Democrat Senators: Cap And Trade Should Be Delayed Until Next Year

I wholeheartedly agree. Let’s postpone debate on Cap-And-Tax until the 2010 election year. It will be one of the next big fights after we’ve defeated Obamacare.

From Daniel Whitten and Simon Lomax of Bloomberg:

The U.S. Senate should abandon efforts to pass legislation curbing greenhouse-gas emissions this year and concentrate on a narrower bill to require use of renewable energy, four Democratic lawmakers say. “The problem of doing both of them together is that it becomes too big of a lift,” Senator Blanche Lincoln of Arkansas said in an interview last week. “I see the cap-and-trade being a real problem.”

Lincoln isn’t the only one. Anyone who has read the Cap-And-Tax bill knows that it will cause energy prices to “skyrocket” which is exactly what Obama said he wanted to see happen.

More:

Ben Nelson of Nebraska and North Dakota Senators Kent Conrad and Byron Dorgan joined Lincoln in suggesting that the climate measure be put off. “We should separate the energy bill from the climate bill,” Conrad told reporters this month. ‘It needs to be done as soon as we can get it done,” he said, referring to the energy legislation. Climate legislation would require 60 votes in the Senate. Most Republicans have said they oppose the cap-and-trade measure, and at least 15 of the Senate’s 60-member Democratic majority have said the House-passed version would hurt the economy and needs to be revamped to win their support.

You have to wonder if all the pressure we are putting on Congress over socialized medicine is starting to force some sanity on these people.

You can access the complete article on-line here:

Climate Change Measure Should Be Set Aside, U.S. Senators Say
Daniel Whitten and Simon Lomax
Bloomberg.com
August 14, 2009

The New Democrat Image: A Culture Of Corruptness

Even the most dyed-in-wool Democrat has to admit that the major promise of Nancy Pelosi and company in 2006, that is the promise to rid D.C. of the “culture of corruption,” has been utterly and completely broken.

And despite Barack Obama’s promise to bring change to D.C., he only brought with him the business as usual Chicago-politics style.

Take for example Senator Chris Dodd (D-CT). He is in deep trouble thanks to some whistle-blowers who have exposed him. But, contrary to the campaign promises of 2006 and 2008, the Dems are taking no action to get rid of the corruption that Dodd represents.

Michelle Malkin has this:

The troubled Democrat is in deep over his sweetheart Countrywide home-loan deals, corporate bailout cash and crony associations. New revelations by Countrywide whistleblower Robert Feinberg confirm what more and more of Dodd’s constituents in Connecticut are coming to realize: He’s a lying weasel. Dodd denied knowledge of the special treatment the subprime mortgage company had given him and Senate Budget Committee Chairman Kent Conrad on home loans. (Dodd’s were worth more than $800,000.) Feinberg flatly contradicted him in secret testimony on the Hill this week.

And what does Obama do in response to this evidence of corruption? Read on:

“I can’t say it any clearer: I will be helping Chris Dodd because he deserves the help,” Obama announced in April. “He just has an extraordinary record of accomplishment, and I think the people of Connecticut will come to recognize that.”

So far, Obama has not withdrawn his support.

But it isn’t just Dodd that is a problem. Many Democrats have their own corruption issues, none of which are being addressed by a president who made a campaign promise to address such things.

More:

Obama progressives should cringe at their president’s bear hug of one of the most ethically compromised politicians on Capitol Hill. The Beltway swamp is teeming with Democratic corruption scandals — Pennsylvania congressman John Murtha’s earmark factory and tax-subsidized airports and radars to nowhere; New York Rep. Charlie Rangel’s rent-controlled apartment scams and tax scandals; California Rep. Maxine Waters’ business ties to a minority-owned bank that received $12 million in TARP money under smelly circumstances, for starters. But Dodd’s career epitomizes the most fetid aspects of Washington’s culture of corruption. It’s a textbook case of nepotism, self-dealing, back scratching, corporate lobbying, government favors and entrenched incumbency.

And let’s not forget Tim Geithner who failed to pay taxes.

The Democrats, rather than nobly standing up to the corruption in D.C. (including that within their own party) are instead hypocritically engaging in the very corruption they promised to fight!

Obama, Pelosi, Reid and other Democrats have transformed the “culture of corruption” into their own “culture of corruptness.” Dems, instead of draining the cesspool, have jumped in and started splashing around.

You can access the complete column on-line here:

Dodd And Obama: Corrupt Birds Of A Feather
Michelle Malkin
TownHall.com
July 31, 2009

Congressional Budget Office: Nationalized Health Care Will Increase Costs, Not Reduce Them

So, the CBO has finally admitted what we Conservatives have known for many, many years. Nationalized health care will be more expensive, not less expensive as promised by the leftist Dems.

From David Clarke and Edward Epstein of CQ Politics:

The health care overhauls released to date would increase, not reduce, the burgeoning long-term health costs facing the government, Congressional Budget Office Director Douglas Elmendorf said Thursday. That is not a message likely to sit well with congressional Democrats or the Obama administration …

But, for a Democrat-controlled Congress that has engaged in more out-of-control spending than their Republican predecessors, why is this an issue?

Read on:

The Democrats and President Obama have cited two goals in their overhaul proposals — expanding coverage to the estimated 47 million Americans who currently lack it and bringing down long-term costs because the growth in Medicare and Medicaid spending threatens to swamp the federal budget in coming years. Under questioning from Chairman Kent Conrad , D-N.D., Elmendorf told the Senate Budget Committee that the congressional proposals released so far do not meet that second test. “In the legislation that has been reported, we do not see the sort of fundamental changes that would be necessary to reduce the trajectory of federal health spending by a significant amount and, on the contrary, the legislation significantly expands the federal responsibility for health care costs,” he said

Welcome back to Planet Earth, Democrats.

Does anyone here think that drafting these bills behind closed door (thereby directly breaking the Dem promise of openness and transparancy) was a good idea?

You can access the complete article on-line here:

CBO Chief: Health Bills To Increase Federal Costs
David Clarke and Edward Epstein
CQ Politics
July 16, 2009