By Darren Samuelsohn
Senate Democratic leaders are set to roll the dice this month on a comprehensive energy and climate bill, including a cap on greenhouse gases from power plants, even though they don’t yet have the 60 votes needed to move the controversial plan.
Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.) confirmed Tuesday that he would gamble on the high-stakes legislation – much as he undertook health care and Wall Street reform – that for now remains in the rough-draft stage but that will soon be the subject of intense negotiations.
Senate Democratic leaders are set to roll the dice this month on a comprehensive energy and climate bill, including a cap on greenhouse gases from power plants, even though they don’t yet have the 60 votes needed to move the controversial plan, or have any evidence whatsoever that CO2, and other misleadingly called greenhouse gases, can even cause catastrophic, “run away” global warming.
Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.) confirmed Tuesday that he would gamble on the high-stakes legislation – much as he rammed health care and Wall Street reform down our throats- that for now remains in the rough-draft stage but that will soon be the subject of intense propaganda, misdirection, and public opposition.
cut and paste? well, ok by me… but Paul… where’s your unbiased ire?
Final passage of a bill before they depart. Do they care? No. Politics at it’s worst. It seems that they don’t care. Leave it for others to clean up their mess as they brag about the bills they passed to help the American people. What a legacy to leave your children as well ours. I believe it’s called being vindictive? Like a disgruntled ex-employee? Sure looks that way. Politics never changes.
A legacy? Like the one Bush left? How’s that workin’ out for ya?
I have watched appalled at the weakness of Obama. No President, in the memory of most Americans, was given so much backing by his voters and did so little. It was obvious that Americans were sick of the lies and greed of previous administrations and wanted change.
If Obama was true to Liberalism (doesn’t really exist in the USA) and those who voted for him, he would have first told his party members that there were going to be changes and if any of them failed to support him their political jobs were over. He would then have arranged to speak to the people “my fellow americans”on a regular weekly basis to explain truthfully what he was planning. He would have told the corporate mob, the banksters, the insurance crooks, and the military crowd that their lives were about to change. He would have exposed the lies and criminality of the previous administration. He would have found his standing with the voters increasing exponentially.
He has done none of these things and it is too late now. I weep for the future of the USA.
That’s the power of propaganda for ya’! We tried to tell you. I recall saying, on at least one occasion, that the war would not end if a Democrat would be elected into office because they would want the credit for any victory, and they wouldn’t want to appear to be a loser.
How is that hope and change working out for you?
We told you that Guantanamo Bay would not be shut down, and that Obama’s agenda was to create a socialist health care system, and that he would take over private industries.
Cap and Trade was also something that we said was high on the agenda.
Your problem is that you believed the soaring rhetoric, and perfectly spoken speaches! You believed that he was a holy messenger of hope and change! And now you weep for the future of the USA when it turns out that he was, to the mark, full of the specific amount of crap we said he was?!?!?! Boo hoo!!!!!!!!!
Forgive me if I don’t hand you a hankie, or pat you on the shoulder and quietly speak comforting words to you.
ahhh… the silent treatment. Don’t worry I’m just about done here. My marxist-commie grant has just about run out. Truthfully, just beating a dead horse, one that would not be led to water, let alone drink it has taken its toll on my soul.
The Ds and Rs have the government sewn up tight and have sold it lock, stock and barrel (of oil) to the corporate cartel, which has now, after 30 years of consolidating, pretty much settled on a single, unified approach.
Dislodging such an entrenched, ubiquitous evil is a decades-long undertaking if it is even possible at all. And even then, it will need to be undertaken by a unified public capable of tenacity and fidelity to the good. The us public has no such capacity.
The alternative is to let the Rs and Ds destroy it all completely and finally. At that point, the us MIGHT have such a capacity to change, but only because a few 10s of millions are dead and the rest are miserable.
Of the former, I see no viability at all. We’re an idiot nation who evangelically believe in that which ALWAYS proves to be wrong.
Of the latter, well, you never know what you’ll get after such a collapse, but at least there is a CHANCE that it could be fixed after, and only after, utter collapse.
So, torn though I am, I’m not going to vote for any D that does not impress me thoroughly; never for an R… ever; and if the Rs win, they’ll destroy the nation and its people… but then the Ds do also… The R’s are just more ruthless and efficient at evil, greed, and destruction. We are doomed.
The carnage they are leaving behind, destroying the economy and killing the private sector should have consequence’s. I think legal action should be taken if ANY type of legislation is forced through after the election. (lame duck period) I think that would be an obvious sour grape’s move and that it should not be legal. As for the rest of this term up to the election, the repubs have to stall!Stall! Stall! I love what they are doing for the unemployment extension. Pay for it Obama!
My two cents.
I totally agree Hal, if you are talking about BP, which you must be cuz…
I agree with both comments above for which I Thank you. “Change” without a definition of “What change is, or is to be ” is like what is “Is?” At least President Clinton listened to the people/Republicans and they forced his hand and he listened. Welfare change that the republicans pushed, he took credit for etc. Have no problem with that. Like Reagan, just get it done. No credit taken. Must say, he was/still is a politician that got things done. As to this President? Suggest that he may wish to look back as to how to get things done other than “Chicago tactics.” It’s costing us our economy and future of our children as well as his childrens financial future. Unless he and his administration changes, Greece, here we come!
Perhaps you didn’t hear that the welfare system was gutted during the Clinton administration, after having been expanded under Bush I.
Maybe you’ve never heard that US corporations pay a lower share of their revenues in tax than in any non-third world country. Most third world countries tax businesses more than we do.
Didja know that Democratic Presidents signed two of the three biggest tax cuts in US history? Didja know that Republican Presidents signed two of the three biggest tax increases?
How much exactly do you think this country spends on social services, anyway? I know that you righties just take Rush’s word for it, but you ought to check out the numbers some time. It’s about 10% as much as the military budget.
http://www.gpoaccess.gov/usbudget/
Over half of the stimulus bill was actually tax cuts.
In fact, no taxes have been raised at all since Obama took office. They need to be. The Republicans borrowed and spent us into a really big hole since 2001. Huge tax cut followed by two big wars.
William Osler summarized it all some years ago, “The greater the ignorance, the greater the dogmatism.”
Ignorance is bliss to “progressives” such as you and your mindset. Suggest you check the U S Debt Clock? Facts don’t lie, progressives do or should I say stretch the truth to their benefit. Always have, always will.
Gee I wonder when that “clock” started ticking. Just exactly when Obama became President? Only an idiot would think so, right?
Under the I-hate-government, let’s-drown-it-in-the-bathtub administration of George Bush and Dick Cheney, the Secrecy State swelled to such enormous proportions it required more than a dozen investigative journalists from the Washington Post two years to fathom its size and shape.
In our otherwise financially bankrupt society, where we can afford virtually nothing that actually helps people, money is no object in the Secrecy State. Thus in the name of national security, as Dana Priest and William M. Arkin tell us in “Top Secret America,” their harrowing tale of government gone wild, 1,271 government organizations and 1,931 private companies are currently in the homeland security, counterterrorism and intelligence game.
http://congress.blogs.foxnews.com/2010/07/22/reid-abandons-cap-trade-in-face-of-bipartisan-opposition/
Funny how you Rightys dont care about the national debt until/unless there’s a Dem in the Whitehouse. Ever notice that? Just another huge hypocrisy.
Thanks Neil. By the way, you sense a pest? I’m itching.
A recent exposé in the Washington Post shows that if you have a security clearance and are comfortable being part of a lucrative “self-licking ice cream cone†– a process that offers few if any benefits while perpetuating its own existence – then the “war on terror†is definitely for you! The Post shows clearly that the post-9/11 environment has been a boon for defense and intelligence contractors who fattened up at the government feeding trough before trying to show their worth in the mission of “defeating transnational violent extremists,†like al-Qaeda, the Taliban, and others too many to mention. And the feeding trough won’t disappear anytime soon, if ever. We are told that this “war†will not end like World War II with a surrender ceremony on the battleship Missouri; indeed, it will be impossible to tell when (or if) it is over – since the “war†is so vaguely defined as to guarantee its continuation in perpetuity as long as there are some angry Islamists out there, enflamed over all the people the U.S. government has been killing.
War has changed. No uniforms, no brigades, no front, no fox holes. All the new enemy does is hide behind women and children. When it is reported that innocents civilians are killed it hits the headlines and our troops on duty are the alleged culprits. I always pity a man that hides behind a woman’s burka or a little child’s innocent face. That to me is not war, it is doing whatever it costs to further their cause. Damn the woman and children that they use as pawns. Women and children don’t matter do they? In America they do! Different cultures, different lifestyles. They could be your neighbor? Think about it.
Bush reduced top tax bracket from 39.6% to 35%, while in two wars, the only president to reduce taxes while at war, main reason debt increased $4.9 trillion in eight years. Where were McConnell and Republicans during that fiasco?
Top tax bracket, WW 1 was 73%; WW 2, 94%; Korea, 92%; and Vietnam, 77%; remaining high until war debt paid. (79% in 1939; never dropping below 70% until Reagan in 1982, to 31% under Bush 1) Budget deficits for FY’s 2010 and 2011 will be $1.5 trillion plus each year, meaning tax breaks for the rich and two wars will be paid for by borrowing predominately from China, Japan and Germany, again, increasing the deficit.
Congress borrowed $4.5 trillion from trust funds, primarily Social Security and Medicare surplus funds to use as general purpose funds. Again, where were Republicans?
I suggest strongly that you read up on what you just posted. I assume another cut and paste? No wonder we have a reality problem in America!
I suggest you and yours should get a clue.
American tax payers have now paid over $1 trillion for the oil wars in Iraq and Afghanistan. We won’t see a dime of that money for our schools, jobs, college grants or anything else. It was reported that “after a take-it-or-leave-it vote by the Senate, House Democrats faced little choice but to drop billions in aid for schools, college students and others that they had hoped could ride on legislation paying for President Barack Obama’s troop surge in Afghanistan.â€
Analysts predict that rescinding the Bush tax cuts will put us back into a position of no growth in our economy similar to Japan in the 1990’s. (A decade of no growth) Research and get back to me. I’m not good at cut and paste! Looking for an answer.
You need to stop drinking the kool-aid prepared and served up by your elite over-lords. Letting the tax cuts for the elite expire will reduce the out of control deficit. And reduce the pressure on the middle-class, maybe even reducing their share of taxes. And that in turn help us all and the economy. Just Economy 102, and you failed.
It’s apparent that you have never invested nor paid taxes. Entitlements here we come per Robbie Boy.
Nope, you got me there Paul. I’m actually a ghost and so never did either of those things.
I assumed such.
The fundamental reason that Obama is producing lousy legislation – and the third reason his presidency is failing – is because he is serving the wrong masters. Anyone who thinks that he or his pals in the Democratic Party are any less whores of the corporate oligarchy in this country than are the Reptilicans is living in the 1930s. Obama, like Clinton before him, and like Reid and Pelosi and even Barney Frank, know who their constituents are, and it sure ain’t you and me. This is a president who wrote health care legislation that will massively enrich predatory insurance companies which contribute nothing to the actual delivery of health care. This is an administration that continued to let BP and other oil companies run wild and unregulated, both before and after the Gulf spill. These guys are going to hugely increase offshore drilling. They gave away public funds to bail out Wall Street thieves, one hundred cents on the dollar, after those nice men wrecked the global economy. This presidency keeps feeding the military-industrial complex ever more and more, setting new records for ‘defense’ spending. And on and on.
There are no “Masters.” It is reality. His Presidency may fail due to inept actions on his part, pure and simple. My opinion is that he has never been in the trenches like the average American. That is the difference. Reality versus what “the books” says in a college environment. There is a huge difference. That is, unless you are a professor with tenor? Enough said.
And W was ever “in the trenches”? And it’s tenure. I like the way you criticize my criticism of someone you don’t like. Oh well, thanks anyway.
As we all know, the only reason the undesirables are poor is because they don’t know how to correctly use a loofa. It has nothing to do with institutional racism, archaic and racist drug policies, the prison-industrial complex, stagnate wages, corporate outsourcing, or a government more interested in waging war than properly funding schools.
No, all we need to do is lock away poor people in far away buildings where the normies won’t have to look at them. Really, nothing kills a day more than having to see one of those beggars. Isn’t that what that genius and scholar Rush Loompa says?
Let’s put it simply. With the present administrations policies we will “All be poor!” I could care less about radio talk heads that you hate, but you, as well as Obama are transfixed in what they say? Why? Do you think for yourself, use common sense/judgment or rely on what you simply hear/told, or is there truth in their statements? Get a life and look at what is happening to our beautiful country and our cherished economy. I now see why half my friends are unemployed, or bailing out of the market thanks to our present administration. It’s called fear of the unknown. Never forget that. Obama has never been there and that is what America is waiting for, and answer to people’s FEAR OF THE UNKNOWN with solutions. So far, no answer/policy yet, just more entitlement spending like a drunken sailor on a two day leave after being on the sub for a year. Oh, forgot, vacations are out of the equation. Must have your free time when times are tough, Right????
Bailing out of the market because of Obama?! It just hit a record high that hasn’t been reached in years. And you talk to me about discerning reality? I bailed out of the system when Bush the Dumber was Prez. Before the actual and REAL collapse. And I don’t know anything?
There will be another crash and it won’t be Obama’s fault. He inherited Bush’s MESS and the system is flawed in a big way and the fat cats like it that way. The fat cats own the system and they own almost all the politicians. THAT is the real problem, and one that you choose to dismiss and ignore due to your inherent biases and prejudices.
Wait until the 2011 taxes hit on 1/1/2011 that Obama is letting expire, absent incomes over $250,000 if he gets his wish. Then you will see the market take a downturn. You want recovery? It ain’t coming until this administration get’s with reality. Reminds me of the person that is top of the class but has no knowledge as to how to tie his or her shoes without help from others at the same level. Sad but true and the general public is finally seeing what they elected. Oh, forgot, let’s have another “stimulus package!” Frustration at it’s best. I can make a soap opera out of it.