Huge: New budget deal ends oil export ban

The new budget deal heading for President Obama's desk has a lot that's awful in it, including extensions of lots of taxes and subsidies that are supposedly temporary but are never allowed to lapse. There's no defending any of this as policy, and many will say this proves Paul Ryan is just another RINO squish like John Boehner. I'm a glass-half-full guy. All that would have been the default stance of any other Congress, and certainly of Obama. Ryan, to his credit, at least exacted a price for keeping these things alive the next couple of years. And a very big price it was - and highly beneficial to the U.S. economy. After more than 40 years of holding back economic growth and vitality in the oil industry, the ban on oil exports appears headed for the ashbin of history:

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This also means that the unfortunate price for allowing oil exports is a feeding frenzy for the green-energy lobby. The wind and solar tax credits that were due to expire are extended for another two and three years, respectively, and they may last until 2020 and 2022 thanks to the gimmick of fake “phase outs.” These supposedly infant industries are now entering late middle age. Congress is also finishing the annual extravaganza to “extend” some 52 tax subsidies that are temporary on paper, like the credit for research and development. For a dispiriting tour through the moors of the U.S. tax code, browse the Ways and Means Committee’s section-by-section summary: You’ll find tax preferences for plug-in motorcycles, real-estate investment trusts, timber concerns, workers on Indian reservations, rum from the Virgin Islands and more.

Now of course, it would have been nice to see all of this go away. It appears Ryan is playing a longer game of getting what he can now, and holding out for much bigger and better changes when a new presidents takes office 13 months from now. If that's a Republican president who's game for major changes to the way Washington spends, taxes and subsidizes, then we're going to have some fun. If it's everyone's worst nightmare come true, (Hilary Clinton) then Ryan has some leverage because all these things need to be re-extended and that's not happening without more major prices being paid. Whatever you think of the overall deal or the way it came about, the end of the oil export ban is huge for this country. The fact that it happened under Obama - who clearly would have preferred to keep it in place - just goes to show that it is possible for a Republican Congress to win victories with a Democrat president in office, if they play their cards right. And at least on this issue, Ryan did.