Democrat Claire McCaskill claims Senator Jim Talent is distorting her stance on two important pieces of legislation. McCaskill says Talent, the incumbent Republican, has accused her of not supporting ethanol, because she opposed the Energy Bill approved by Congress. McCaskill says she opposed the Energy Bill, because it gave too many subsidies to oil companies. McCaskill claims the bill contains $9 billion in tax breaks to oil companies at a time when those companies are making record profits. She says Congress should have rejected the bill until it got rid of the oil company subsidies and put more money into ethanol production.McCaskill quips that Big Oil got the steak, while ethanol got the saltine crackers. Talent insists McCaskill is just flat wrong that the bill gives $9 billion dollars in subsidies to oil companies. Talent says he has given up trying to correct McCaskill’s assessment. He says the bill contains two billion dollars for refinery expansion, not nine billion for oil companies. Talent also points out that every midwestern US Senator voted for the bill, both Republican and Democrat. He says that demonstrates that McCaskill is out of touch, even with senators from her own party. Talent also dismisses criticism McCaskill had of the Meth Bill he pushed through Congress. McCaskill says the bill should have had money for multijurisdictional meth task forces. Talent says those are more properly funded through appropriations bills. The bill forces stores to keep cold medicine containing pseudoephedrine behind the counter, so it will be harder for meth cooks to obtain.

Related web sites:
Talent for Senate
McCaskill for Senate