Cap-and-trade, “reconciliation,” and the death of deliberation
Image credit: American Elephant
My syndicated column today looks at how radical cap-and-trade legislation is getting rammed through Congress. It’s rare that I agree with anything Robert Byrd says. But I do today. No April Fool’s joke!
On a related track, Dems are ramping up efforts to use budget reconciliation to force their universal health care scheme through with limited debate and no chance for filibuster. Connie Hair interviews Jon Kyl on budget prospects at Human Events. Dingy Harry Reid was forced to back off his plot to use cap-and-trade tax revenue to fund Obama-care. And here’s background on two dueling non-binding resolutions related to cap-and-trade that were adopted yesterday.
***
The Shut Up and Swallow Congress
by Michelle Malkin
Creators Syndicate
Copyright 209
Deliberation in Washington is dead. We don’t have legislators. We have lemmings. We don’t have debates. We have high-speed hysteria sessions. After ramming through stimulus legislation that no one read and bailout bills that no one understood, Congress is now poised to stuff down taxpayers’ throats a deficit-exploding $3.5 trillion budget that enshrines the largest tax increase in American history.
Welcome to the cap-and-trade crap sandwich.
The Democrats want to rig the game so you don’t have time to figure out this latest act of collective thievery before it’s perpetrated. They have been colluding on a plan to circumvent the Senate’s 60-vote threshold and amendment process by attaching their massive green tax scheme to a special budget legislative maneuver (“budget reconciliation” in the parlance of the Washington sausage-makers). No less than Democratic Sen. Robert Byrd criticized this short-circuiting of debate as an “outrage that must be resisted” and “an undemocratic disservice to our people.” But the eco-zealots on the Hill seem hell-bent on telling Americans to shut up and swallow.
On the Senate floor Tuesday, Republicans tried valiantly to stop the cap and trade bullet train – only to be met with histrionic entreaties from the likes of Sens. Barbara Boxer and Dick Durbin shrieking about floods, dinosaurs, and The Children. Boxer and Durbin indignantly accused GOP Senators of “fear-mongering” over the costs of radical greenhouse gas emissions reductions. Then, without missing a beat, the Democrats returned to their wild predictions of the earth fizzling up and their grandchildren perishing like the prehistoric creatures who once roamed our doomed Earth.
GOP Sens. Jeff Sessions of Alabama, Judd Gregg of New Hampshire, and John Thune of South Dakota pushed back. President Obama, the Republicans noted, said last week that the cap-and-trade component of his budget is “non-negotiable.” This global warming reduction proposal amounts to an unprecedented national energy tax on every man, woman, and child. Every household. Every business. Far-reaching and regressive, the White House’s own budget officials first pegged the price tag at $646 billion – but admitted to Senate staffers that the actual number would be “two-to-three times” that figure. Which means an estimated $1.3 trillion and $1.9 trillion between fiscal years 2012 and 2019 by the Obama number-crunchers’ (or rather, number-cookers’) own calculations.
There’s no pretense about the impact these measures will have on taxpayers: “Under my plan of a cap and trade system, electricity rates would necessarily skyrocket,” Obama admitted during the 2008 campaign. “That will cost money. They will pass that money on to consumers.”
White House budget director Peter Orszag again acknowledged last week that “much of ]the] costs of the plan will be passed along to consumers in the form of higher prices for energy and energy intensive goods.” The GOP puts the cost at approximately $3,100 per family a year. Team Obama promises to offset these costs with some sort of tax credit for families, but by the budget team’s own admission, families would still pay at least $500 per year in out-of-pocket increase energy costs above and beyond the credit. Retirees and college students wouldn’t be eligible for the tax rebates.
This is not “fear-mongering.” It’s fact-mongering. And these facts deserve to be fully weighed and laid on the legislative table takes action again to drastically alter the economic landscape – and stick us with the bill. But once again, the big spenders in Washington can’t be bothered with the deliberative process. They have learned nothing from the AIG bailout rush-and-take-back debacle. Or the porkulus waste debacle. Or the TARP-you-can’t-believe-in debacle. The lemmings will only contemplate the consequences of their Chicken Little actions after they’ve sent the economy permanently over the cliff.
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You and me both WarTiP — grew up poor and still my beloved wife looks at me with a glare because I am still wearing clothes from years ago. I wear em till they are almost in tatters then use em for rags. I have to laugh, she calls it poverty thinking, me – I am still making do.
You know the sad thing about this??? It was all presented in FULL in all his election rhetoric… None of this should be a surprise to the SHEEPLE who voted for O-BOZO… He was upfront from the get go… LEMMINGS is a correct name for these SHEEPLE, for if O-BOZO tells them to jump off the cliff, their only question is WHICH ONE…
If any of you are interested, Rush Limbaugh posted this monologue on the energy proposal for free at this link:
Audio
pueblo; you are absolutely correct, anyone who listened to obama or read his books should know he is a devout communist, his parents were both communists, he is what he is. the media convinced the sheeple he was your main stream middle of the road jfk democrat because they were so anxious to get back the power and parties. the dnc department of propaganda owes the american public big, which is why i lol whenever i read about another msm news org going belly up on the obama budget.
LGM’s beloved polls show obama regularly polling in the 50′s for positives and in the 30′s for negatives.
Thats a 300% increase in the negatives and th 10 point drop in the positives. For less than 3 months?? Thats HUGE.
I just emailed my US Rep, Mr. Hensarling, and practically begged him to help us secede. I wanted to go to a Texas Rep, but mine is a Dim.
I’m also going to a Tea Party on the 15th.
I’m trying like he!! to go through normal channels, I don’t have much hope anymore. But I have to try this first.
But yeah. A revolution IS coming, ugly as blazes.
rooster said (#32):
What are some of the suppressed facts (besides Vince Foster having been murdered by Barbara Streisand and George Soros)?
philtac said (#97):
If you voted for Bush in 2004, you forfeited your right to say this.
Then, if you voted for Obama, you forfeited your right to criticize Bush. See how stupid that reasoning is?
Let me think of something here LGM, oh, Yeah — the amount of money needed for Jug Heads spending spree is equal to the total GDP of the U.S.A. for a year. Not to mention if every working person in the U.S.A. were to be taxed at 100% we still could not pay this off, even the interest.
Many of these Dems are saying things that will surely be used against them in future campaigns (I hope!)
LGM said #107,
Try this experiment, watch FOX News for a month and listen to conservative radio for that same month and then go back to your ABC, CBS, NBC, MSNBC, PBS, etc.,,, and give an honest evaluation of the news reporting.
Otherwise don’t keep showing your liberal ignorance.
The 0ne Dear Leaders polling data and congress is not looking good. Dear Leaders polling data disapproval has risen 14 percent in 60 or so days.
http://www.realclearpolitics.com/epolls/other/president_obama_job_approval-1044.html
Soon these pretty speeches and town hall meetings will get people to wake up. While the lemmings will still not get it the moderates who voted for 0bama and the Donks will soon come to realize that their jobs were lost, their COL was increased, etc, etc because of them. Then we will see a repeat on 94, assuming the GOP can get it tougher. Let’s hope it comes in 2010.
O/T (had to put this somewhere…)
Obama is going to be a 2-termer – hands down. The Republicans just dont get that they would have been wiped out 75%-25% in the last election WITHOUT HER.
I like Newt, but Newt would turn on his dead-grandmother if he needed to.
Well let’s see, the people in Afghanistan voted in higher percentages than we did – is that the kind of subjugation you’re talking about? Or are you talking about debt, which just went over the cliff in Obama’s first three months?
PS – I recognize you in the Lemmings for Obama graphic above…
If you ate Mexican food last night you forfeited your right to criticize illegal aliens….or something…it’s April Fools Day, and I’m trying to understand lgm…
I think LGM is trying to delude himself by thinking Little Boots is not the total and complete incompetent, failure of a community organizer he really is.
I just hope the people who voted for obama suffer the worst.
This is what happens when the lemmings vote to end self-determination and install power fascists!
Power to the individual!
Don’t suffer lgm rot(obedience)!
Accept nothing the government offers, and live your life the way you want!
Boycott green business!
he’s EL PRESIDENTE FOR LIFE…
mark my words.
O Sham!
Are you following me camera guy?
http://www.iowntheworld.com
Sounds like one of Barney Fwank’s male prostitute parties.
The Shut Up and Swallow Congress – boy that MM sure does use some good imagery.
No wonder the left calls her the GOP glory-hole
Time for another banning…
The NY Times suppressed an article about Acorn receiving donor lists (maxed out) from the Obama campaign. The purpose of that was to get these Obama-friendly supporters to donate to Project Vote.
That’s one example. The truth has a nasty way of coming out. Sooner or later we will have all the facts and I’m going to love watching you squirm trying to defend the indefensible.
and good riddance to the little fascist (ie obama supporter) troll…
ILMC is active today. Middle school must be on spring break.
Or the short bus broke down and never showed up this morning.
Spring Break was the last 3 weeks. But the kids these days can text message during recess or during the weekly Obama Orientation Assemblies.
Seriously… His whole game is to see how far he can go before he’s banned. Can we just be done with him?
I would think the liberal commenters here are tired of his drivel as well.
Yes.
Ilovemycountry said: Please ban me!!!
I say let him rave
Ever the optimist…perhaps when it becomes too pricey to turn on the boob tube or read daily invective on DKos, the blind followers of Obama might, just MIGHT, pick up books and start reading. Who knows, they might even learn something, such as the fact that socialism has failed wherever it has been attempted. Hope springs eternal, but I shall keep my guns close anyway.
On April 1st, 2009 at 1:38 pm,
You’re probably correct. And one way of doing it is establish Martial Law and throw out the constitution! Which can easily be done if these Tea Party’s really take off!
Is ILMC in LGMs classroom?
Has anyone watched the SouthPark episode about Twilight? (could be a 15 second commercial first)
Gee! I guess the McCain Campaign was not lying when they said a “President” Obama was going to raise taxes on electricity.
Lemmings, the video game, has way too many parallels with the Obama administration. For me its mostly the frustration of falling off of a cliff into an underground pool of lava. Or running out of miners to create a tunnel.
Where’s the AARP on this?
The same idiots that voted this abomanation into office are the very ones that will hurt financially the most. Yet, they’ll revel in it and thank the day ‘Bambi magically appeared on the ballot, thinking that it would have been so much worse had McCain won.
The RNC needs to lead, follow, or get out of the way. I’m never voting again for someone because the RNC decided that’s who I should support.
lgm said”the republicans need to be careful here” You have to be sh###ing me. Careful—hell the have bent over on most of this. They should be on the Capital steps everyday telling people how this Dufus is going to shaft them. Lgm–you bring up poll numbers–made up by the media suck-ups. We are going bankrupt and you think the few that are trying to save our country should be careful–you must feed at the trough. Obama is a frickin socialist and the media supports every bit of it. Up yours with the poll numbers.
What is happening now is exactly what we were derided for predicting before the election: With majorities in both Houses of Congress and the promise of a Leftist/Socialist president @ the top, the Democrats are ramming through anything they want – without regard for the country, legality or the Constitution.
They will have what they want, whatever it takes, even if that means calling endless legislative ‘do-overs’ or re-writing the very basis of our history.
We cannot allow this to stand.
We can’t let our country go down like this.
– MuscleDaddy
As in swallow another CRAP SANDWICH…
Gah idisgustmycountrymen, stop projecting your vileness onto MM. And the one who made the Fwank inuendo.
Reading comprehension should be your summer school assignment.
The radiator went out on my Chevy and I called Obama’s office at Government Motors to get it fixed. With all the vacancies in the Obama administration, nobody answered the phone. Some warranty service!
A promise has value based on the integrity of the one making it. A promise from Team Obama is worth absolutely ZERO.
#142 LMAO what do you expect!
NC BLUE (#140)
They are. They’ve lost so much credibility (e.g. the alternative “budget” without a single number in it, calling Obama a socialist, pretending they hate deficits after spending 20 years creating huge deficits, …) that people don’t listen.
We the People despise the actions of the 111th Congress. The despicable actions of these fools have caused monumental damage to our Republic. May God forgive them.
The inmates are truly in charge. Not in my 70+ years could I have imagined our current circumstances.
“You can’t make this stuff up” has become almost passé it gets used so often.
Even given a couple of quarts of good Irish whiskey these three authors could not produce anything even remotely like the antics on display in WDC:
The Three
Lewis Carroll, Through the Looking Glass
George Orwell, Animal Farm, 1984
John dos Passos, The USA Trilogy
We are being Scammed” by the greatest criminal conspiracy in human history. Can even one of you tell me with any certainty at all where approximatly 1.5Trillion Dollars have gone?? (that’s 1.5 followed by 12 zeros, mind numbing)
The worst of it, we will never know. Not with the likes of Pelosi, Frank, chumer, Dodd, Ried, Rangle et al in charge.
Not only is the financial community an emergency case this (I have run out of approriate adjectives to describe this Chicago produced thug) President is insisting on endangering every man, woman, and child in this country and most others within the missile range of North Korea and Iran.
His ill concieved Existential tainted diplomacy shouts “weakness” to our enemies. The people will windup paying for this unless we can stop it somehow.
Add to this the utter insanity of the possible release of GITMO detainees into the United States and the picture gets black indeed.
PC is Thought Control
LEE