Obama gives the Middle Finger To The American People on High Gas Prices
President Barack Obama, seeking to head off an election-year
showdown over energy policy, has been calling wavering Senate Democrats to
lobby against a Republican measure that would force approval of the Keystone XL
oil pipeline from Canada, according to a Democratic aide. Ahead of a vote expected as soon as today,
the president has made personal appeals to Democrats from Midwestern states,
where many of the jobs would be created by building TransCanada Corp.’s pipeline
from Canada’s oil sands to refineries on the U.S. Gulf Coast, according to the
aide, who spoke on condition of anonymity to discuss the private conversations.
Just as a refresher: The Keystone pipeline would have
exploited increased oil production from a friendly nation and created 20,000 US
jobs. Good thing high gas prices and
chronic unemployment aren’t plaguing the country these days, or else this
double kowtow to hardcore greenies might have rankled a lot of Americans. The most galling element of Obama’s extremist
stand is his White House’s insistence that he really wants to approve the
pipeline — honest! — it’s just that these darned Republicans keep
“rushing” the process and ruining everything. Never mind the fact that Keystone has already
been subjected to three years’ worth of studies, and was given the green light
for production. (If only this White
House had been this cautious about Solyndra, which involved piles of taxpayer
money, unlike this pipeline). Ultimately, Senate Democrats were forced to
filibuster a bill in the chamber they control because their own members were
splintering off to side with the GOP.
Eleven Dems broke off and stood with a united Republican caucus to break
the filibuster, but fell four votes short.
One brave, brave Democrat — “moderate” Sen. Mark Warner of
Virginia — said he supported the pipeline, but voted against it because of the
Republicans, or something:
Sen Mark Warner (D-VA) on Senate floor says supports
Keystone XL Pipeline but will oppose GOP amendment pushing its construction.
There’s an Obamaesque profile in courage, if ever there was
one. In light of the political
storylines of the last few weeks, I simply must ask: Why must these Democrats
continue to wage this War On Jobs? (For
two excellent responses to Democrats’ insidious “war on women”
nonsense, read Michelle Malkin and Jonah Goldberg).
(1) We already know
that Obamacare is enduringly unpopular and that HHS Secretary Kathleen Sebelius
hasn’t a clue as to whether the law is already breaking its chief promoter’s
promises left and right (spoiler: it is).
Now we also know exactly how dearly a vote in favor of the president’s
signature “accomplishment” ended up costing members of his party at
the ballot box in 2010:
Consistent with the
earlier research, we found that those House Democrats who voted in favor of ACA
ran around six points behind those Democrats who voted against it in the 2010 midterms.
We conducted thousands of simulations and found that, in the majority of
simulations, Democrats retained at least 25 additional seats if they had all
voted against ACA. That’s enough for them to have held the majority.
Gosh, I wonder why a
majority of Americans consider this presidency a failure? Panic pander time.
(2) As this president
continues to scratch his tax “fairness” itch by pushing the so-called
Buffett Rule, a major Buffett enterprise continues to battle the Treasury
Department over unpaid taxes. Why won’t
they happily pony up their “fair share”?
(3) Watch Sen. Lamar
Alexander deconstruct Attorney General Holder on his boss’ non-recess
“recess” appointment kick, which may be just getting started: