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Senate Dems Skeptical About Climate Bill

The Prof

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1. Dem leaders in the Senate are facing up to realities---cap and trade is dead.

2. Any bill that squeaks thru lower house by a margin of 4 is DOA on the expensive blue carpet upstairs---Politics 101.

3. Cap and trade contemplates MASSIVE tax hikes on ENERGY, both its PRODUCTION and its CONSUMPTION, in the midst of our shared national Depression.

4. Ie, SUICIDE economics.

5. And suicide POLITICS, as well.

6. Downright unAmerican, raising such killer taxes on familes, consumers and JOB creators in fiscal times like ours.

7. When Dick Durbin says the bill is "difficult," making members "anxious," well, that's about all you need to know.

8. Durbin is WHIP, you understand.

9. He's also senior senator from the Prairie State and reputedly very close to Obama.

10. Health care is costing the president already all the capital he's accumulated, and then some.

11. The same day Axelrod indicated the administration's "new approach" to Obamacare, culminated last evening before Joint Session (except the only thing new was tort reform---LOL!), Obama's closest adviser also let slip that cap and trade was to take a back seat, suddenly, to some as-of-now vague re-regulation of Wall Street.

12. "Also this fall, Obama wants to slap new regulations on Wall Street firms, a goal that is now considered a higher priority than cap-and-trade energy legislation in the West Wing."

http://www.politico.com/news/stories/0909/26672.html

13. Today, Durbin gave the nod to Axelrod's opener, noting "the need to to tackle legislation imposing stricter rules on the U.S. financial industry [from the article]."

14. Durbin said it was unclear whether the climate bill or financial industry reform would be a higher priority in 2009.

15. You need to understand that when Durbin speaks, it's almost always the same thing as hearing it from Obama.

16. Harry Reid has spoken vaguely about coupling cap and trade with another, smaller piece of energy legislation requiring utilities to generate a certain, greater percentage of their power from wind and solar.

17. Moderate Ben Nelson, who has repeatedly indicated personal difficulty with a health care that includes a public option, on the topic of cap and trade said: "We have enough on our plate right now. It's questionable to open another front."

18. Nelson sees the smaller energy bill as "far less controversial."

19. Sharod Brown of industrial Ohio said "there's no bill," unless it protects domestic manufacture from foreign competition not quite as GREEN as cap and trade envisions.

20. "We're not real close," said Brown.

21. Meanwhile Blanche Lincoln, chair of the influential Ag Cmte, worries Wednesday that cap and trade would destroy farm profitability thru increased energy costs.

22. Implicit is her concern over jobs in her crucial industry.

23. Ms Lincoln's exact words were, cap and trade would be "a heavy lift. In this economy, it's important we take it one step at a time."

24. Senator Byrd months ago signaled his certain opposition to the job killer. Astute observers knew then the bill was in huge trouble.

Byrd Blasts ?Cap and Trade? - News, Sports, Jobs - The Intelligencer / Wheeling News-Register

25. West Virginia is a coal state.

Several U.S. Senate Democrats, including a top leader, on Wednesday questioned whether it would be possible to vote on a climate change bill this year, especially with healthcare reform eating up so much of the lawmakers' time.

"It's a difficult schedule" with many members already "anxious" about healthcare reform, Senator Dick Durbin, the second-ranking Democrat, told Reuters when asked about prospects this year for a bill to cap emissions of carbon dioxide and other greenhouse gases.

Besides the need to pass the complex healthcare bill this year, which Durbin said was "first in the queue," he also noted the need to tackle legislation imposing stricter rules on the U.S. financial industry.

Durbin said it was unclear whether the climate bill or financial industry reform would be a higher priority in 2009.

U.S. Senate Democrats skeptical about climate bill | Markets | Reuters


The Prof
 
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Cap and Trade is about as asinine an idea as man-made Global warming is.

Let's hope this idiotic idea dies a swift and permanent death. :cool:
 
It's a ploy to make it seem like you're doing something. Other countries have done this, the problem is where they get their goods from. You can decrease your own emissions doing this, but you're buying more things then from nations (notably China) who are not under any of these restrictions. The overall global consequence is an increase, not decrease in emissions. If you want to do something like cap and trade in order to handle emissions, you have to account for imports.
 
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