Lieberman-Warner debate begins
The Senate is taking up the ManBearPig global warming bill:
The Senate began what is expected to be a weeklong, contentious debate Monday over legislation to combat global warming by mandatory reductions in carbon dioxide and other greenhouse gases.I'm covering this bill in my column this week. I am anxiously awaiting the outcome of the vote.Senators voted 74-14 to proceed to the bill, but immediately it became clear Republican opponents were not going to make it easy. A request by Democrats to begin considering substantive changes in the bill was blocked by GOP opponents until Wednesday at the earliest.
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But supporters of the bill acknowledged it will be difficult — perhaps impossible — to overcome a certain GOP filibuster threat against the legislation, meaning congressional action on global warming will probably be decided in the next Congress and by the next president.Many of the GOP senators who voted to debate the issue have said they are opposed to the bill.
Comments
Now that I've done some reading up on the bill, it sounds like its opponents are on the money when they call it a new tax-and-spend plan. The only surprise here is that the proponents of the bill have chosen not to wait until they have a liberal like McCain or Obama in the White House to try to get this passed. Of course, the Congress shows its usual foresight with a bill that would effectively mandate a move away from oil, coal, and even clean burning fuels like natural gas (?!?!) before there is a viable alternative energy source in the offing. At least they're admitting that their bill will drive up the cost of energy -- you can bet their estimates are about as accurate as projections of the Medicare prescription benefit's cost. But hey, liberals are always for taking your money away from you and magnanimously letting you have some back if and when you can show a real hardship as a result of their damn-the-consumer, big government policies.
Jason, I look forward to your article on the bill...hopefully you can tell us more about its actual provisions than our pals at Yahoo News thought fit to publish.
"I believe that libertarianism is at the very heart of conservatism." -- Ronald Reagan
Posted by: Troy Casey | June 3, 2008 01:31 PM