From Gary Bauer at Campaign for Working Families: Excerpts with permission. Annotations in bold are ours and not in the original.
Democrats Talk About The Weather
Last night Senate Democrats launched an unusual filibuster. It wasn’t technically a filibuster because they were not trying to block a bill. They wanted to talk about the weather. They really wanted to talk about the weather. They talked all night long and well into the morning — for 30 hours!
Democrats took this unusual action to highlight what they claim is the growing danger from climate change. But the move has left many in the liberal media scratching their heads.
USA Today noted: “The Democratic effort is cause for some confusion because these senators are calling for action in a chamber they control but without any specific legislation to offer up for a vote, or any timetable for action this year.”
One Washington Post columnist wrote: “This may be the first time in history that a group of senators filibustered themselves. …The problem is that Reid doesn’t have the votes in his caucus to pass such a measure. …the last time the Senate considered a fee on carbon emissions, 13 Democrats joined with all 45 Republicans in defeating it.”
Ed Note: This is no thanks to Mark Jacobs, candidate for US Senate from Iowa, who helped cap and trade facilitator, Democrat Arlen Specter, and supported cap and trade as a Houston business executive.
Be glad they did. Like every liberal scheme, the left’s way of addressing climate change is through massive tax increases, bigger government and more control over your life. You don’t have to take my word for it.
In a moment of unusual candor, Michigan Democrat Rep. John Dingell once admitted that the Democrats’ carbon cap and trade scheme was “a great big tax.” Billionaire investor and Obama supporter Warren Buffett has called cap and trade a “huge tax” and a “regressive tax,” meaning it hurts the poor the most.
What might such a huge and regressive tax look like? Skyrocketing utility bills. You may recall that Barack Obama promised that under his cap and trade plan “electricity rates would necessarily skyrocket” and it would also “bankrupt the coal industry.” Food prices could skyrocket too. And gas prices could rise to $7.00 a gallon.
Who could possibly think any of this is a good idea? Die-hard socialists who admit, “If you take climate change seriously, you do have to throw out the free-market playbook,” which may include as many as 30 Senate Democrats based on last night’s speakers.
Beyond their socialist ideology, politics had a lot to do with last’s night PR stunt. The Los Angeles Times wrote: “But as they rev up for the midterm elections, Democrats are heeding the call of California billionaire Tom Steyer, who has pledged $100 million to back candidates with a program to curb climate change.”
Left-Wing Intolerance On Display
. . . Senate Democrat Leader Harry Reid put the left’s increasing intolerance for dissent on full display last night. Reid said, “It’s time to stop acting like those who ignore this crisis … have a valid point of view.” It’s a phrase Reid has used before.
In fact, that is the attitude the left is adopting on more and more issues. The belief that marriage is the union of one man and one woman, the publicly held position of the president of the United States just a few years ago, is equated with bigotry by the left. Those who question climate change are labeled “climate deniers,” as if they are somehow similar to Holocaust deniers.
Whether Harry Reid likes it or not, the science is far from settled.
Are SUVs responsible for melting ice caps on Mars?
The computer models that Harry Reid, Al Gore and other “global warmmongers” rely on are frequently wrong.
A recent Harvard study concluded that the earth was warmer during the Middle Ages than today. It’s impossible to blame that on coal plants that did not exist 1,000 years ago.
A few hundred years ago, Europe and North America suffered through the “Little Ice Age,” and there is evidence suggesting we may be entering another dramatic cooling period.
Unfortunately, the left simply wants to silence the debate and force its big government, redistributionist agenda on the country. This is a very undemocratic and dangerous tendency.
