2010 ALL OVER AGAIN: TEAM OBAMA GOES ALL IN ON GLOBAL WARMING
“Climate change can now be considered another weapon of mass
destruction, perhaps the world’s most fearsome weapon of mass
destruction.” –
Secretary of State John Kerry in a speech in Indonesia.
Republicans credit their landslide victory in 2010 to opposition to
ObamaCare, yes. But GOP strategists also credit Obama Democrats’ focus
on global warming for a considerable slice of their historic midterm
gains. Five years ago today,
President Obama signed a stimulus
package of nearly $1 trillion and then immediately pivoted to other
issues even though Americans were still deeply concerned about the
economy. At the top of Obama’s to-do list, right behind the pledge of
universal insurance coverage, was action on global warming. Obama’s
preferred plan was to have the government sell costly carbon-emission
permits to industrial corporations that could then re-sell and trade
them on a commodities market. The so-called “cap and trade” program had a
vogue with moderate Republicans since it sounded free-market-ish, but
that support quickly evaporated in the face of the recession that
followed the Panic of 2008.
[
AP: “U.S. Secretary of State
John Kerry on
Sunday … mocked those who deny its existence or question its causes,
comparing them to people who insist the Earth is flat. … ‘We simply
don't have time to let a few loud interest groups hijack the climate
conversation,’ he said, referring to what he called ‘big companies’ that
‘don’t want to change and spend a lot of money’ to act to reduce the
risks…"We should not allow a tiny minority of shoddy scientists and
science and extreme ideologues to compete with scientific facts,’ Kerry
told the audience at a U.S. Embassy-run American Center in a shopping
mall. ‘Nor should we allow any room for those who think that the costs
associated with doing the right thing outweigh the benefits.’]
That was then - Democrats, though, pressed on. In a pivotal moment for the 2010 election cycle, then-Speaker
Nancy Pelosi
whipped anxious Democrats into line behind an even more restrictive and
expensive carbon crackdown, one which had already been waved off by the
Democrat-controlled Senate. House members took the plunge on July 25,
2009, including many from Rust Belt and coal-producing states. One of
Pelosi’s admirers
called it
“a little bit genius.” It was not. The Senate squelched the bill and
Republicans are still flaying Democrats for supporting something so
expensive and disruptive to address an issue that Americans are
increasingly unconcerned about.
[“Does
John Kerry really believe that carbon dioxide is a
bigger threat than al Qaeda? Or Iran? If so, maybe the House Foreign
Affairs Committee could inquire as to whether State Department diplomacy
now reflects the Secretary’s priorities.” –
James P. Pinkerton, former Deputy Assistant to the president for policy planning under George H. W. Bush]