Cap and Trade Bill Puts Election Year Pressure on Lincoln, Signals Snyder Believes He is Safe
Somewhere buried under the coverage of Michael Jackson and Mark Sanford, the Energy Bill (often called Cap and Trade Bill) was passed by a hair in the U.S. House of Representatives on Friday night with only one vote to spare. The bill sponsors hold that the bill will reduce greenhouse gasses by 17 percent in the next 11 years and is necessary to help save our planet. Opponents argue that the bill is unnecessary and will dramatically increase utility costs. The Congressional Budget Office estimated today that the bill with increase taxes by $872.8 billion.
The Arkansas Representatives were split on their votes with Rep. Berry, Boozman, and Ross voting against the bill and Rep. Snyder voting to give it the one plus needed votes for passage. Snyder told the Arkansas Democrat Gazette that he was persuaded to vote for the bill after reading it late Thursday with his son sleeping on the couch. He must be quite the reader the get through the 1,200 page bill with a 310 page amendment arriving at 3:00 am. Dick Morris has another idea about what happened. According to Morris, the bills passage was not in doubt; instead the Democrats were fighting over which Democrats facing difficult reelections would get to be one of the forty-four Democrats to vote against the bill. I guess Rep. Snyder either believes he is safe (Blake Rutherford tells me he borrowed the tie in the picture above from his potential opponent David Meeks!!!) or drew the short straw.
So now the bill heads to the Senate where it needs sixty votes to end 
debate and bring the bill up for a vote. With 40 Republicans and 57 Democrats, 2 Independents, and the Minnesota seats still unresolved, there is no doubt that Sen. Blanche Lincoln will be feeling the pressure on this one with her potential Republican opponents already bring up the issue. On his blog, Curtis Coleman calls the energy bill “the biggest and most unnecessary tax increase in American history.” Likewise, Tom Cox said during his Senate announcement that instead of cap and trade the bill should be called “the clean your clock bill” because it will hit the budgets of average American so hard.
As a key swing vote to reach the 60 needed in the full Senate as well as her membership on the Senate Energy Committee, there is little doubt the Sen. Lincoln will be directly in the crosshairs on this one.
Tags: 2010 Candidates
June 30th, 2009 at 10:53 am
It definitely is a scary bill and I think the American people had better to their best to get out of debt and start finding safe ways to store their money because the possibilities tax wise of this thing are horrible if you ask me. Even more frightening is that no one has read this thing completely. I saw a video of the Climate Czar Carol Browner where even she admitted that she hadn’t read it.
July 1st, 2009 at 1:00 pm
I cannot believe how the idiots in the U.S. House of Representatives who voted for ‘Cap and Trade’ can look themselves in the mirror. I know they don’t live in the real world since all they could ever need is furnished by to them by “WE” the American tax payer. They did this dirty deed without reading the bill and anyone who says they did is a liar!
Our current government is going to bury our nation and it’s people under a debt I can’t even imagine.
I am a senior citizen and have watched politicians go from bad to worse over my many years of observing their behavior. They feel they are above the laws of man and God and don’t care what happens to the rest of us. I have voted in every election for the past 51 years and it gets harder and harder to find someone who has a brain in his, or her head who deserves my vote.
In this economy, this bill alone will put people on the street who have worked all their lives to pay their bills and keep a roof over their heads. If it passes in the senate I will never vote for another Democrat as long as I draw breath and will influence anyone I come into contact with to join my boycott.
Concerned Citizen
July 1st, 2009 at 3:39 pm
Any one that votes for this Cap and trade bill needs to be voted out of office.