Big Dogs Weblog

Nancy Pelosi Rams Through Legislation

by Big Dog on Jul 1, 2009 at 05:17 Political

When the Democrats took control in 2006 Nancy Pelosi said they would be the most honest, open, and ethical Congress in history. The ethical part of that was shot from the start with sweetheart loans and tax evasion and a myriad of other ethical lapses. The American Spectator has a piece up entitled; ACES Up Her Sleeve.

In that article the authors, Jeremy Lott and William Yeatman, discuss that if there were any doubts about Pelosi breaking all those promises they were cleared up after her actions last week with regard to the Cap and Trade bill. Or as they put it; “Our refusal to accept her rhetoric was roundly vindicated last week.”

The Speaker chose to stifle the usual observances of deliberative democracy because open, honest debate would have attracted unwelcome scrutiny to her massive new energy tax.

Pelosi’s legislation, the American Clean Energy and Security (ACES) Act, would raise the price of hydrocarbon energy sources like coal and oil thought to cause global warming, but which power 85 percent — 85 percent! — of the economic production in America.

A large energy tax during a deep recession is a political cyanide pill that 44 of Pelosi’s Democratic colleagues refused to swallow. That almost doomed the bill and in fact would have killed it outright Friday night if eight Republicans hadn’t voted with the majority of Democrats. (The final vote was 219 to 212.)

Likely there would have been many more Democratic “no” votes if Madame-Speaker and Energy & Commerce chairman Henry Waxman didn’t find creative ways to shorten or skip every step of that “How a Bill Becomes a Law” song.

The Democrats have been ramming things through at breakneck speed and they have been skirting the rules and procedures because if the legislation is given any time for public consumption then it will meet with the scorn of the people. The Democrats’ plan is to ram it through before we know what is in it and then have us accept the consequences because there is not much we can do.

This bill was nearly 1300 pages and NO ONE read it just like NO ONE read the stimulus. We keep seeing where things are popping up because of the stimulus and we keep finding waste as well as unintended consequences that cannot easily be overcome. For instance, the stimulus gave people a little more in paychecks. It was enough to disqualify some people for food stamps and other assistance because it pushed them over the income limit. If someone had taken the time to read it then maybe that could have been fixed by adding a line stating that the money was not to count toward welfare eligibility.

This is the kind of stuff that happens when they do not read the bills. They did not read the Cap and Trade bill and this one will be an economy and business killer. If this ever passes (and it has a better chance with Franken headed to DC, unless Kennedy’s term expires) then many businesses will move out of the country, our energy costs will skyrocket (Obama said they necessarily would), and many people will have to decide between eating and keeping warm.

It is an Obamanation and Nancy Pelosi ignored the rules in order to get what she and Obama wanted and of course, so they could take off for their WEEK long 4^th of July holiday.

Obama said we needed to do these things this year (Cap and Trade, Health Care reform) and he says it is because it is urgent blah, blah. Nothing is ever so urgent that it cannot be read before it is voted on. Obama wants this rammed through and done because next year is an election year and he does not want bills that are unpopular among people in his own party hanging out there like an Al Gore chad. He does not want people to be reminded of the terrible things he is doing while he tries to keep all the seats he has. If they pass it soon they can enact it next year and the results will not be felt until after the election.

The transparent, open, honest, and ethical Democrats have been anything but and this is from Obama down. None of them have kept promises regarding posting bills for public review and none of them are following the procedures in order to do things.

They are doing what they want and they do not care about us, their concern is getting their agenda passed.

Perhaps the Hondurans have the right idea…

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Tags: criminal, ethics, ineptitude, Obama, Pelosi