I don't often agree with Dick Morris, but he makes some excellent points in his article on RealClearPolitics today:
Only the Senate and House Republicans can save Obama now by compromising and lending his extremist legislation the veneer of bipartisanship in order to remove it as a political issue.
If the likes of GOP Sens. Olympia Snowe (Maine), Susan Collins (Maine), Chuck Grassley (Iowa), Orrin Hatch (Utah) and others refuse to go along with Obama on healthcare and on cap-and-trade, they will force him to pass both programs as one-party bills. Not only is it possible that as public support runs out on these measures he will fail even to get 50 votes to pass them, but it is likely that even if they go through, they doom his administration to perpetual unpopularity.
With a filibuster proof majority in the Senate, thanks to the people of Minnesota who in their wisdom have given us Senator Franken, and a large majority in the House, the Democrats will be able to enact all of the legislation of their dreams. Impediments to Social justice and saving the planet from Anthropogenic Global warming will soon give way before the wisdom of the Democrats. They will have full responsibility for the outcomes.
We can anticipate more such arguments for legislation as conveyed by the eminent Tom Friedman today in support of the tax and Trade abomination recently passed by the House:
There is much in the House cap-and-trade energy bill that just passed that I absolutely hate. It is too weak in key areas and way too complicated in others. A simple, straightforward carbon tax would have made much more sense than this Rube Goldberg contraption. It is pathetic that we couldn’t do better. It is appalling that so much had to be given away to polluters. It stinks. It’s a mess. I detest it.
Now let’s get it passed in the Senate and make it law.
Why? Because, for all its flaws, this bill is the first comprehensive attempt by America to mitigate climate change by putting a price on carbon emissions. Rejecting this bill would have been read in the world as America voting against the reality and urgency of climate change and would have undermined clean energy initiatives everywhere.
More important, my gut tells me that if the U.S. government puts a price on carbon, even a weak one, it will usher in a new mind-set among consumers, investors, farmers, innovators and entrepreneurs that in time will make a big difference — much like the first warnings that cigarettes could cause cancer. The morning after that warning no one ever looked at smoking the same again.
Ditto if this bill passes. Henceforth, every investment decision made in America — about how homes are built, products manufactured or electricity generated — will look for the least-cost low-carbon option. And weaving carbon emissions into every business decision will drive innovation and deployment of clean technologies to a whole new level and make energy efficiency much more affordable. That ain’t beanbag.
When your ends are so important, all means are acceptable. What sublime ignorance! We are going to take this Rube Goldberg bill and toss monkey wrenches, most of them unknown with unknowable results, into the world's most sophisticated, vibrant, and complex economy; we are going to introduce significant energy taxes in the middle of a deep and pervasive recession; and we already know that in the best case scenario we will only decrease the projected (by inadequate computer models that have repeatedly been shown to be inaccurate, even for predicting the past climate history) AGW increase by ~0.5 degrees.
The hubris is breath taking. Yesterday I described this as being a result of "absolute good intentions." By this I meant that even if their goals are complicated by venality, their goal of saving the planet is so important that it enables any and all means for its achievement. Al Gore may become wealthy beyond measure, Henry Waxman may achieve heights of power rarely seen by a mere subcommittee chairman, Nancy Pelsoi can achieve both power and wealth, but all is allowed, even demanded, by the morally absolute goal they desire.
The combination of absolute certainty and near absolute power that the Democrats have will lead us to disaster (just as the control of the government by the Republicans led to many unintended and untoward outcomes.) Since the MSM is fully on board with the Democratic party, there are almost no effective checks available on the use of power by the Democrats. They now have what they have always wished for...
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