Pelosi: Democrats Have Made Progress Despite Reckless Opposition from the President and Republicans

Pelosi: Democrats Have Made Progress Despite Reckless Opposition from the President and Republicans
December 14th, 2007 by Office of the Speaker

Washington, D.C. — Speaker Nancy Pelosi issued the following statement responding to remarks by President Bush at the White House this morning. Below her statement is a fact sheet of major legislation the President has signed into law:

“Democrats in Congress have made progress this year despite reckless opposition from the President and Republicans in Congress. This month, we will send the President historic energy independence legislation that increases fuel efficiency standards for cars and trucks for the first time in a generation, a middle-class tax cut for 23 million Americans, and a final budget bill that addresses the priorities of the American people with new investments in education, cancer research, and law enforcement.

“I hope that among the President’s New Year’s resolutions will be a pledge to stop blocking progress and work with Congress to deliver for the American people.”

more...

http://www.speaker.gov/blog/?p=998

from Kos :

Passing the Inertia Bill
by Devilstower
Fri Dec 14, 2007 at 12:31:51 PM PST

Remember the energy bill? The bill that contained a requirement for utilities to draw 15% of the electricity from renewable energy sources? The bill that provided rebates to people who purchased plug-in hybrids and electric vehicles? The bill that took away the billions being given to the most profitable companies on earth, and used that money to pay for real advances? Sure, it wasn't a perfect bill. The new CAFE standards introduced in the bill had too much wiggle room, and the biofuels piece looked more like a gift to big agriculture than a reasonable approach to alternative fuels, but on the balance there was a lot to like in this bill.

That bill passed out of the House and went off to the Senate. There it ran into the awesome power of Republican filibuster-lite, which Democrats fought with all the fury of a wet paper bag.

The renewable energy requirements alone would have generated thousands of new US jobs, made a significant cut in greenhouse gases, and spurred enormous technological development. But the Republicans -- and more specifically their friends in the coal industry -- didn't like that part. So the renewables package was cut from the bill.

Which wasn't enough to get the Republicans to vote for it.

The payments to buyers of electric vehicles and plug-in hybrids would have boosted the fledgling EV industry, and would have replaced the current system in which manufacturers are punished when hybrid vehicles become popular. But that got cut.

Which wasn't enough to get the Republicans to vote for it.

Not giving the oil industry tens of billions of dollars in handouts, when those companies are already raking in windfall profits that are more than any company has made, ever, in the history of the planet, would have greatly reduced the national surplus in extreme idiocy and made those funds available to spur competing technologies. Wanna guess what happened to that? Ding, ding, ding!

And that, as it turns out, is exactly what the Republicans were waiting for. Because as soon as their friends in the oil fields were assured of their billion dollar give-away, Republicans signed on in in droves.

The measure was approved Thursday with strong bipartisan support 86-8 after Democrats abandoned efforts to impose billions of dollars in new taxes on the biggest oil companies, unable by one vote to overcome a Republican filibuster against the new taxes.

How long did the Democrats spend trying to overcome that one vote "hey, we promise to filibuster if we really have to" threat? About as long as it takes a Hummer H1 to burn through a gallon of premium.

"It was a good, heartfelt battle," said Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.) after the vote, vowing to continue working on the energy bill.

"We are going to finish this bill today if at all possible."

The same day? You were one vote short of getting the bill through. At every turn, Democrats had surrendered major pieces of the legislation while Republicans gave up nothing. Was it really more important that the bill get gutted on the same day, rather than putting up at least a few hours trying to sway a single senator? That's not a battle. Heck, it's barely a skirmish.

"The Senate Democrats should show some backbone," said Brent Blackwelder, president of Friends of the Earth. "If Republicans want to block progress on clean energy and global warming, they should be forced to mount a real filibuster — for weeks if necessary."

Yeah, well. We've all said that. But Reid believes that actual filibusters are boring, which he demonstrated by holding a pajama party that was not a filibuster.

So, what's left in the bill? Pretty much the revised CAFE standards, the big boost in ethanol production, and the same handouts to the fossil fuel industry that have been in the last half-dozen energy bills. In fact 80% of the funding goes to the good folks in fossil fuels so they can keep their coffers fat to fight the next energy bill.

This doesn't mean the bill is completely worthless. Those increased mileage standards are at least a good signal that the auto industry recognizes it has to change, and the Democratic congressmen who have kept that industry in bubble wrap for the last twenty years have acknowledged that sleepy time is over. But in practical terms, in "the house is on fire what are you going to do about it" terms, this bill has gone from being a fire extinguisher, to a squirt gun.

Time to get back to work on Energize America if we hope to have a serious energy bill on the plate for next year. But if you're one of the several energy activists who went out on a limb to support the original version of the bill, you might feel compelled to do something else first

It is the Senate that is undecided and will vote Monday.

has shot herself in the foot....

Good thing the Republicorporatewarparytheofascists didn't keep a majority, otherwise they might have funded, and refunded, and funded again a no strings no oversight no end in sight illegal occupation of Iraq. Otherwise they might have legalized warrantless spying and torture of prisoners. Otherwise any investigations into massive criminal misdeeds by the administration would go nowhere....

Yes it sure is a good thing that the Democorporatewarpartypanderers are in control of congress.

Reid and Pelosi are a disappointment. I never expected them to get much done because they didn't have the votes and they have an obstructionist President. However, she is going along with too much of what the GOP wants (not FISA). So is Reid. :thumbsdown:
I expect a nasty battle in the joint committee on the FISA bill.

that doesn't grant retroative immunity?

"However, she is going along with too much of what the GOP wants."

Let me get this straight you defend Hillary, but denounce Pelosi?

I will still defend Hillary though. Presidential politics is a very difficult game. Hill has was it takes to win.

COMPLICIT/NO IMPEACHMENT ON THE TABLE, ETC. Et Fucking Cetera! She is part of the fucking problem! Fuck You Queen Nancy! May you never be able to wash the blood off of your hands! :argh:

it`s obvious to me that she is failing her duty to her district and this country.

speaking on PBS.

The Hidden State Steps Forward - http://www.truthout.org/docs_2005/122705B.shtml

There is a name for a system of government that wages aggressive war, deceives its citizens, violates their rights, abuses power and breaks the law, rejects judicial and legislative checks on itself, claims power without limit, tortures prisoners and acts in secret. It is dictatorship.

The Administration of George W. Bush is not a dictatorship, but it does manifest the characteristics of one in embryonic form. Until recently, these were developing and growing in the twilight world of secrecy. Even within the executive branch itself, Bush seemed to govern outside the normally constituted channels of the Cabinet and to rely on what Secretary of State Colin Powell’s chief of staff has called a “cabal.” Former Treasury Secretary Paul O’Neill reported the same thing. Cabinet meetings were for show. Real decisions were made elsewhere, out of sight. Another White House official, John DiIulio, has commented that there was “a complete lack of a policy apparatus” in the White House. “What you’ve got is everything, and I mean everything, being run by the political arm.” As in many Communist states, a highly centralized party, in this case the Republican Party, was beginning to forge a parallel apparatus at the heart of government, a semi-hidden state-within-a-state, by which the real decisions were ade.

With Bush’s defense of his wiretapping, the hidden state has stepped into the open. The deeper challenge Bush has thrown down, therefore, is whether the country wants to embrace the new form of government he is creating by executive fiat or to continue with the old constitutional form. He is now in effect saying, “Yes, I am above the law-I am the law, which is nothing more than what I and my hired lawyers say it is-and if you don’t like it, I dare you to do something about it.”

Members of Congress have no choice but to accept the challenge. ...........

Well no, it seems they have the other choice: look away.

I needed that. sniff