What's the mayor's next move now that his rebate-withholding plan seems dead?
Mr. Bloomberg could find some way to help elderly New Yorkers, while getting the Council to go for his rebate program.
"I don't see any reason for any compromise whatsoever," Mr. Bloomberg said of his rebate proposal, which is estimated to cost $250 million.
He said that China, Germany, Israel, South Africa and other nations were racing ahead with electric vehicle programs and maintained that President Obama's goal of putting one million electric vehicles on the road by 2015 was achievable if Congress fully financed his rebate and infrastructure proposals.
Senator Robert Byrd of West Virginia, like you a foe of the tax cut (albeit one with a fatter paycheck, I'll bet), sent the I.R.S. $600, the amount of his rebate, and earmarked it for the government's Gifts to Reduce the Public Debt account.
If Cohen bought Aranesp instead of Procrit, his rebate would be $300,000.
Reactions and responses have varied, Caggiano said, from some agreeing to donate their checks to one who declined, saying his rebate is earmarked for a purchase of pot.
Mr. Bloomberg does not cite his party when discussing his planned rebate, and neither do his aides.
His €400 rebates will pump some €6 billion into consumers' pockets.
Though he viewed George W. Bush with avuncular fondness (and called his cliff-hanging election a conspiracy by Democratic lawyers), he was disappointed that he did not run deficits sooner, and was only half appeased by his tax rebates.
