Editorial: Senate Abdicates Power
Back in January Lisa Murkowski introduced a resolution in the Senate to put a halt to the power of the EPA to create regulations not sanctioned by the Congress. Specifically the resolution would have prevented them from enacting rules to regulate the greenhouse gas emissions within the Clean Air Act.
A vote came on Thursday and her resolution was defeated 53 - 47 with all Republicans voting to maintain this power in the Congress. As a result the EPA has a wider span of authority to actually create new taxes as a means to deter use of fossil fuels and reduce our "carbon footprints".
Based upon Thursday's vote, why bother with a Senate?
It is hard to comprehend why the United States Senate, an august body that we elect and pay to make tough decisions, abdicated their power to unelected bureaucrats of the Environmental Protection Agency. For some reason 53 members of the Senate decided to place no limits on the power of the EPA to regulate and tax Americans. Let's look at who the list of Senators includes to see whether your state is among those who no longer wish to have these decisions made in the Congress but prefer to have the EPA make policy instead.
Bennet, D-CO Udall (D-CO)
If you are among the many unemployed in Western Colorado because of the Interior Department's prohibitions against drilling and exploration, the EPA will not make things better. The Senate just voted to make it worse. Higher energy taxes are designed to make drilling prohibitive and these higher taxes will mean higher prices at the pumps, higher costs of home power and heating and higher costs of all products that use energy to either manufacture the product or to deliver it to market via truck, air or rail.
Feinstein (D-CA) Boxer, D-CA
Are costs not high enough for a state that has already been taxed to death to support illegal aliens? With the EPA in charge your costs for all products and services will escalate. Manufacturers won't be able to absorb these new taxes, they will always be borne by the consumer.
Levin (D-MI) Stabenow, D-MI
Things are really tough in Michigan right now. If the automobile industry isn't already suffering enough, your Senators Levin and Stabenow decided to make the manufacturing process more expensive and the cost to operate a motor vehicle more expensive as well. It is difficult to imagine with all these new taxes how or when people will be able to force a new automobile into the family budget.
Byrd, D-WV Casey (D-PA) Specter, D-PA
A note to all coal miners in Appalachia: this decision today did more than sock it to the oil companies, coal was hurt as well. Be sure to name a soup kitchen after Robert Byrd.
Baucus, D-MT Bingaman (D-NM) Cantwell (D-WA) Conrad (D-ND)
Feingold (D-WI) Franken (D-MN) Klobuchar (D-MN) Kohl (D-WI)
McCaskill (D-MO) Reid (D-NV) Tester (D-MT Udall (D-NM)
All this country's mining is not done underground. There is a tremendous amount of mining going on in the Midwest and the West for precious minerals and for coal. Coal and oil run our economy, or at least they did. I'd ask citizens to take a look at their risk of unemployment and ask yourself whether it was not made greater by the Senate refusing to harness an overreach by the EPA.
Burris, (D-IL) Dorgan (D-ND) Durbin (D-IL) Hagan (D-NC)
Harkin (D-IA) Johnson (D-SD) Merkley (D-OR) Murray (D-WA)
Wyden (D-OR) Warner (D-VA) Webb (D-VA)
There are a lot of energy intensive operations in the Pacific Northwest and in agricultural states. Lumber and aluminum jobs will be lost as a result of the promised regulations of the EPA. Agriculture makes use of huge tractors and combines. Did our source of building materials, food and tobacco become more expensive for your constituents?
Akaka (D-HI) Inouye (D-HI)
Almost everything that is consumed in Hawaii must be imported to Hawaii, including the tourists. Will the EPA's increase in taxes on fuel make the cost of a vacation to Hawaii prohibitive for families Hawaii relies upon for their livelihood? At the same time did Hawaiian's cost of living just escalate for their own cost of fuel and food?
Begich (D-AK)
Speaking of fuel, much of the economy of Alaska is dependent upon fuel for fishing boats and fuel is a harvested resource itself for use throughout the US. What will new taxes imposed by the EPA mean to Alaskan's ability to compete in the fishing industry and how will the price for fuel that is recovered from Alaska compare to fuel that is available elsewhere but that won't carry the tax?
Nelson (D-FL)
For those of you that live in Florida, how do those tourists arrive in Florida? Unless they come by canoe they will arrive by a means that will be more expensive and Florida should soon feel the impact of what happens when you tax something, you get less of it.
Brown (D-OH) Cardin (D-MD) Carper (D-DE) Dodd (D-CT)
Gillibrand (D-NY) Kaufman (D-DE) Kerry (D-MA) Lautenberg (D-NJ)
Leahy (D-VT) Lieberman (ID-CT) Menendez (D-NJ) Mikulski (D-MD)
Reed (D-RI) Sanders (I-VT) Schumer (D-NY) Shaheen (D-NH))
Whitehouse (D-RI)
Those of you in the Northeast, how do you heat your homes? Do you use the good intentions of the EPA? Perhaps with the abundance of fool senators and representatives that you continue to pollute our Congress with you are hoping for a bailout. I doubt that this is the kind of "hope" you were thinking about and I also doubt that you anticipated that "change" from Obama is nothing more than a wooden nickel. The question is this, "Are you willing to pay a dollar or two dollars as a premium on each gallon of heating oil that you consume in winter in order to amass a treasury to fight Global Warming? Are you comfortable allowing Congress and its lobbyists to determine how that money will be spent? Are you comfortable with the thought of Al Gore selling carbon credits while industry produces nothing? Bottom line, are you willing and able to incur the premium that you will pay under EPA guidelines to solve Global Warming, an issue that has been proven to be in the very best light a political hoax?
It is obvious that the problems of each of the referenced regions of the country overlap to other areas as well and many will receive more than double the impact. Michigan for example will in light of the disastrous impact on their automobile industry will also be faced with the higher than reasonable expense of heating their homes in winter. We will all feel the expense at the grocery store as food become more expensive to harvest and take to market.
The primary point is that these 53 senators each abdicated a responsibility provided them under our Constitution to ensure that the Environmental Protection Agency can enact regulations and new taxes where the Congress hasn't the votes or the courage to enact those taxes themselves. This is not only cowardice, but it is a shame and a disgrace that any branch of government would so freely give away their power to another in order to achieve a short term goal.
When you go to the polls this November and all subsequent Novembers, remember the calamity this group of 53 have created. Whether it be healthcare, cap and trade or some other progressive idea that sounded great think about the havoc that we are all involved in today and ask yourself whether these 53 aren't a large part of the problem.
The Tea Party very much reminds me of the Libertarian party.
During the 1st Clinton race I was at a Mall and the Republicans were passing out bumper stickers. The Democrats were passing out Bumper Stickers and Posters.
The Libertarians were handing out copies of the Constitution. I though "Very Smart". How can you play the game without the Rule Book. I kept that small copy of the constitution on my desk until I quit working for Corp. America and abandoned my Cubicle.
As long as our representatives get elected based on what they can bring back from Washington, we are Doomed.
There is nothing left to take.
How do you educated a TV Dumbed down society?
Bill
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I would not think of the Tea Party as purely Libertarian. There are certainly Libertarians among us but those with whom I am in frequent contact would not consider themselves Libertarian. We certainly agree on the importance of our Constitution but we do interpret it differently at least in two material regards. Unlike the Libertarian, I am not an isolationist and I believe government does have a role in protecting our culture from drugs and the problems they bring. I believe it to be for this reason that Ron Paul does not gain any greater traction than he does in polls of Tea Party members.
With regard to what can we do, we must begin at home. Take an interest in what your kids and your grandkids are learning in school. Sadly the public school system has become an enemy to education. Challenge the kids as to what they have learned about their heritage. Teach them to speak up in high school and college and to be less concerned with grades and more concerned with education. Every journey begins with a first step.
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