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Climate Progress

Filthy Five: New House Energy Committee Members Ignore Climate While Taking $1.7 Million From Fossil Fuels

By Climate Guest Blogger on Dec 5, 2012 at 11:20 am

Rep. Hall says he's "really more fearful of freezing" than global warming.

by Jackie Weidman and Whitney Allen

Under the leadership of climate science denier and chairman Fred Upton (R-MI), the House Energy and Commerce Committee has repeatedly passed legislation that would increase oil and gas drilling and promote unchecked carbon pollution in the face of a rapidly warming climate. Nearly half of the sitting Republican committee members have made public statements indicating that they question or reject the scientific consensus that climate change is real, it’s happening, and it’s caused by human production and consumption of fossil fuels.

On November 29th, Upton announced five new Republican representatives that will join the Energy Committee.  He said that these members – Gus Bilirakis (FL), Renee Ellmers (NC), Ralph Hall (TX), Bill Johnson (OH), and Billy Long (MO) – have “diverse backgrounds.”  However, their records indicate that they all have unwavering support for fossil fuel interests and hostility toward carbon pollution reductions.

Over the course of their congressional careers, these five members received a combined $1.7 million in campaign contributions from the oil and gas industry, electric utilities, and coal mining companies.  Four of the new members – Bilirakis, Hall, Johnson, and Long – signed onto an anti-climate protection pledge from the Koch Brothers’ outside-spending group Americans for Prosperity.  The pledge “opposes any legislation relating to climate change that includes a net increase in government revenue.”

Interestingly, these new members come from states that have experienced many climate change related extreme weather events that have severely harmed their residents and communities. These record-breaking droughts, severe floods, and heavy storms, have disproportionately affected counties with middle-and lower-income households in each of their states.

Let’s take a look at some of the new Energy and Commerce Republicans who will vote on essential climate, energy, and environmental legislation, as well as their campaign contributions from the industries responsible for most climate pollution:

1. Rep. Gus Bilirakis (R-FL) represents a state that is a frequent victim of hurricanes.  This year Florida experienced damages from Hurricane Isaac and a string of severe thunderstorms. Middle-class households in the Florida counties that were declared a disaster due to Isaac and other events, earn 1 percent below the U.S. median household income.  Meanwhile, Rep. Bilirakis sponsored legislation that would have prevented the United States from participating in any international climate agreement.  He has also voted against ending billions of dollars in special oil and gas tax breaks and shifting this revenue to invest in renewable forms of energy. Rep. Bilirakis has received a total of $117,100 in congressional campaign contributions from fossil fuel companies.

2. Rep. Renee Ellmers (R-NC) has voted for a suite of measures that would permanently block EPA from regulating greenhouse gas emissions and undo public health safeguards.  Meanwhile, Rep. Ellmer’s state experienced six different severe storms and hurricanes in 2011-12 that caused over $1 billion in damage each.  These storms affected half of the counties in North Carolina.  Households in these counties earn 11 percent less than the U.S. median household income. Although she claims to support renewable energy and efficiency, Ellmers voted against efficiency standards for light bulbs and in favor of retaining special tax breaks for Big Oil.  Since her congressional career began in 2010 she has received $34,850 in campaign contributions from fossil fuel companies.

3. Rep. Ralph Hall (R-TX) is rejoining the committee after serving as the chair of the Science, Space, and Technology Committee.  Last year, Hall said that he wasn’t worried about climate change because he’s “really more fearful of freezing.” It’s astonishing that Hall isn’t concerned about extreme heat since Texas has experienced crippling drought in 2011 and 2012, a problem that Travis Miller of the Governor’s Drought Preparedness Council says will “have a lasting impact on Texas agriculture.” These extreme temperatures also led to the most destructive wildfire in Texas history, burning 34,000 acres and 1,700 homes in Bastrop during September 2011.

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Climate Progress

House Committee Leaders Deny Climate Change While Extreme Weather Devastates Their States

By Climate Guest Blogger on Nov 30, 2012 at 3:00 pm

by Jackie Weidman and Whitney Allen

On November 27th, House Speaker John Boehner (R-OH) announced the new and returning House committee chairmen (and yes, they are all men). Some of these congressmen will run committees with jurisdiction over federal climate, energy, and environmental programs.  This includes funding for the Federal Emergency Management Agency, the Clean Air Act, balancing the use of our public lands between energy production and recreation, and determining the infrastructure needs of a nation that now faces unpredictable extreme weather threats linked to climate change.

The vast majority of these chairmen voted for legislation that would dismantle EPA’s ability to limit industrial carbon pollution, and for retention of special tax breaks for the oil and gas industry. Oil and gas, coal, and electric utility companies have cozied up to many of these chairmen, giving them roughly $3.8 million in campaign contributions over the course of their careers.

Meanwhile, many climate-related extreme weather events have severely afflicted Americans over the past two years, including in their home states.  Record-breaking drought and heat waves, severe floods, and heavy storms wreaked havoc for the families living in the chairmens’ backyards.  Scientists predict that these weather events will become more frequent and/or severe if the industrial carbon pollution responsible for climate change remains unchecked.

Let’s take a look at some of the Republicans who will oversee federal climate, energy, and environmental programs over the next two years, as well as their campaign contributions from the industries responsible for most climate pollution:

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Economy

Fifty Congressional Republicans (And Counting) Have Distanced Themselves From Norquist’s Pledge

By Guest Blogger on Nov 30, 2012 at 9:05 am

This post will be updated to reflect the growing defections.

Every day, more Republicans in Congress are backing away from Americans for Tax Reform President Grover Norquit’s anti-tax pledge. For more than 20 years, the pledge, which stipulates that those who sign will never — under any circumstance — vote to raise taxes while in Congress, has virtually been a requirement for Congressional Republicans. According to ATR, just 16 of the 234 House Republicans and 6 of the 45 Senate Republicans that comprise the 113th Congress did not sign the pledge.

However, the pledge may not have the staying power it once did. As of this writing, more than two dozen House Republicans — including Majority Leader Eric Cantor — and 11 GOP senators have distanced themselves from the pledge to one degree or another. Here are just a few examples or what members had to say:

— Sen. Kelly Ayotte (R-NH): “The only pledge that keeps me up at night is the pledge I owe to the people of New Hampshire and our country to work as hard as I can to make sure America doesn’t go bankrupt.”

– Sen. Saxby Chambliss (R-GA): “I care more about my country than I do about a 20-year-old pledge . . . I don’t worry about that because I care too much about my country. I care a lot more about it than I do Grover Norquist.”

– Sen. Bob Corker (R-TN): “Well, I’m not obligated on the pledge. I made Tennesseans aware, I was just elected, that the only thing I’m honoring is the oath I take when I’m sworn in this January.”

– Rep. Eric Cantor (R-VA): “When I go to the constituents, it’s not about that pledge. It’s about trying to solve problems.”

– Rep. Peter King (R-NY): “A pledge is good at the time you sign it . . . In 1941, I would have voted to declare war on Japan. But each Congress is a new Congress. And I don’t think you can have a rule that you’re never going to raise taxes or that you’re never going to lower taxes. I don’t want to rule anything out.”

– Rep. Timothy Johnson (R-IL): “I would never in a million years have considered this as some kind of a locked-in-granite pledge. Frankly, I didn’t even remember it. That shows you how obscure it was to me.”

Other Senators that have signed the pledge and distanced themselves from Norquist include Sen. Jeff Sessions (R-AL), Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-SC), Sen. Tom Coburn (R-OK), Sen. David Vitter (R-LA), Sen. John McCain (R-AZ), Sen. Mike Johanns (R-NE), Sen. Mike Enzi (R-WY), Sen. Lamar Alexander (R-TN), and Sen. Marco Rubio (R-FL). House Republicans also jumping ship include: Rep. John Boehner (R-OH), Rep. Chris Gibson (R-NY), Rep. Reid Ribble (R-WI), Rep. Tom Latham (R-IA), Rep. Rick Crawford (R-AR), Rep. Pat Meehan (R-PA), Rep. Jon Runyan (R-NJ), Rep. Lee Terry (R-NE), Rep. Jeff Fortenberry (R-NE), Rep. Charles Boustany (R-LA), Rep. Charlie Bass (R-NH), Rep. Tom Cole (R-OK), Rep. Mike Simpson (R-ID), Rep. John Kline (R-MN), Rep. Erik Paulsen (R-MN), Rep. Chip Cravaack (R-MN), Rep. Adrian Smith (R-NE), Rep. Scott Rigell (R-VA), Rep. Trey Gowdy (R-SC), Rep. Tom Reed (R-NY), Rep. Allen West (R-FL), Rep. Robert Dold (R-IL), Rep. Howard “Buck” McKeon (R-CA), Rep. Howard Coble (R-NC), Rep. John Campbell (R-CA), Rep. Scott DesJarlais (R-TN), Rep. Adrian Smith (R-NE), Rep. Mary Bono Mack (R-CA), Rep. Steve LaTourette (R-OH), Rep. Dan Webster (R-FL), Rep. Tom Rooney (R-FL), Rep. Bill Young (R-FL), Rep. Jack Kingston (R-GA), Rep. Cliff Stearns (R-FL), Rep. Ander Crenshaw (R-FL).

– Greg Noth

Security

GOP Rep. Claims Benghazi Affair Has Left Susan Rice ‘Tainted’

By Hayes Brown on Nov 26, 2012 at 9:51 am

Rep. Jeff Duncan (R-SC)

Rep. Jeff Duncan (R-SC) today alleged that U.S. Ambassador to the U.N. Susan Rice has been “tainted” by the tragedy in Benghazi, preventing her from being qualified to become Secretary of State.

Duncan’s statement showcases that Republican members of the House of Representatives are not giving up yet on pillorying Rice for her role in the Obama administration’s response to the Sept. 11 assault in Libya that killed four American citizens. Duncan was the author of a letter, signed by over ninety House Republicans, urging President Obama to select anyone other than Rice to fill the role of Secretary of State in his second term.

On Fox and Friends this morning, Duncan stood by his denouncement of Rice when asked about her seeming willingness to answer questions related to her Sept. 16 statements explaining the administration’s knowledge of the attack at that time:

DUNCAN: Well, it comes down to her credibility now. Do we want someone as Secretary of State that is somehow tainted in this whole Benghazi issue. I don’t think so. I think the bigger question to ask is — you know, she should have known the information, should have all the talking points, the truth of the matter. The fact that she misled the American people, whether its intentional or unintentional, she is tainted in this issue.

Watch Duncan here:

Duncan would probably need to explain how Rice has been “tainted” from the Benghazi fallout seeing that every GOP attack on her as a result has been found to be false, misleading or baseless.

But while Rice is not the nominee yet, she is indicated to be the leading favorite for the job. Duncan and his cohorts ire would in no way affect a potential confirmation of Rice; only the Senate confirms the President’s nominees for Cabinet-level positions.

In the upper chamber, controlled by Democrats, cooler heads seem to be prevailing regarding the chance of a Rice nomination. Even Sen. John McCain (R-AZ), one of Rice’s harshest critics, has backed off from his attacks. Rice for her part has reached out to McCain, saying “I have great respect for Senator McCain and his service to our country. I always have, and I always will. I do think that some of the statements he’s made about me have been unfounded, but I look forward to having the opportunity at the appropriate time to discuss all of this with him.”

Health

Boehner Reverses Course, Promises To Repeal Obamacare Through ‘Oversight’

By Sy Mukherjee on Nov 21, 2012 at 11:40 am

After President Obama’s decisive re-election, House Speaker John Boehner (R-OH) starkly admitted that “Obamacare is the law of the land.” Facing backlash from fellow Republicans and critics of the landmark health reform law, the Speaker’s office softened that stance, asserting that “full repeal” still remained the GOP objective. But with the Supreme Court’s decision to uphold the bulk of the law, Democratic control of the Senate, and President Obama’s victory, some have wondered what — if any — recourse Republicans have at the federal level to undo Obamacare.

On Tuesday, Boehner explained how, exactly, Republicans would go about dismantling the law in an op-ed on Cincinnati.com. In his piece, Boehner contends that House Republicans will conduct “vigorous oversight” of the law’s implementation in an effort to neuter its provisions:

The tactics of our repeal efforts will have to change. But the strategic imperative remains the same. If we’re serious about getting our economy moving again, solving our debt and restoring prosperity for American families, we need to repeal Obamacare and enact common-sense, step-by-step reforms that start with lowering the cost of health care. [...]

Congress has a constitutional responsibility to conduct thorough oversight of the executive branch, and congressional oversight will play a critical role in repealing Obamacare going forward.

Over the past couple of years, I have noted there are essentially three major routes to repeal of the president’s law: the courts, the presidential election process and the congressional oversight process. With two of those three routes having come up short, the third and final one becomes more important than ever.

Vigorous oversight of the health care law by the House can be expected and, in fact, is already under way. The House Ways & Means Committee recently issued a subpoena directing that the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services turn over any and all information regarding how taxpayer dollars have been used to promote Obamacare.

“Oversight,” as Boehner uses it, is basically a code word for obstruction. This isn’t exactly surprising — after the election, ThinkProgress reported that the GOP would still try to stall Obamacare implementation through a combination of holding up the law’s funding for Americans’ insurance subsidies and statewide insurance exchanges, Republican governors’ refusals to expand their states’ Medicaid pools, and GOP efforts to repeal Obamacare’s revenue sources and cost-containment measures, such as its taxes on large medical device manufacturers and the Medicare Independent Payment Advisory Board (IPAB).

Although Boehner does not mention any such specifics in his op-ed, in the absence of a way to fully repeal the law, these are the types of provisions that the GOP will most likely conduct their “oversight” on. But recent polls have shown that public support for repealing Obamacare is plummeting, making such GOP tactics a waste of time at best and bad policy for Americans’ health and financial security at worst.

Justice

Incoming House Judiciary Chair Said That Medicare And Social Security Are Unconstitutional

By Ian Millhiser on Nov 13, 2012 at 11:43 am

The Hill reports that Rep. Bob Goodlatte (R-VA) is expected to take over the chairmanship of the House Judiciary Committee in January, replacing Rep. Lamar Smith (R-TX) who will lose his gavel due to term limits. Goodlatte is a hardliner on immigration who is expected to oppose immigration reform bills that fall under his committee’s jurisdiction, and he also embraces a far right “tenther” vision of the Constitution that would render most of what the United States government does unconstitutional. Indeed, in a town hall meeting in 2011, the incoming House Judiciary Chair claimed that Medicare and Social Security both violate the Constitution.

As video of the town hall meeting reveals, Goodlatte called these landmark programs unconstitutional in response to a question from a constituent regarding a chart Goodlatte displayed breaking down federal spending:

CONSTITUENT: I have three points I’d like you to elaborate on if you could. I’ve searched my Constitution for 20 years and I can’t find Medicare, Medicaid, Social Security in there. Those are forced on the American people by the courts. Now, we’ve all accepted that and American people have bought into that, but it’s unconstitutional simple as that, to me, I can’t find it –

GOODLATTE: Well, it’s not in the Constitution. The courts have stretched the Constitution to say its in the general welfare clause.

Just in case there was any ambiguity to Goodlatte’s understanding of our founding document, he reiterated his belief that Medicare and Social Security are unconstitutional in a later exchange with a different constituent:

CONSTITUENT: Everything that the federal government does on that pie chart is unconstitutional [...] If I violated my marriage contract the way the federal government violates the Constitution I’d be in divorce court tomorrow!

GOODLATTE: I hope you’re not. Here’s the deal. You’re absolutely right! But you have one problem, the Supreme Court ruling that these programs are constitutional.

Watch both exchanges:

To be fair to Goodlatte, he later states that it would not be practical to “just say we’re throwing out Medicare because its unconstitutional,” but this does little to change the fact that the man House Republicans want to place in charge of constitutional matters does not have even the most basic understanding of the Constitution. As ThinkProgress previously explained, The Constitution gives Congress the power to “to lay and collect taxes” and to “provide for the . . . general welfare of the United States.” There is no plausible interpretation of the words “general welfare” that does not include programs that ensure that all Americans can live their entire lives secure in the understanding that retirement will not force them into poverty and untreated sickness.

Moreover, Goodlatte’s constitutional objections to Medicare and Social Security are not his only admission that he does not understand the Constitution as written. In January of 2011 he was asked whether he believes the federal minimum wage is constitutional. He said that he did not know.

Alyssa

In ‘Lincoln,’ The House’s Sinners Beat The Saint In The White House

By Alyssa Rosenberg on Nov 9, 2012 at 12:44 pm

“How the people love my husband. They flock to see him by the thousands,” Mary Todd Lincoln (Sally Field) tells Rep. Thaddeus Stevens (Tommy Lee Jones) midway through Steven Spielberg’s Lincoln after Stevens, who investigated her spending on the White House as Chairman of the House Ways and Means Committee, arrives there for a reception. “They will never love you as they love my husband. How hard for you to know that. But how important to remember it.” Her opinion of the relative position of the two men guides the film, a tremendous depiction of what it takes to pass epochal legislation marred by lapses into sentiment and Spielbergian self-indulgence.

Lincoln is at its most clear-eyed, and its most-effective, when the movie tackles the question of how to muster votes, and bipartisan votes at that, for the end of slavery, a section of the film dominated by Stevens and Secretary of State William Seward (David Straitharn). The two men begin the movie in very different positions, Stevens as a life-long advocate for the end of slavery and racial equality, Seward unconvinced of the Amendment’s viability or necessity. “Since when has our party unanimously supported anything?” he asks his president, particularly given the prospect of the South suing for peace. “Why tarnish that luster with a battle in the House?” But Lincoln makes himself clear: he will have the Amendment in January of 1865, even if it means buying off lame duck Democrats who need employment when they leave their offices in March. “If procuring votes with jobs is what you intend, I’ll procure from Albany the skulking men who are suited to this shady work,” Seward tells Lincoln, resigned to his task.

Those skulking men are W.N. Bilbo (James Spader) and Robert Latham (John Hawkes), and with their arrival on screen, both Seward and Lincoln are invigorated. After assessing their prospects, Bilbo explains that he and Latham will ignore Democrats of the “Kind that hates Niggers, hates God for making Niggers. We’ve abandoned these 39 to the Devil who possesses them,” and focus instead on rather more craven men like Clay Hutchins (Walton Goggins, capping off a tremendous year). Seward takes it on himself to figure out what each man is worth. “A first-term Congressman who couldn’t earn reelection,” he says of one rather greedy Democrat. “I deemed it unseemly and bargained him down to Postmaster.” Hutchins, standing in for that persuadable Democratic minority, explains the dilemma he faces: the 13th Amendment is being presented as the only way to end the Civil War by weakening the Confederacy, but Lincoln’s case for it is being weakened by rumors of a peace delegation from the South, seeking an accord–but only if they can preserve slavery. “If my neighbors hear I voted yes to Nigger freedom and no to peace, they’ll kill me,” Hutchins says. His view is shared by more sophisticated men like Preston Brooks (Hal Holbrook), who is desperate to avert the arrival of another fighting season. “I went to Richmond to talk to traitors,” he tells Lincoln after his meeting with the Confederates. “To smile at and talk to traitors. Because in two months, it will be spring.”

While Lincoln delays the commissioners and the actual offer of a peace deal to keep the necessity of the 13th Amendment alive in Washington, aided at the last minute on the day of the vote by Bilbo and Latham transversing Washington at a dead sprint, in the House it is up to Stevens to strike the delicate balance to hold his fragile party together. A man of firey temperment–Stevens at one point addresses Democratic leader Fernando Wood as “you perfectly named obstructive object”–Stevens is forced to make a moral compromise, telling the House that, contrary to his lifelong advocacy, “I don’t hold with equality in all things, just equality before the law, nothing more.” It’s a painful moment, that rhetorical scaling back, and a recognition of the rhetorical compromise needed to move legal equality forward, leaving the work of cultural change separate. “Who would have guessed that old nightmare could show such control?” Mrs. Lincoln, watching with her maid Elizabeth Keckley (Gloria Reuben) from the House Gallery. “He might make a politician some day.” After Stevens speech, one of his Radical Republican allies tells Stevens that he betrayed their cause. “You’ve lead the battle for race equality for 30 years…You refused to say that all humans are human.” “I want the Amendment to pass so the Constitution’s first and only mention of slavery is its abolition,” Stevens responds to them. “So no, it seems there’s nothing I won’t say.”
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Health

Three Ways The GOP Will Still Try To Weaken Obamacare

By Sy Mukherjee on Nov 9, 2012 at 12:40 pm

After surviving a year-long battle in Congress, a Supreme Court challenge, and the presidential election, Obamacare is here to stay. Just yesterday, GOP House Speaker John Boehner admitted yesterday that Obamacare is, in fact, “the law of the land.”

But Boehner was quick to walk back his comments via Twitter, reasserting that the GOP’s wish is still to fully repeal or severely dismantle the law. Since the Senate and the presidency remains solidly in Democratic hands, the GOP has their work cut out for them. But that doesn’t mean they won’t try their best to beat back, sue, and defund Obamacare provisions in an effort to neuter the law at the cost of Americans’ health and financial security. Here are three ways that the GOP will likely attempt to attack and undermine Obamacare provisions:

1) Denying federal insurance subsidies to Americans under health exchanges. If states can’t make a decision by November 16th about whether to set up health insurance exchanges, the federal government will set up one for them. But House Republicans may try to throw a wrench into those plans. Republicans are claiming that a minor technicality in the health reform legislation restricts its health insurance subsidies to Americans living in states that set up their own exchanges, and doesn’t extend to the Americans in states where the federal government sets up an exchange. This is obviously not what the health reform law intends, and IRS Commissioner Doug Shumlin has already issued an IRS-rule setting aside subsidies for Americans in all states. But Republican leaders may pursue this line of obstruction for insurance subsidies, essentially leaving sick and needy Americans to fend for themselves by denying them the subsidies that would make it possible for them to afford health coverage.

2) Resisting the Medicaid expansion. ThinkProgress has consistently reported on how Obamacare’s Medicaid expansion will significantly lower state health care costs while extending insurance to as many as 30 million low-income Americans — but only if the states agree to take part in the expansion, which the Supreme Court ruled optional. Even after President Obama’s re-election, GOP governors in states such as Florida are digging in their heels against reform. Sadly, many of the expansion’s GOP detractors lead states with extremely large uninsured populations, and their refusals to implement Medicaid reform might leave millions of low-wage workers without the health coverage they depend on.

3) Undermining the medical device tax and Independent Payment Advisory Board (IPAB). The device tax and IPAB are ways that Obamacare raises revenue for its vast coverage expansion and controls the rate of Medicare spending. Republicans are already eyeing the 2.3 percent medical device tax, calling it a burden on American businesses. But repealing the device tax risks grossly under-funding Obamacare’s insurance subsidies to Americans, meaning that Republicans are seeking to lower big manufacturers’ costs by shifting the burden onto Americans’ subsidized insurance premiums in 2014. Similarly, the independent, 15-member IPAB looks to keep American health spending at sustainable levels by finding ways to control Medicare spending growth without compromising on quality or benefits. While some of these cuts may be painful at first for hospitals and some physicians, the savings accrued will act as a firewall against seniors’ rising premiums and assure that providers, rather than everyday Americans, are bearing the burden of lowering medical spending.

Americans can expect continued battles over the proper funding and implementation of Obamacare in the coming months — for example, employer groups are almost certain to challenge the law’s provisions requiring that all large employers offer their workers health benefits. But now that the uncertainty over Obamacare’s future no longer exists, it isn’t too difficult to see what attempts to weaken the law really are: giveaways to large corporations, providers, and partisan politicking at the expense of real Americans’ health care and financial security.

Economy

GOP Congressional Nominee Derides Poor People For ‘Slothfulness And Laziness’ At Fundraiser

By Scott Keyes on Oct 12, 2012 at 2:35 pm

WA-1 nominee John Koster (R)

During remarks at a fundraiser outside of Seattle, Republican congressional candidate John Koster derided people who had yet to achieve financial success, saying the government rewarded their “slothfulness and laziness.”

In a video obtained by ThinkProgress from a December 2011 fundraiser in Everett, Washington, Koster spoke frankly about government programs aimed at aiding the poor. Though he declined to single out individual programs, he said the system creates an “addiction” to government assistance by creating a “sense of entitlement.” “It seems to reward the mediocrity — dare I say it, slothfulness and laziness — of those who choose not to do those things,” Koster said:

KOSTER: Reform isn’t just taxing the rich, the very people by the way who create jobs. Our economic system has been the envy of the world for generations, but it seems to get more convoluted and more onerous every year. Under this administration it has become a system that punishes those who dare to dream, those who dare to invest, those who dare to work hard or succeed. It seems to reward the mediocrity — dare I say it, slothfulness and laziness — of those who choose not to do those things. Furthermore, it creates a dependency on government programs, even an addiction I would say, by virtue of the sense of entitlement that it creates. I can tell you, those people aren’t the 99 percent.

Watch it:

Such disdain for the poor has become increasingly common among conservatives, from Mitt Romney’s infamous “47 percent” comments to the world’s richest woman saying people are poor because they’re spending too much time “drinking and smoking,” suggesting instead that they work for $2 per day.

During a fundraiser this summer, Koster expressed excitement for Paul Ryan’s selection for vice president on the Republican ticket, saying, “I love his message.” Ryan’s budget decimates funding for programs to help the poor, cutting services like Medicaid, Pell grants, food stamps, and job training by over $3 trillion.

Climate Progress

Documenting Votes From ‘The Most Anti-Clean Energy, Do-Nothing, Pro-Pollution Congress In History’

By Climate Guest Blogger on Oct 10, 2012 at 1:51 pm

by Luke Morgan

A new report released this week breaks down 223 of the 315 votes the House of Representatives has made against clean energy and in favor of the fossil fuel industry over the last two years.

The report, released by the Democratic staff of the House Natural Resources Committee, details 127 votes to block or cut regulations in the coal, oil, and gas industries. For example, even after the Deepwater Horizon oil spill exposed serious flaws in environmental protections in offshore oil drilling, House Republicans voted 47 times to weaken those protections while encouraging the expansion of offshore drilling.

The House of Representatives has solidified itself as “the most anti-clean energy, do-nothing, pro-pollution Congress in history,” said Massachusetts Democratic Rep. Ed Markey, the ranking member of the Natural Resources Committee.

Here’s a brief breakdown of the Republican votes:

  • 42 votes against clean energy and energy efficiency: Despite GOP attempts to demonize government support of clean energy, 70% of voters say the government should be doing more to promote solar energy.
  • 54 votes to provide gifts and subsidies to the Oil and Gas Industries: Meanwhile, according to OpenSecrets, 89% of oil and gas lobbying dollars have gone to Republicans this election cycle.
  • 127 Votes to dismantle health, safety, and environmental regulations on fossil fuels: The GOP majority voted 95 times to undermine the Clean Air Act, even though it prevented 160,000 premature deaths in 2010, according to the EPA.

A more detailed explanation of the votes can be found in the full report. The staffers noted that House Republicans wasted 108 hours of floor time voting on these bills, many of which they knew had no chance of passing the Senate or being signed into law by President Obama.

Included in House Republicans’ intransigence on environmental issues is Vice-Presidential Nominee Rep. Paul Ryan, who voted 100% of the time with House Republicans.

The report also details that the House’s failure to extend the Wind Production Tax Credit has led to more than 2,700 layoffs in the sector.  Climate Progress previously reported that this failure could ultimately lead to the shedding of up to 37,000 jobs from the industry.

House Energy and Commerce Committee Democrats keep a running database of all the anti-environment votes taken, available here.

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