Senate strikes at ethanol handout

Signaling that austerity is now the prevailing attitude on Capitol Hill, the Senate delivered a stunning blow to a once-sacrosanct program Thursday when it voted to end billions of dollars that go each year to producers of blended ethanol. Reversing itself from just two days earlier and despite opposition from the White House, a bipartisan coalition voted 73-27 to halt the 45-cents-per-gallon tax credit, which was expected to total $5.7 billion in 2011. Coming from the Senate, which had previously taken a slower approach to budget trimming, it pointed to a potential sweet spot for future bipartisan cuts: the hundreds of other special-interest breaks that line the tax code. It also showed that lawmakers may be fed up with the billions of dollars paid out to support farmers each year. “This is going to be the first of many coming down the line. We’ve got to change the way we carry out business,” said Sen. Dianne Feinstein, California Democrat, who led the charge to end the subsidy, along with Sen. Tom Coburn, Oklahoma Republican. “We might as well get used to it now,” she said. In the House, meanwhile, lawmakers approved legislation that blocks federal dollars from paying for special pumps to blend ethanol — something ethanol backers said is needed to produce a big enough market to make the product worthwhile...more