With the President’s popularity waning, it’s clear to see that he needs some legislative victory to stand on other than the flop of a stimulus. To what end would he be willing to go to achieve this victory? Surely this golden idol of the new era in politics would not stoop to his predecessor’s supposed lows to attain victory; playing politics in the White House at the expense of the American people is something he was elected to change. Right?
Cause…
Alan Carlin, a man who has spent a 40-year career working for the government and currently works for the EPA, wrote a 98-page report that questioned a) the EPA’s use of old data solely because it better reinforced its political agenda and b) the quality of the data itself. True, his report could be taken to undermine the entire assumed link between greenhouse gasses and global warming. But, more directly, it exposes higher ups at an agency counted on for its impartial analysis during debate over this highly contentious bill for having a horse in the race.
Another EPA report, available here, shows that the United States alone can make no positive impact on the global climate situation. Any efforts that do not include developing nations, China and India specifically, will leave worldwide levels of emissions relatively unchanged. One must question why the United States would do this to its own economy, without any tangible benefits. Sure, the most devoted environmentalists might be open to these increases in prices not just for your gas and electricity, but also for products that require it in the production process – from your groceries to the car you take to get them. But who else would support such a measure that contains such costs without anything to show for them?
It turns out that while Congressional Democrats were making all sorts of concessions to pass the legislation, including the softening of carbon limits (the very point of the bill), to get undecided legislators to vote for it, a member of the President’s administration made a call to the EPA and told Dr. Carlin’s boss to suppress the report and move him to another department. Someone in the White House did not want the report that undercut this bill to come to light, and was willing to silence the expert in order to do so.
This is the same administration that made no real effort to get the other nations needed on board at either the recent International Conference on Climate Change or the G-8 summit in Italy. Such consensus would have taken time and stalled the bill before the House until the Fall, let alone the Senate – leaving the stimulus as the President’s only real legislative accomplishment for almost a year between its passage and the climate bill being placed on his desk.
… and Effect
In so doing, the President has opened himself up to claims that he is knowingly passing bad bills just to have his name on them. This could come back to haunt him during the pending healthcare debate, when the GOP is sure to decry the public option as worse care for less money.
Polling indicates that the public is unwilling to sacrifice care for cheaper access, which means that the President’s proposal must be taken as an improvement on both the quality of care provided and the cost structure. An opportunity exists for Republicans here to cast doubt on any figures presented by the administration as debate moves forward. After convincing the media and the public to accept their projected figures over those of the CBO on the stimulus, unemployment has soared beyond expectations and TARP repayment has become a mess. Paired with the fudged reasoning behind the Cap-and-Tax bill, a vulnerability has arisen in the President’s credibility.
The public battle over healthcare reform will be heavily based on that same credibility, as Democrats seek to engender trust in a public option (the boogeyman that crashed their 1993 attempt) and Republicans attempt to cast it as a well-intentioned, but ultimately expensive and impotent, circus of red tape.
Whoever wins this PR battle will probably carry the day in the final tally for the legislation, as too many vulnerable House members have already shown themselves willing to bend to public opinion after being made to vote for the stimulus and Cap-and-Tax. In addition to trotting out Canadian citizens who have to wait months to see specialists, the GOP should prepare to criticize the bill as an industry killer. Bring in doctors who will talk about how many of them will be put out of business, and the lesser care the results from eliminating competition. Much has been made on the Left of the public option having to be ‘triggered’ – the cautious and delicate handling of that presentation requires a lot of trust that the President may no longer have. Should Republican leaders push him on that issue, we’ll find out whether or not he does.
Last 5 posts by Gideon D'Assandro
- The Reality of Racial Politics - August 17th, 2009
- Thank God Obama's President - August 3rd, 2009
- Health Care Coverup - July 23rd, 2009
- Social Conservatism Going Forward - July 5th, 2009
- GOP Finally Pushing Cohesive Message - June 28th, 2009
