Beware the lame-duck Congress: is cap and trade dead?
There have been so many issues coming up fast and furious lately that the mind reels.
But remember cap and trade? This administration does. Here’s my new PJ article speculating on what they might do about it.
This is one of my fears also.
I’ve had “Kamikaze Congress” ready as the title of a future post on this, but you’ve beat me to it. 🙂
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On the fast and furious meme: the mind reeling.
There’s that moment in “Vanilla Sky” when Tom Cruise becomes aware that his world is make believe and he cries out in a particularly chilling high voice “Tech Support. Tech Support.”
Our nation is being traumatized right now through the blitzkrieg of one outrage after another. The perpetrators are counting on the mechanism of denial. “Shrinkwrapped” wrote some excellent articles on that a little while ago.
The current blitz didn’t just happened. Rather, a “network” versus a central strategy was adopted and whether its cap and trade, smart grid (AT article today) HCR
Ooops. Cut it short. Just as well.
You know, this doesn’t surprise me at all. The pattern here is very simple: it’s the pattern when someone (the President or one of his inner circle) has something incriminating on so many others that they do his bidding even against their own interests (the way the Senate and Congress fold when it comes down to the nitty-gritty is quite instructive). The charmed rise to power suggests the same thing.
Anyone with that kind of leverage holds the destruction button, too: “Destroy me, and I’ll bring you down with me.” Sadly, that threat is being applied to the entire country in the ultimate political temper tantrum.
It’s behavior a two year old would admire.
Just heard that the President can grant amnesty to illegal immigrants by fiat, the will of the public be damned. Next step citizenship and a permanent Democratic majority in CO, NM, VA maybe FL, and several other states. I guess after that comes the elimination of two term limits. Of course I’m being paranoid. Please everyone write in and tell me I’m being paranoid.
If this is correct for the first time in this country we have a genuine reversal of democracy. As the government controls so much, there is little anyone can do to resist them.
Our democracy must have been far more fragile than anyone thought as it has taken a nobody less than two years to thoroughly undermine it.
I would assume that lame duck senators who are liberal will vote liberal for cap’n tax and not have to worry whether their cap’n tax vote will hurt their already ended careers. The question is whether the senators who come up for election in 2012 and even 2014 can rely on the voters having their usual short memories. If the common view of these Democrats is that a “yes” vote will have no negative consequences for them in elections 2 and 4 years in the future, then they will vote for the bill. If they can be persuaded that their vote, as well as their vote on healthcare, will be front and center in 2012 and 2014, however, they may be very reluctant to become 2 and 4-year lame ducks. So, the question is, should they worry?
Well, if everyone has health insurance but no one can get a doctor because none is taking on new patients, or gas reaches $6 or even $8 a gallon, or no one can get get health insurance because the insurance companies raise their premiums to account for the added risks and health insurance is priced too high for even middle class voters, the issues will be even more current and volatile in 2012 than they are now. So, I would think that they cannot act as if their votes will not have serious and adverse consequences for them. My view is that any Democrat who is up for election in 2012 and votes in favor of cap’n tax is going to regret that vote. I would refer to these doofuses as Senate Zombies.
A senator who is not up for reelection in 2014 probably does not to have to worry too much unless he is from a coal producing or consuming state.
Regrettably, this will be sort of fun to watch.
OOOPS! I meant to say not up for reelection UNTIL 2014. Sorry.
Bob from Virginia: I saw that very alarming news, too. The question is whether Obama will try it, not whether he wants to or not (I’m fairly certain he does want to). If he does take the step, it will be because he has been more and more emboldened by the steps he’s already taken in the direction of circumventing Congressional power, without too much pushback.
In the case of amnesty, if he does go that far, at least then the situation (and its Hugo Chavez-like nature) will finally be apparent to the American people (or about 70% of them). Of course, by the time such things are that apparent to that many people, it is usually too late.
Steve G: actually, in this case, I believe some of the senators who are up for re-election in 2012 and 2014 think they have already cooked their own gooses by their votes for HCR, et al, and that voters will remember. Paradoxically, though, this means they have nothing to lose, and can vote for cap and trade in exchange for whatever perks they might get afterward from the leadership—when they’re back in private life, the rewards might come in terms of patronage positions, for example.
True or not; between ignoring the public on HCR, civil trials for terrorists, and soon Cap and Trade and Amnesty, for all practical purposes we are living in a dictatorship?
Or am I getting paranoid?
Exactly.
Unfortunately, I think it may already be too late.
The democrats are ruthless, and the republicans are too busy apologizing for telling the truth (the BP shakedown slush fund.)
After a country goes socialist, it never come back.
When our financial collapse comes, the same criminals will still be in charge of the government.
It seems more and more democrats are actually encouraging Obama to become a full blown dictator.
They actually say it out loud in front of television cameras now. They do this because they have nothing to fear.
The amnesty issue has been foreseen. A letter from republican senators has been sent to Obama and the issue is being publicized.
http://hatch.senate.gov/public/index.cfm?FuseAction=DataPipes.ViewPDF&Id=5c7c629c-1b78-be3e-e0c6-81b26b437781
See also today’s American Thinker.
Its time to go on the attack and there is one issue that is perfect and only needs a credible backer.
“”and can vote for cap and trade in exchange for whatever perks they might get afterward from the leadership””
They will get no perks. What they’ll get is a lifetime in miserable seclusion to escape the hell that patriotic Americans will be obligated to rain down on them.
The more radical the legislation rammed down our throats, the more egregious Obama’s actions… the greater the blowback will eventually be.
Pendulums swing in two directions. The further it is pushed to one side, the farther it will rebound in the other direction.
If transformation to socialism is what they seek to impose, rebellion is what they shall have.
Steve H: depends where they live—or move to.
It’s hard work but everyone should attempt to read “The Oxford History of the French Revolution.”
Lots of interesting anecdotes to think about.
Neo- I think that more than likely the Democrat senators who come up for election in 2012 and 2014 are hoping (against hope) that the “good” features of the healthcare bill will have come into play by then and they will then be heroes to their constituencies. If they did not delude themselves as to the supposed benefits of the bill then why did they so easily allow themselves to vote for it. Cap’n tax will have more immediate and very local consequences, especially where there is a strong reliance on coal fired energy or the need to drive far to get to work. Higher energy prices will enrage the electorate. Remember the anger at $4.00 per gallon gasoline just two years ago while most of us still had jobs and tax rates were lower than what we are probably going to experience beginning in 2011.
If the lame duck congress passes the cap and trade people will not forget in 2012. They will be reminded every time they buy gas or get their utility bills. The American people must understand that voting for this president and his Congress is going to bring this country to it’s knees.
If this adminstration passes this cap and trade during the lame duck period, no one will forget it. They will be reminded every time they buy gas or pay their utilitity bills.How can anyone who loves this country strap the American this way? I don’t care what party you support you cannot let these people bring us to our knees.
The Democratic party is not what it was 60 or so years ago. It has been infiltrated by Socialist’s and Marcist’s. This President is going to distroy us , unless he and his party is voted out. No real american would distroy this country. We have a president who is not a citizen of this country and the American people should start a fund to anyone who could prove this man is not a citizen.
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