GOP Leader Blog
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Senate Leaves Rank-and-File House Dems Hanging Out to Dry on National Energy Tax
Posted by
Kevin Smith
on
September 10, 2009
In June, rank-and-file House Democrats bowed to the demands of the leadership and voted for Speaker Pelosi’s national energy tax – legislation that will punish their constituents by increasing electricity bills, raising gasoline prices, and shipping more American jobs overseas to places like China and India. This is the same bill that Democratic leaders didn’t want the American people to read, and House GOP Leader John Boehner’s (R-OH) gave an hour-long speech (VIDEO here) on the House floor in which he read portions of a 300-plus page amendment Democrats added in the dark of night to the already 1,200-page bill. But the Senate continues to signal that it will not act on this job-killing tax anytime soon, if ever. Yesterday, Reuters reported on remarks by Senate Democratic leaders: “Several U.S. Senate Democrats, including a top leader, on Wednesday questioned whether it would be possible to vote on a climate change bill this year, especially with healthcare reform eating up so much of the lawmakers’ time.” And in this CQ report, Rep. Neil Abercrombie (D-HI) says that Speaker Pelosi’s national energy tax is all but dead:
“The House passed a climate bill (HR 2454) on June 26, but efforts to move a similar bill in the Senate are languishing as health care dominates the agenda.” “‘I don’t think that’s going anyplace,’ said Abercrombie, who has been working to pass a version of his offshore drilling bill for the past three years. ‘I think it’s going to die a semi-quiet death in the Senate. Let’s come back to energy independence.’”Many House Democrats were famously “BTU-ed” by former Vice President Al Gore and House Democratic leaders when they were forced to vote for a massively unpopular energy tax that the Senate completely ignored 16 years ago. Many Democrats who walked the plank and voted for the Speaker’s unpopular national energy tax faced a blistering reaction back home, and with the Senate looks unlikely to act on the legislation, are House Democrats getting “BTU-ed” all over again? |