Conservatives Master Obstruction
Yesterday, Senate conservatives continued their stated strategy of "making
political points" by obstructing
legislation meant to address
America's energy and environmental challenges. First, in a 51-43
vote, conservatives successfully used the threat of a filibuster to
block the Consumer-First
Energy Act, which would have
"levied a
25
percent tax on 'windfall profits'
of major oil companies" that
don't invest more in renewable energy. Daniel J. Weiss, the
Center
for American Progress's Director of Climate Strategy, says that such a
tax would "spur
investments in clean energy alternatives."
The bill would also
have
"given the government more power
to address oil market speculation,
opened the way for antitrust actions against countries belonging to the
OPEC oil cartel, and made energy price gouging a federal crime." The
second bill blocked by conservatives, the
Renewable Energy and Job
Creation Act of 2008,
failed by a vote
of 50-44. It would
have extended popular tax breaks for
renewable energy that are set to expire at the end of this year. The
failure to pass the tax breaks is worrisome to the renewables industry,
which is "already seeing a
slowing
of growth in the sector because
companies are
hesitant to start new projects without the assurance that these credits
will be available." Yesterday's obstructionism is the third time
in less than a week that Senate conservatives have used
parliamentary
tactics to block energy legislation. On Friday, conservatives blocked
the Lieberman-Warner
Climate Security Act after first
shutting down the Senate by forcing
the clerk to read the entire bill
on the Senate floor.
A
'CYNICAL' STRATEGY OF OBSTRUCTION: A
Republican strategy memo obtained last week by Senate Majority Leader
Harry Reid (D-NV) made clear that the obstructionist tactics employed
by conservatives were aimed solely at "making
political points" rather than
"affecting policy." "You could not
make up anything more cynical," said Reid when he revealed the
memo on the Senate floor. As Sen. Debbie Stabenow (D-MI) noted
on
the Senate floor yesterday, conservatives in Congress have broken
historical precedent by engaging
in 75
filibusters this Congress. But
the filibuster isn't the only
obstructionist tactic employed by Senate Republicans.
Yesterday, Senate conservatives used a rare maneuver to shut
down a Judiciary Committee hearing on torture by forcing the
Senate into recess. Reid
called the maneuver by Sen. Thad Cochran (R-MS) "part
of a pattern of obstruction."
Sen. Dianne Feinstein (D-CA), who has
been in the Senate since 1992, remarked that the shut down was "very,
very unusual."
CONSERVATIVES
WANT TO DRILL: At
the same time they are blocking investment in alternative energy,
conservatives, allied with
Big Oil, are claiming that the
cure to America's energy problems
is simply "increasing domestic oil supplies by permitting new
exploration in the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge
and in the
waters on the Outer Continental Shelf." Their mantra, in the words of
former House Speaker Newt Gingrich, is to "drill
here,
drill now." The entire
conservative noise machine is getting behind
the call for increased domestic drilling. "We need to be drilling
more and drilling now here at
home," bellowed Rush Limbaugh on his
radio show yesterday. Just yesterday, House Republicans filed a
discharge petition to "force
a floor vote on legislation on oil drilling in Alaska."
The White
House agrees with its conservatives allies. "Instead of populist votes
that would do nothing for gas prices, we
need
to allow domestic oil production
in environmentally sensitive
ways," said spokesman Tony Fratto yesterday.
BUT
DRILLING WON'T HELP: "More
drilling. More drilling. More drilling. That
is the Johnny One Note policy"
of conservatives, charged House
Majority Leader Steny Hoyer (D-MD) in response to the discharge
petition. "Feeding that addiction by
tapping another vein just
drills us into a deeper hole,"
said Sen. Robert Menendez (D-NJ). Furthermore, opening up
drilling domestically in places such as
the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge wouldn't have the effect on gas
prices that conservatives claim. The U.S. Geological Survey believes
that drilling in the refuge would likely produce only 3.2 billion
barrels of oil, which is "not
even enough to satisfy six months' demand."
Additionally, it would
take 10 years for oil drilled in
the Arctic to reach the market and
another
40 years to extract the full
amount of oil. Instead of making "long-term
investments in affordable
transportation alternatives that use
significantly less gasoline or oil," conservatives want to double down
on more and more domestic drilling.
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Arthur Mkoyan, the 17-year-old Fresno, CA valedictorian facing deportation later this month, has learned that Sen. Dianne Feinstein's (D-CA) has recently sent word that "a private bill has been introduced that would allow the family to stay indefinitely."
COLORADO:
"Colorado experienced the nation's largest rate of growth in
impoverished children from 2000 to 2006, according to a study released
Tuesday."
HEALTH CARE: "In what experts
call a 'startling' development, the
number of people who have health insurance but not enough to pay their
medical costs has spiked from 16 million in 2003 to 25 million in 2007."
CIVIL
RIGHTS: "As thousands of gay
couples across the country prepare to
marry in California next week, many states are girding for a surge of
complex and politically charged legal challenges when newlyweds return
to their home states."
THINK
PROGRESS: FBI general counsel:
Waterboarding is "clearly not
permissible in the United States."
WONK
ROOM: Rep. Mark Kirk (R-IL):
Uninsured "are overwhelmingly 20 and
30 year olds."
WASHINGTON
INDEPENDENT: In a campaign ad,
Sen. James Inhofe (R-OK) suggests that
Iraq is in Africa.
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