Mr. President: There Is Bipartisan Support For $20 Billion Privately Funded Keystone XL Pipleline

Obama Supporters Apposing Keystone Jobs

Today in Washington, D.C. - Dec. 9, 2011:
The House concluded legislative business for the week Thursday afternoon and met for a brief pro forma session this morning recessing until Monday.  The Senate is in recess until Monday when it will take up the nominations of ambassadors to El Salvador and the Czech Republic.

Yesterday, Senate Republicans blocked confirmation of Richard Cordray to be director of the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau, an unaccountable new bureaucracy created by the Dodd-Frank law. The nomination needed 60 votes to move forward, but failed by a 53-45 vote.

Also yesterday, the Senate Democrats again failed to get 60 votes for their latest payroll tax cut extension bill, S. 1944, which would have extended the tax cut for one year but raised taxes for ten years. Following that vote, the Republican alternative, S. 1931, was voted down by the Senate.

Yesterday the House passed (317-98) HR 1254, the Synthetic Drug Control Act of 2011 which would also criminalize synthetic stimulants ("bath salts"),  synthetic cannabinoids ("fake pot" e.g "K2" and "Spice").   Forty states have already passed bans on the new synthetic drugs.   The question now is have we limited the access to research into future drugs that could aid mankind and also are we willing to fill the prisons even more.

The House also passed HR 2920, the Entrepreneur Access to Capital Act which amends the Securities Act of 1933, by allowing entrepreneurs to "crowdsource" (online) up to $2 million per year in investment capital directly from individuals without having to register the investors with the SEC.  Still looking for an article that details in simple terminology "crowdsourcing of capital."

President Obama said during a press conference with Canadian Prime Minister Stephen Harper this week, “any effort to try to tie Keystone [XL pipeline] to the payroll tax cut I will reject.” However, Politico reports today that “to some House Democrats, getting approval for the $7 billion, 1,700-mile pipeline from Alberta oil sands to Texas refineries is a serious effort that should hitch a ride in a must-pass payroll tax cut extension.”

According to Politico, “Rep. Mike Ross of Arkansas — one of 47 Democrats that supported a House bill this summer to require a decision on the pipeline project by Nov. 1 — counted more than 20 Democrats who would likely support adding the Keystone language to the payroll tax package. And he said he disagreed with Obama’s threat. ‘Look, I think that’d be a mistake on the president’s part,’ Ross said. ‘That’s the kind of economic activity we need. It’s a win-win. It reduces our dependence on foreign oil and creates jobs here at home.’ Rep. Gene Green (D-Texas) said he’s not swayed by Obama’s veiled veto pledge. ‘For the president, that’s a negotiating technique. And if you issue that veto threat, you better live through it. Because the next one then nobody will believe you if you don’t,’ Green said. ‘But that doesn’t give me any pause.’”

In fact, 22 House Democrats wrote to President Obama in October, urging approval of the Keystone XL pipeline. “America truly cannot afford to say ‘no’ to this privately funded, $20 billion, jobs-creating infrastructure project, which would bolster our economic, energy and national security.” They pointed out, “With job growth an ongoing struggle for our country, the proposed Keystone XL Pipeline represents a true shovel-ready project that would directly create 20,000 high quality domestic manufacturing and construction jobs for Americans who are desperately seeking employment. The project would also create an additional 118,000 spin-off jobs.”

Politico reports, that even liberal Rep. Emmanuel Cleaver (D-MO) “suggested Friday that he would be willing to trade approval of the Keystone pipeline for an extension in the payroll tax cut. ‘I do think that if I had one minute to vote, I probably would vote to accept the deal, but it’s not good government,’ Cleaver said on MSNBC’s Morning Joe.”  The Hill noted that Cleaver “said President Obama might cave on his threat to veto an extension of the payroll tax cut if it’s tied to a controversial pipeline project. ‘I think [Obama] is serious, but at the end, it may be here’s an opportunity to get a deal and get what I want and go home.'"

Labor unions have also been outspoken in support of moving forward on Keystone XL. The Laborers’ International Union of North America has said it is “not just a pipeline, but is a lifeline for thousands of desperate working men and women.” The AFL-CIO’s Mark Ayers wrote last month that “it is America’s workers who are clamoring for the expedited approval of this important project. As President Obama has rightfully declared when it comes to the creation of jobs, ‘WE CAN’T WAIT.’” And International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers president Edwin Hill said, “At a time when jobs are the top global priority, the Keystone project will put thousands back to work and have ripple benefits throughout the North American economy.”

Why is President Obama threatening a veto of a bill that has bipartisan support, would both extend the payroll tax cut he’s spent so much time campaigning for, and create jobs by moving ahead on the Keystone XL pipeline? In an interview at The Heritage Foundation this week, Sen.Mitch McConnell said, “This is a shovel-ready project. It could start tomorrow. All it needs is presidential approval. . . . And then the president decided, ‘Oh I’m not going to decide this until after the next election,’ presumably to curry favor with environmentalists who don’t like any form of energy production. But we need jobs. This is a project ready to go. All it needs is the permission of the President of the United States. So legislatively we’re going to demand that the president make a decision within 60 days and we’re going to try to pass it.”

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