Today in Washington, D.C. - Mar 2, 2010 - Dems Promote Obamacare & Backdoor National Energy Tax
Senate resumed consideration of the nomination of Barbara Keenan to the 4th Circuit Court of Appeals and will vote this afternoon on cloture regarding her nomination. In the afternoon, the Senate will likely resume consideration of H.R. 4213, the tax extenders bill. The bill extends tax provisions that expired at the end of the year such as state sales tax deductions and the research and development tax credit.
In the House, besides the below topic of Obamacare, currently 84 House Republicans the EPA’s Backdoor National Energy Tax and are on a resolution of disapproval that would prevent the EPA from implementing these job-killing regulations. You may recall that late last year, Environmental Protection Administration (EPA) head Lisa Jackson signed an “endangerment finding” stating that greenhouse gases, including carbon dioxide, “threaten the public health and welfare of current and future generations.” These findings pave the way for EPA regulation of emissions even though the EPA has admitted that it has not evaluated possible job losses or shifts in employment that may occur due to its rules and regulation.
it is clear that the Obama Administration is moving ahead on another front using the EPA regulations to pressure Congress into passing cap-and-tax legislation—if the Democrat Congress does not force a job-killing cap-and-tax scheme on the American people, the EPA will. The EPA endangerment finding and resulting regulation is just another massive intrusion of government into the U.S. economy. This action will stifle economic growth and kill jobs, especially in the manufacturing and agricultural sectors. The EPA regulation is simply a national energy tax that will raise costs for consumers and ship jobs overseas during a recession. If implemented, the new EPA permitting processes and rules will cost billions of dollars to implement and could potentially affect millions of small emitters such as hotels, hospitals, churches, farms, and various small businesses. The rules will inject uncertainty into the economy, delay or halt new construction, and deter investment.
Several States’ governors, attorneys general, environmental agencies, and agricultural agencies have weighed in to oppose the EPA finding, citing negative impacts for their State. In addition to House Republicans opposing efforts to implement the EPA’s job-killing regulations, they have offered a better plan to clean up the environment without a backdoor national energy tax. The American Energy Act is an all-of-the-above plan that would provide energy independence, more jobs here at home and a cleaner environment at the same time.
On the continuing saga of ramming through nationalized heath care (Obamacare), both CNN and New York Times identify that President Obama is preparing to give "a speech on Wednesday to outline ‘the way forward’ and to flesh out the substance of his proposed compromise based on the bills passed by the House and Senate . . . .” There’s been some speculation that Obama will put forward a new, smaller health care bill tomorrow, mostly based on a comment from House Speaker Nancy Pelosi yesterday.
But House Majority Leader Steny Hoyer clarified for The Hill today what Democrats are actually planning on doing: “Hoyer affirmed that Democratic leaders intend to press ahead with their plan for the House to take up the Senate bill and for both chambers to consider a package based on Obama’s proposal via budget reconciliation rules that would allow the smaller bill to pass the Senate on a simple majority vote.”
In other words, in order to provide political cover for House Democrats to vote for the 2,700 page $2.5 trillion monstrosity of a Senate health care bill, Democrats want to pass another bill and jam it through the Senate on a partisan basis. Why do House Democrats feel they need political cover? The Senate bill still features such gems as the Cornhusker Kickback, the Louisiana Purchase, a new tax on “Cadillac” health care plans, and other troublesome provisions.
But no one should be under any illusions that what President Obama proposes tomorrow is likely to improve the Senate bill, unless it scraps the bill altogether. At its core, the Senate health care reform bill still features $500 billion in tax increases and $500 billion in cuts to Medicare, doesn’t control costs, and is almost certain to result in increased premiums for Americans.
Poll after poll shows that Americans have rejected this approach to health care reform. Not only do overwhelming majorities oppose Congress passing this bill, there was an election just over a month ago in Massachusetts where voters elected a Republican who campaigned against the Democrats’ bill.
As previously reported both Sen. Mitch McConnell (R-KY) and Sen. Orrin Hatch (R-UT) explained precisely why using reconciliation for expanding national health care is so outrageous. Americans have said loud and clear that they want Congress to start over on health care reform and shelve these badly flawed bills. As Sen. McConnell said, “Democrats are saying they want a simple up or down vote on health care. What they really want is to jam their vision of health care through Congress over the objections of a public that they seem to think is too ill-informed to notice. If they go ahead with this plan, they’ll see how wrong they are.”
Tags: cap-and-trade, energy tax, EPA, government healthcare, US Congress, US House, US Senate, Washington D.C. To share or post to your site, click on "Post Link". Please mention / link to the ARRA News Service. Thanks!
In the House, besides the below topic of Obamacare, currently 84 House Republicans the EPA’s Backdoor National Energy Tax and are on a resolution of disapproval that would prevent the EPA from implementing these job-killing regulations. You may recall that late last year, Environmental Protection Administration (EPA) head Lisa Jackson signed an “endangerment finding” stating that greenhouse gases, including carbon dioxide, “threaten the public health and welfare of current and future generations.” These findings pave the way for EPA regulation of emissions even though the EPA has admitted that it has not evaluated possible job losses or shifts in employment that may occur due to its rules and regulation.
it is clear that the Obama Administration is moving ahead on another front using the EPA regulations to pressure Congress into passing cap-and-tax legislation—if the Democrat Congress does not force a job-killing cap-and-tax scheme on the American people, the EPA will. The EPA endangerment finding and resulting regulation is just another massive intrusion of government into the U.S. economy. This action will stifle economic growth and kill jobs, especially in the manufacturing and agricultural sectors. The EPA regulation is simply a national energy tax that will raise costs for consumers and ship jobs overseas during a recession. If implemented, the new EPA permitting processes and rules will cost billions of dollars to implement and could potentially affect millions of small emitters such as hotels, hospitals, churches, farms, and various small businesses. The rules will inject uncertainty into the economy, delay or halt new construction, and deter investment.
Several States’ governors, attorneys general, environmental agencies, and agricultural agencies have weighed in to oppose the EPA finding, citing negative impacts for their State. In addition to House Republicans opposing efforts to implement the EPA’s job-killing regulations, they have offered a better plan to clean up the environment without a backdoor national energy tax. The American Energy Act is an all-of-the-above plan that would provide energy independence, more jobs here at home and a cleaner environment at the same time.
On the continuing saga of ramming through nationalized heath care (Obamacare), both CNN and New York Times identify that President Obama is preparing to give "a speech on Wednesday to outline ‘the way forward’ and to flesh out the substance of his proposed compromise based on the bills passed by the House and Senate . . . .” There’s been some speculation that Obama will put forward a new, smaller health care bill tomorrow, mostly based on a comment from House Speaker Nancy Pelosi yesterday.
But House Majority Leader Steny Hoyer clarified for The Hill today what Democrats are actually planning on doing: “Hoyer affirmed that Democratic leaders intend to press ahead with their plan for the House to take up the Senate bill and for both chambers to consider a package based on Obama’s proposal via budget reconciliation rules that would allow the smaller bill to pass the Senate on a simple majority vote.”
In other words, in order to provide political cover for House Democrats to vote for the 2,700 page $2.5 trillion monstrosity of a Senate health care bill, Democrats want to pass another bill and jam it through the Senate on a partisan basis. Why do House Democrats feel they need political cover? The Senate bill still features such gems as the Cornhusker Kickback, the Louisiana Purchase, a new tax on “Cadillac” health care plans, and other troublesome provisions.
But no one should be under any illusions that what President Obama proposes tomorrow is likely to improve the Senate bill, unless it scraps the bill altogether. At its core, the Senate health care reform bill still features $500 billion in tax increases and $500 billion in cuts to Medicare, doesn’t control costs, and is almost certain to result in increased premiums for Americans.
Poll after poll shows that Americans have rejected this approach to health care reform. Not only do overwhelming majorities oppose Congress passing this bill, there was an election just over a month ago in Massachusetts where voters elected a Republican who campaigned against the Democrats’ bill.
As previously reported both Sen. Mitch McConnell (R-KY) and Sen. Orrin Hatch (R-UT) explained precisely why using reconciliation for expanding national health care is so outrageous. Americans have said loud and clear that they want Congress to start over on health care reform and shelve these badly flawed bills. As Sen. McConnell said, “Democrats are saying they want a simple up or down vote on health care. What they really want is to jam their vision of health care through Congress over the objections of a public that they seem to think is too ill-informed to notice. If they go ahead with this plan, they’ll see how wrong they are.”
Tags: cap-and-trade, energy tax, EPA, government healthcare, US Congress, US House, US Senate, Washington D.C. To share or post to your site, click on "Post Link". Please mention / link to the ARRA News Service. Thanks!
Posted by Bill Smith at 1:45 PM - Post Link
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