were about 20 people attending. Senator Chambliss discussed for the most part his forming the Gang of 10 and what significant issues surrounded the formation of a plan they intend to present to the Senate on Sept. 1.  They are going to ask for a vote, but he doesn't know if he will get one.

He defended his actions as the need to get something agreed to by the Senate.  He related he felt the oil prices started coming down as a result of the Gang of 10 meeting and agreeing to this plan.  The plan was questioned by the people attending the meeting.  Some were concerned about the tax increase in the plan.  He explained that 6 Oil Companies would be taxed by 6% of their profits and the implementation of the plan would be paid for by this increase.  He didn't explain how they selected the 5 Oil companies, however he did discuss the 6th Company being Hugo Chavez’s Venezuela.  He explained we didn't want this bad guy to take our tax dollars.

I asked him if he was going to sign Senator DeMint's Letter to Senator Reid.  He said he was but didn't think it will make any difference. He didn't think lifting the ban would make any short term difference because it will take a long time to develop a plan to implement the drilling, and other aspects of the areas the ban covers.  He evidently has not read the letter, because what he was saying was in the letter was not in the letter.  I pointed this out to him, but he didn't seem too hopeful anything would be accomplished by it.

I suggested to him that it was not wise for Republicans to begin taxing these Oil Companies because of their profits.  I related that Microsoft makes a higher percentage of profit than the Oil Companies, so maybe we should tax Microsoft, if we begin the taxing profits it is a slippery slope and we should not go down this road.  Also others questioned him on the approach of using Corn and other food products for Oil.  We are causing a possibility of food shortage and it would be better to have food to eat, instead of using the food for oil.

Also suggested was this– if we put our investment into the bio fuels and there is a drought and/or floods what will we do for oil?  This is a short sighted decision.

Senator Chambliss said he has been hammered from people all over the state on the price of oil.  He is hopeful that the Democrats will bring the Gang of 10 bill up for a vote.  He is proud of what they have done even if he is getting a lot of criticism.

He discussed a couple of other minor issues.

I was able to give out a number of FreedomWorks brochures.  I met a number of people from Banks County (to include the Banks County Republican Party Chairman).  Many of these people are backers of Michael Harden, opponent of the State Representative.  I had a number of people sign the Gas Price Protest petition; however, since the meeting was arranged by the Chamber of Commerce, the leader told me I could not keep the signatures, so I destroyed them.  She was concerned about trouble with IRS.

Also someone asked the Senator about supporting the Fair Tax Plan.  He said he did support the Fair Tax Plan and would like to see it implemented.  I don't know, if we had the Fair Tax, they couldn't put a 6% tax on the profits of companies to pay for their pet projects.  Oh Well it sounds good.  I felt I was listening to a politician.

I hope this give you a flavor of what happened.  I don't think the people attending were too impressed with the information they received.