Video: Energy Czar hasn’t read cap & tax, either
posted at 2:55 pm on June 29, 2009 by Ed Morrissey
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Barack Obama’s energy czar appeared on Fox & Friends this morning to discuss the cap-and-tax bill passed by the House last week on a razor-thin margin. Carol Browner got stumped by Fox’s Steve Doocy while questioning her ability to speak to the subject, which prompted her to declare Doocy “unfair” for blindsiding her. You be the judge — should Doocy have wondered whether Browner had bothered to read the bill she was promoting on national TV, or is that “unfair”?
STEVE DOOCY: “[I] know the bill is over 1,000 pages long. Have you have read it?”
CAROL BROWNER: “Oh, I’m very familiar with this bill.”
DOOCY: “Have you have read it?”
BROWNER: “We have obviously been watching this for a very long time. I am very …”
DOOCY: “I’m sure you’ve got an idea of it, but you have read it?”
BROWNER: “I’ve read major portions of it, absolutely.”
DOOCY: “So the answer no you haven’t read it. But you’ve read a big chunk of it.”
BROWNER: “No, no, no that’s not fair. That’s absolutely not fair.”
DOOCY: “No, I’m just asking you if you read the thousand pages.”
BROWNER: “I’ve read vast portions of it.”
DOOCY: “Ok.”
“I’ve read vast portions of it.” Vast portions? That would put her ahead of the Congressional curve, where 219 people — including eight Republicans who made the difference — voted for it without reading it at all. We know that because the House never produced a complete, up-to-date, and integrated copy of the bill to its members before the vote took place.
I don’t think it’s “unfair” to ask a policy expert whether they’ve read a policy they’re promoting on national television, nor do I think it’s unfair to expect politicians to have read bills before voting on them. Will Barack Obama read the bill before signing it, assuming that it passes the Senate? Or will he just read “vast portions” of the 1300-page nationalization of the American energy sector?
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Our government is totally insane.
States – some of you secede please.
Daggett on June 29, 2009 at 2:58 PM
Not unfair at all.
But when an interview is going badly, it is important to say the word “unfair” which will become the buzz word for the entire interview.
myrenovations on June 29, 2009 at 2:59 PM
Didn’t they teach us in Economics 101 to read and understand everything before you sign on the dotted line? These people are clueless.
DL13 on June 29, 2009 at 3:00 PM
You have to give all these Czars a break. It takes many weeks for the Russian translation to come out.
Rocks on June 29, 2009 at 3:00 PM
Wasted opportunity, though. He could have asked her specifics from it (or just made them up) and see if she bit.
lorien1973 on June 29, 2009 at 3:00 PM
It is always not fair for the Dems to have to give a clear concise and accurate answer.
Uh..
Well..
I mean..
If only it were rare to have someone shovel so much cr*p with so much conviction.
HoustonRight on June 29, 2009 at 3:00 PM
Legislation that is not read, debated, or even presented to lawmkaers before the vote: what could go wrong???!!!!!!!!!1
RedSoxNation on June 29, 2009 at 3:00 PM
I would hope he waits for it to be written first.
Vashta.Nerada on June 29, 2009 at 3:00 PM
Guess this will be the last time this gal will be on Fox. Can’t have bho and czars made to look a fool now can we?
L
letget on June 29, 2009 at 3:01 PM
Hey, if my 10 year old doesn’t read a book in school, he gets a zero. But these bozos pass a huge tax bill and they get to keep their jobs.
bloggless on June 29, 2009 at 3:01 PM
Posts like these just write themselves, don’t they, Ed?
Joe Caps on June 29, 2009 at 3:01 PM
Such optimism.
AbeFroman on June 29, 2009 at 3:02 PM
To prevent FRAUD you should read before you sign.
bloggless on June 29, 2009 at 3:02 PM
What an humiliating administration!
Good for Doocy, one up on MSN!
christene on June 29, 2009 at 3:02 PM
It is such an absolute insult to the American people to have our representatives vote on any bill without taking the time to read it – much less something as large, intrusive, and potentially economically crippling as this one. Isn’t the essence of their job reading, understanding, and then voting on legislation?
chromium on June 29, 2009 at 3:02 PM
She appeared on Morning Joe next and Joe wasn’t there. I’m sure she did not get “unfair” treatment there. They probably asked her if she wanted a mimosa first.
kingsjester on June 29, 2009 at 3:03 PM
Obama needs a Cliff Notes Czar.
trubble on June 29, 2009 at 3:03 PM
Hmmmmm……But, Mrs. Jones, I have read vast portions of “Hamlet”. Why did I get a fail?
bloggless on June 29, 2009 at 3:04 PM
Oops, dropped an “s”. I would hope she waits for it to be written first.
Vashta.Nerada on June 29, 2009 at 3:04 PM
Being a czar means never having to say you haven’t done your homework.
Send that uppity Doocy fellow to the gulag.
Right_of_Attila on June 29, 2009 at 3:04 PM
Isn’t Browner the socialist?
Regardless, we all know she didn’t read the bill. I kinda wish Boehner had actually stood there in the House and read the entire thing.
Doughboy on June 29, 2009 at 3:04 PM
Can I pay “vast protions” of my taxes? Does that count?
bloggless on June 29, 2009 at 3:04 PM
Unfair? UNFAIR!??!!? I’ll tell you what’s unfair is having these clowns steal – STEAL – our hard earned money and then push policies which will ultimately lead to inflation and further devalue the dollar. That’s unfair.
To ask a public-freakin-cabinet official if they have read the most seismic piece of crap ‘energy’ legislation to drip out of waxman’s nose and other places is fair game. In fact, it is the very least that we should hope for from our ‘free press’.
Then again, the royal family didn’t like it when the little kid pointed out that the king was naked either.
gatorboy on June 29, 2009 at 3:04 PM
Par for the course with the Obama administration.
NebCon on June 29, 2009 at 3:04 PM
Maybe she can hire a speed reader?
That’ll work.
Knucklehead on June 29, 2009 at 3:04 PM
Hey, why not just pass a box of blank printer paper, then see how much pork can be crammed onto it afterward–micro-font, double-sided.
They can think up the bill titles afterward, and write them on the box tops with a Sharpie.
Christien on June 29, 2009 at 3:05 PM
What possible difference would it of made if this air head had read the entire bill? No one is bothering to read it let alone allow debate on it.
Jeff from WI on June 29, 2009 at 3:05 PM
Idiot.
Flyover Country on June 29, 2009 at 3:05 PM
Are you home?
Cindy Munford on June 29, 2009 at 3:06 PM
This question could not be honestly answered “yes, I read all of it before it was enacted” by any policymaker. The process is flawed and the result is indefensible. Federal lawmakers (and their puppetmasters in the administration) are in way over their heads.
clorensen on June 29, 2009 at 3:07 PM
I can’t believe you would propose the elimination of tens of thousands of jobs. Doncha know that there are staffers who have to come up with this stuff and entire buildings of buerocrats who depend on the current process which has served our democracy so well for over 200 years.
gatorboy on June 29, 2009 at 3:07 PM
This is why most of those in Congress should be thrown out.
If reading a bill isn’t considered important when voting for or against it, then what the heck are they doing up there?
That’s like a professor grading papers without bothering to read them. Or a surgeon performing surgery while watching a movie.
An essential part of the job of congress is to formulate bills, read them, discuss and debate them, and then vote for them.
And we no longer require them to do that? We pay them, and don’t even require that they read, much less discuss, the laws they make?
Alana on June 29, 2009 at 3:07 PM
Companies too big to fail… meet bills too big to fail
gatorboy on June 29, 2009 at 3:07 PM
haven’t you heard of the perma-campaign?
gatorboy on June 29, 2009 at 3:08 PM
I’m sure that she’s also read Atlas Shrugged, The Fountainhead, War and Peace and The Gulag Archipelago, too.
Well, “vast portions,” or, more literally, the “Introductions” to same.
OhEssYouCowboys on June 29, 2009 at 3:08 PM
I’m calling the NAACP and the ACLU to tell on you Ed, even suggesting that anyone question THE ONE or his minions is rrraaaaacccciiiist!! regardless if they’re endorsing something they know absolutely nothing about!
Once again…rrraaaaacccciiiissst Ed! Obama doesn’t need to read anything for he is THE ONE, he is the messiah of Hope and Change…nuff said!
Liberty or Death on June 29, 2009 at 3:08 PM
it’s because it is Fox because they are not in the tank for the one.
deidre on June 29, 2009 at 3:09 PM
It’s not like it’s her job , or that she gets paid for it…
the_nile on June 29, 2009 at 3:09 PM
If they read it, they might come to their senses. And if that happened where would that leave Obama-nation?
darktood on June 29, 2009 at 3:09 PM
I know they want me to throw my hands up in despair, and I’m almost to that point. I can’t take much more of this. They make the dishonest and incompetent look good.
Mr. Grump on June 29, 2009 at 3:09 PM
Nah, Cliff notes didn’t work for me either!
HoustonRight on June 29, 2009 at 3:09 PM
When the government IS the fraud, it doesn’t matter
and what ever happened to the “cooling off period” so everone including citizens are allowed to red the bill?
UNREPENTANT CONSERVATIVE CAPITOLIST on June 29, 2009 at 3:10 PM
Now that would have been funny.
the_souse on June 29, 2009 at 3:10 PM
Obama will probably just wave his hand over it. The same way Robert Tilton used to read prayer requests.
kingsjester on June 29, 2009 at 3:10 PM
Let me at the Energy Czar! I will take the recycled paper the C&T was printed on and make her eat it!
upinak on June 29, 2009 at 3:10 PM
Hey, why not just pass a box of blank printer paper, then see how much pork can be crammed onto it afterward–micro-font, double-sided.
They can think up the bill titles afterward, and write them on the box tops with a Sharpie.
Christien on June 29, 2009 at 3:05 PM
Please don`t give them any ideas. Am I the only one who sees this as TREASON!
LSUMama on June 29, 2009 at 3:10 PM
What would of made it more perfect if she said “What’s a bill?”
FontanaConservative on June 29, 2009 at 3:11 PM
What the hell does “fair” have to do with it? Fair doesn’t enter into the picture when we want to know how competent the person who is advocating for a masive tax increase is.
oldernwiser on June 29, 2009 at 3:12 PM
I can see it all now when all of this crashes. Bush made us make and pass those bills.
Jeff from WI on June 29, 2009 at 3:13 PM
She read the vast portions that she wrote! This bill has been a dream of the Obama Environmental/Energy Team since they were just little kiddies at the feet of the Goracle.
Just A Grunt on June 29, 2009 at 3:13 PM
You know, you could probably make a computer program to create multiple choice questions based on any text document. Maybe we should whip up some tests see just how much our elected officials really know about what they vote on.
hawksruleva on June 29, 2009 at 3:14 PM
Maybe she could have at least remarked on the things Rep. Boehner read on the floor.
Cindy Munford on June 29, 2009 at 3:15 PM
It’s like saying you’ve read To Serve Man and recommending it for all the wonderful recipes it contains.
Christien on June 29, 2009 at 3:15 PM
I’m home, 3 days early. Didn’t get to Prague due to major flooding on the Danube.
I have dozens of things to report, maybe Ed will let me post some of things I learned about those Europeans, what they’re thinking, my observations on what’s going on over there and what they’re thinking about Obama.
Pretty shocking stuff. They are not pleased with our Precedent.
Knucklehead on June 29, 2009 at 3:15 PM
when do we get to send our army into the capitol and have the president arrested and flown away?
Ris4victory on June 29, 2009 at 3:15 PM
Heard good rationale on the radio this morning about cap and tax…. There is a good reason why this bill was rushed and voted upon on a Friday evening…. the bill sucks. Dems ALWAYS want their bills done mid week, so that they make the rounds on all the talk shows the next day. The fact that they got this done late on Friday tells you that the Dems KNOW their bill is full of shyt.
BPD on June 29, 2009 at 3:16 PM
I think that was just for bills that clear both houses of Congress. But even then, Obama has “walked back” that promise quite a bit.
hawksruleva on June 29, 2009 at 3:16 PM
Don’t you think that voting for something without reading it should be considered such a recklessly negligent dereliction of duty as to be impeachable?
LimeyGeek on June 29, 2009 at 3:17 PM
Pretty shocking stuff. They are not pleased with our Precedent.
Knucklehead on June 29, 2009 at 3:15 PM
They have that in common with a lot of us.
kingsjester on June 29, 2009 at 3:17 PM
How about a citizens effort to force a Constitutional amendment that forces Congress to read, aloud, a bill in its entirety, 24 hours before a vote? If the bill is amended, the clock is reset and the requirement stands.
LimeyGeek on June 29, 2009 at 3:20 PM
One sentence in a law can make all the difference.
TheSitRep on June 29, 2009 at 3:21 PM
I don’t see why she said it was unfair.They asked Palin what newspapers and magazines SHE read. THis clown should at least be able to read something that’s part of her job.
Jeff from WI on June 29, 2009 at 3:21 PM
There goes that fox news again with their “devotion to attacking” obama’s administration.
Those bastards.
/s
Joe Caps on June 29, 2009 at 3:22 PM
Good idea… a positive side effect would be an incentive to avoid 1000+ page bills.
BPD on June 29, 2009 at 3:22 PM
If you hire a lawyer to read a contract, I would think you’d want him to read the entire thing. One clause could be the end of you.
TheSitRep on June 29, 2009 at 3:23 PM
Why bother when they can go on any other network which will work overtime to mask what fools they are.
Patrick S on June 29, 2009 at 3:23 PM
It’d love to see this happen. Before you can vote, you must pass a test on the bill.
lorien1973 on June 29, 2009 at 3:23 PM
Barry will read it only if somebody uploads it to his teleprompter.
redfoxbluestate on June 29, 2009 at 3:24 PM
I’m this has been posted already, but does anyone know where I can find a copy or synopsis of the bill? And the “add-ons.”
davidk on June 29, 2009 at 3:24 PM
it was actually a VERY funny segment!!
Bottom line: When does “no” mean “no”???
Abbott & Costello:
Abbott (DOOCY): “So the answer no you haven’t read it. But you’ve read a big chunk of it.”
Costello (BROWNER): “No, no, no that’s not fair. That’s absolutely not fair.”
Abbott (DOOCY): “No, I’m just asking you if you read the thousand pages.”
Costello (BROWNER): “I’ve read vast portions of it.”
who says comedy is dead??
Justrand on June 29, 2009 at 3:24 PM
Someone should start promoting campaign promise, “I promise to read bills before I vote on them!”
Ouch, that hurt even to type it. These people are totally insane and out of control.
Daggett on June 29, 2009 at 3:24 PM
I think she needs her binky….
go Doocy!!
cmsinaz on June 29, 2009 at 3:25 PM
Fortunately my neanderthal squad leaders read ALL the S-2 reports before we left the wire.
Had we only known we could have gotten away with only doing vast portions of our recon and SMEAC plans it sure would have left a lot more time for the important stuff, like gettin $#!t faced.
Alden Pyle on June 29, 2009 at 3:26 PM
“Just because I don’t know what it is, it doesn’t mean I’m lying.”
~Carol “Claude Elsinore” Browner
Christien on June 29, 2009 at 3:27 PM
Does the test also need to be in Spanish?
WashJeff on June 29, 2009 at 3:27 PM
Maybe he’d let you do a Green Room Article. You’d be famous!!
Cindy Munford on June 29, 2009 at 3:27 PM
Reading is haarrrrrrd. Probably waiting for the movie version of the bill…ooops, I guess Algore’s “Inconvient Truth” is already out.
Wyznowski on June 29, 2009 at 3:27 PM
You can read up on some of his environmental/energy team members here.
Just A Grunt on June 29, 2009 at 3:28 PM
Ed, you can’t blame Browner for not reading a bill that would dramatically alter the government’s relationship with energy producers and consumers. She’s only the Energy Czar. The person responsible for reading the bill would be the administration’s Bill Reading Czar, and he hasn’t been appointed yet.
Cicero43 on June 29, 2009 at 3:28 PM
I think you might be confusing incompetence with Obama’s foreign policies.
The difference is the one is in the legislative branch and the other is in the executive branch. Which does not help much, come to think of it….
Right_of_Attila on June 29, 2009 at 3:28 PM
Democrats are allowed to vote without knowing U.S. History or Current Events, so why not an Energy Czar enforcing a law she doesn’t know.
Jeff from WI on June 29, 2009 at 3:29 PM
When the weather guy asks harder questions than the reporters, you know journalism is dying.
Disturb the Universe on June 29, 2009 at 3:29 PM
CliffsNotes.
davidk on June 29, 2009 at 3:29 PM
Slight amendment : the bills originator (or one of them) must read the bill aloud.
LimeyGeek on June 29, 2009 at 3:30 PM
She is a czar!
Reading bills is for the little people.
PattyJ on June 29, 2009 at 3:30 PM
Why do we have Czars? Total b.s.
Cindy Munford on June 29, 2009 at 3:30 PM
Of course it’s not unfair. What an asinine thing to say.
Don’t know a lot about her, but in that interview she sure sounded like a hard left enviro zealot. She was almost totally responsive to the questions and seemed able only to parrot the old enviro whacko talking points.
petefrt on June 29, 2009 at 3:30 PM
Illinois Rep Mark Kirk (
RTraitor-North Shore)…fastest reader ever. http://tinyurl.com/kngcontehd on June 29, 2009 at 3:31 PM
That’s a lie and you know it!
Obama said he would do this for non-emergency bills!
Every bill so far has been an emergency, so he has kept his promise!
/s
Joe Caps on June 29, 2009 at 3:31 PM
Absolute outrage. They have no shame.
marklmail on June 29, 2009 at 3:31 PM
Reading this bill would only create more carbon dioxide.
LibTired on June 29, 2009 at 3:31 PM
What’s with this 1000-1300 page bill drafts bull crap anyways? I’ve built industrial plants with less paper… I guess that’s what happens when lawyers get elected. If you can’t get it on 250 pages or less, then the bill needs split up and dissected.
Wyznowski on June 29, 2009 at 3:32 PM
“Vast Portions”
yeah baby this is how Obamanation works
Health Care next
bwconq on June 29, 2009 at 3:32 PM
I don’t mean to pour gas on the fire but Rush was talking today about an EPA official that was told to back off a report that warned the administration to slow down on the science of GW. Not that this is any newsflash but cripes could we get just a little bit of sincereity.
HoustonRight on June 29, 2009 at 3:33 PM
P.S. By not reading bills prior to a vote, I feel they are violating my rights. I’m serious.
marklmail on June 29, 2009 at 3:34 PM
Oh, Gawd!
We are back to the definition of IS is.
Q: What is ‘vast portion’ of it?
A: Define ‘vast’, ‘portion’, and ‘it’.
Sir Napsalot on June 29, 2009 at 3:34 PM
It doesn’t matter what’s in the bill anyway. It only screws the little people.
Cicero43 on June 29, 2009 at 3:35 PM
And methane.
Changucopia on June 29, 2009 at 3:36 PM
Do you think I could get out of a contract with the argument that I only read ‘vast portions’, but not all of the contract?
Thunderstorm129 on June 29, 2009 at 3:37 PM
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