We've talked about cap & trade running into several roadblocks in Olympia, most recently here. The simple reality is that an unproven regulatory system with a potentially huge (& negative) economic impact would be a tough sell in any year, let alone in the midst of a major recession.
It's clear we here in the Evergreen State are not alone in reaching that conclusion. George Stephanopolous reports (h/t: Hot Air):
As the Wall Street Journal and Washington Post have reported, House Democrats (backed by the White House) plan to write a budget resolution that allows health care to be passed by a simple majority (through the so-called "reconciliation" process) if a bipartisan compromise isn't reached by September.Cap and trade will not get the same budget protection, and there are nowhere near 60 votes for it. Keeping it out of the reconciliation process recognizes reality: Congress can't pass it in the middle of a recession.
Much like the hesitancy of Democrats with a clear understanding of the situation locally, you won't see many national level D's running out to the cameras to bash cap & trade as impractical and expensive. They want to the issue to go away, with as little uproar from the vocal environmental community as possible.
If Stephanopolous's reporting holds, that means no cap & trade in the near future. Congress very rarely deals with major policy legislation in an election year so 2010 doesn't look very plausible either. Considering cap & trade in 2011 would depend heavily on the state of the economy and the results of the 2010 election themselves. That's a lot of variables, even if Democrats could find enough moderates and centrists within their own ranks willing to move forward with the controversial idea.
Exit question: wouldn't the absence of a cap & trade revenue influx to DC make skyrocketing deficit projections in Obama's budget plan run even higher?
Uh oh.
Posted by Eric Earling at March 21, 2009 01:10 PM | Email ThisMore interesting is the Democrat's intention to go nuclear on the filibuster. Since they really cannot expect to hold onto power forever, they must be depending upon the Charlie Brown-like nature to trust Democrats the next time the GOP holds power.
As long as the GOP fails to recognize that Democrats are the real enemy, and an enemy without scruple or honesty, I cannot imagine voting GOP again.
Exit answer: The absence of cap & trade legislation would be so encouraging to entrepreneurs throughout the country that their increased economic activity would more than offset the loss of 'revenue' seized by government from carbon users.
After all, the Obamenvironmentalists are so narrow-minded that they're blind to the economic damage that this assault on a carbon-based economy would cause. If you want to see increasing unemployment and skyrocketing prices, impose some ideological gimmick like cap & trade, and gloat while the wheels stop turning. You'll have about one season of flowers and dickey birds before the lack of groceries in stores, and consumer items on shelves, and cars in the dealers, wakes you up to the catastrophe that top-down economic management-by-decree really is. The Soviets found out, but the MSM chooses to forget.
Even the fabulous Europeans are abandoning cap & trade. But then, its main purpose was always to entice the US into adopting it - not because it worked, but because it would damage our economic competitiveness, to their benefit.
Posted by: Insufficiently Sensitive on March 21, 2009 02:12 PMTime to take back America!
Posted by: BobE on March 21, 2009 02:21 PMAfter all, the Obamenvironmentalists are so narrow-minded that they're blind to the economic damage that this assault on a carbon-based economy would cause.
While I believe that incompetence/ignorance is much more likely than actual malevolence, past experience with environnuts leads me to doubt your optimistic assessment.
I think a significant number of them want to damage the US and western economies. Their reasons vary from fantasies about living close to the land to actual malevolence towards the US. But regardless of why they wish such an evil thing, the evidence is that many wish us to be taken down several notches.
Posted by: iconoclast on March 21, 2009 02:22 PMBut being late on the paperwork should mess up the IRS's schedules. We sure don't want the tax collector to be efficient.
Posted by: Ron Hebron on March 21, 2009 02:56 PMBut annual hibernation of the Seattle Times and P-I was in effect at that time, and not a peep leaked out to the innocent public-at-large. It wouldn't do, in a Blue-state town like this, to disturb the sweet repose of lefties and Democrats still savoring the Obama victory.
Posted by: Insufficiently Sensitive on March 21, 2009 03:07 PMTea Parties - I am all for them - keep it going.
Posted by: KS on March 21, 2009 03:15 PMThe pro-gun Democrats, led by Rep. Mike Ross, D-Ark., wrote Attorney General Eric Holder that they would "actively oppose any effort to reinstate the 1994 ban, or to pass any similar law."They urged the administration to avoid a "long and divisive fight over a gun control issue" at a time when Washington needs to concentrate on the economic crisis.
So not only is the blatantly cynical Cap and Trade in trouble, so are the expected 2nd Amendment encroachments.
Amazing how fast this administration has kneecapped itself. It is almost as if they were dumber than the Bush administration...
Posted by: iconoclast on March 21, 2009 04:11 PMWhat do you mean, 'almost'? President Bush had an administration. President Obama has a gang.
Posted by: Insufficiently Sensitive on March 21, 2009 04:22 PMGang, and a loose one at that. For example, Geitner can't fill the positions below him. That should tell us something. No one wants to work for the man!
In the mean time, C&T RIP!
Posted by: Fed Up on March 21, 2009 07:26 PMMaybe Geithner could offer a deal! Come work for me and I will fix your tax problems. Just a word to Charlie Wrangel and you are golden...
Anyone NOT appalled by the collection of crooks Obama has around him??
Posted by: iconoclast on March 21, 2009 07:53 PM