Blue Dog Dem: Cap-and-trade “worst piece of legislation” he’s seen
posted at 2:12 pm on July 21, 2009 by Ed Morrissey
Dan Boren must be getting used to making enemies on his own side of the aisle. After the Democratic Congressman publicly opposed Card Check, the SEIU offered a rational rebuttal — by claiming that Boren wants people to die in unsafe factories. After Boren’s latest remarks on cap-and-trade, expect Democratic Party special interests to accuse him of wanting to boil the oceans:
The cap-and-trade climate bill before Congress is the “worst piece of legislation” in recent years, one centrist Democratic lawmaker said Monday.
“The cap and trade bill is really the worst piece of legislation I’ve seen since I’ve been there,” Rep. Dan Boren (D-Okla.) told the Tulsa Metro Chamber of Commerce. “It raises energy prices on businesses, raises electric bills on families, and it even raises gasoline prices in the middle of a recession. And, it makes America less competitive in the global economy.”
Boren was one of 44 House Democrats to vote against the American Clean Energy and Security Act, crafted by Reps. Henry Waxman (D-Calif.) and Ed Markey (D-Mass.), in a razor-thin vote last month.
Of course, Boren isn’t the only one on Capitol Hill with that opinion of cap-and-trade. Senate Democrats postponed consideration of the bill until after the August recess in hopes of generating more support for it in the upper chamber. Enthusiasm for the bill broke down on regional and partisan lines, and even Barbara Boxer couldn’t pretend that they could get the bill to a floor vote, let alone passage.
Boren didn’t stop at cap-and-trade, either. While he didn’t express the same level of revulsion over the House proposal on ObamaCare, he didn’t sound terribly enthusiastic, either:
“We have to be very careful,” he said, as reported by the Oklahoman. “The current health insurance plan that’s been released, in my opinion, will only exacerbate the problem.”
The DNC announced that they will start running ads in Blue Dog districts to punish them for their vote on Waxman-Markey. They may do the same for any Democratic nays on ObamaCare. I suspect that the Oklahoman Representative may see that as a net plus after two years of Obamanomics and socialization — and may want to think now about crossing the aisle.
Blowback
Note from Hot Air management: This section is for comments from Hot Air's community of registered readers. Please don't assume that Hot Air management agrees with or otherwise endorses any particular comment just because we let it stand. A reminder: Anyone who fails to comply with our terms of use may lose their posting privilege.
Trackbacks/Pings
Trackback URL
Comments
Comment pages: « Previous 1 2
Wow. A Dem actually read the bill; I am impressed. But has he seen the healthcare bill yet?
bitsy on July 21, 2009 at 2:54 PM
Pssst, Boren, come on over to our side. We have punch and cookies.
rbj on July 21, 2009 at 2:54 PM
They’d have to make the district more Republican.
mankai on July 21, 2009 at 2:54 PM
I wish this Dem were my congressdude rather than Mike Castle (RINO-DE).
Akzed on July 21, 2009 at 2:56 PM
That was GREAT!!! Earlier post too.
HoustonRight on July 21, 2009 at 2:57 PM
I’ve posted this before but this is like a divorce. What needs to happen is the left gets West Coast, Hawaii and New England with a migratory route along the Canadian border. The right gets the rest of CONUS and Alaska. Responsibility for the kids (i.e. the territories) would have to be decided in a custody hearing.
highhopes on July 21, 2009 at 2:59 PM
The Senate took out the F-22 funding.
I don’t know if we need them or not, but it’s a bad sign when there’s money for human abortion and horse contraception, but not fighters.
jazz_piano on July 21, 2009 at 2:59 PM
Fixed it for ya.
redwhiteblue on July 21, 2009 at 2:59 PM
Minus SF and Berkeley.
mankai on July 21, 2009 at 3:00 PM
Gotta say after he so lost control of that town hall to the birthers, he looked pretty pathetic.
highhopes on July 21, 2009 at 3:00 PM
Where are we on the plan to divide the nation into Leftistan and Reagantopia?
California will have to be split–northern 2/3 goes to Reagantopia.
jazz_piano on July 21, 2009 at 2:53 PM
+1 LMAO
Woot. Reagantopia. Everyone who would like to take trickle-down-economics over Obamanomics raise their hand!
bitsy on July 21, 2009 at 3:00 PM
I’d let Leftistan have Iowa, Michigan, and Minnesota. And maybe Wisconsin and Ohio. I’m generous like that.
jazz_piano on July 21, 2009 at 3:00 PM
Somehow this will equate to 150,000 jobs saved or created…
gwelf on July 21, 2009 at 3:01 PM
I’m not sure what to think about this one. The DOD and administration said we didn’t need the F-22s and Congress was the ones saying otherwise, in part because building F-22s means jobs in the aircraft industry.
highhopes on July 21, 2009 at 3:02 PM
Given. They will be chiseled off from the mainland, towed out to sea, and sunk.
jazz_piano on July 21, 2009 at 3:03 PM
Oh ya, and back in the day, oSu had Robin Ventura and Mickey Tettleton, too. Hell, we could’ve competed in the MLB.
OhEssYouCowboys on July 21, 2009 at 3:03 PM
Sounds good to me except for the migratory corridor. They can fly there in eco friendly blimps powered by unicorn farts.
bitsy on July 21, 2009 at 3:04 PM
Most of that area votes left anyway. I just got Granholmed out of Michigan (i.e. I joined the exodus to find a job). MN just elected Franken, enough said. And WI has the most radical people in the Midwest outside of Ann Arbor. I wouldn’t give them all of Ohio, however, Just break off the Ohio Turnpike from Toledo on through Cleveland to the PA border.
highhopes on July 21, 2009 at 3:06 PM
Can we trade SF for SD?
mankai on July 21, 2009 at 3:07 PM
I don’t know either. But when you’re printing money like there’s no tomorrow, it’s noteworthy that this gets cut while every other conceivable piece of pork that could be conceived in the liberal imagination gets funded.
jazz_piano on July 21, 2009 at 3:07 PM
And we believe in freedom for all people…which means that we won’t take your punch and cookies away from you and give them to other people.
redwhiteblue on July 21, 2009 at 3:07 PM
Grampa Reid says them ads would equate to Democrats spending money against the Democrats (about healthcare).
Any chance we could bypass the ads and just throw all the Dems into a cage – sole survivor lives?
VibrioCocci on July 21, 2009 at 3:08 PM
There’s a building in Montgomery, AL, that is available for a temporary capital of sorts… I’m just sayin’.
mankai on July 21, 2009 at 3:08 PM
Enjoyed that immensely, wisht I was there. He just stammered and stuttered, “He’s a citizen… he’s a citizen…” Then why’s he spending millions to keep his BC and transcripts under wraps?!
Akzed on July 21, 2009 at 3:09 PM
Romeo13 on July 21, 2009 at 3:11 PM
Do you mean keep SF for Reagantopia and give Leftistan SD? If so, then probably not. That would give them a bastion inside our territory, which would eventually have to be invaded by our highly trained, heavily-funded military.
jazz_piano on July 21, 2009 at 3:12 PM
Only if we can keep him/her in a ZOO to remind the people to the insanity of the left.
chemman on July 21, 2009 at 3:12 PM
He obviously hasn’t read the ObamaCare bill yet, then…
bluelightbrigade on July 21, 2009 at 3:13 PM
I called Heath Shuler’s (D-NC11) to encourage them to whip the blue dogs (Shuler is the whip) into shape and to stand firm against the health care boondoggle. The lady on the phone wouldn’t say either way which way the calls were going.
SouthernGent on July 21, 2009 at 3:13 PM
Heck no! I’d like to keep the naval installations in SD… and I understand there are some pockets of resistance in the area.
mankai on July 21, 2009 at 3:13 PM
I wonder if my wuss, Brad Miller (D-NC-13) is vulnerable… but I doubt it (lifetime ACU rating of 5.5, second worst in the delegation).
He managed a perfect ACU rating of 0 in 2007.
mankai on July 21, 2009 at 3:16 PM
I used to live there and I hated it. Well I hated school. That was a long time ago. Still have most of my relatives in the state. OK has it’s share of political problems, crime, and taxes, but at least there is room to spread out. Kinda wish Texas would take OK with them.
AnotherOpinion on July 21, 2009 at 3:18 PM
Yes, we’d need to keep most of the military installations, because we’ll have the entire military–not like Leftistan will have a military.
jazz_piano on July 21, 2009 at 3:19 PM
I was Cartered out of MI in 1980. Things worked out just fine for me…but those people up there will apparently NEVER LEARN! They just keep voting for it then complaining about it over and over and over…
redwhiteblue on July 21, 2009 at 3:20 PM
I’m afraid I’m going to be Obama’d out of the U.S.
jazz_piano on July 21, 2009 at 3:21 PM
Okie has Fort Sill, Tinker AFB, Altus AFB and Vance AFB. We’ll be OK, unless we come under naval attack.
OhEssYouCowboys on July 21, 2009 at 3:23 PM
I have 4 kids… on one episode of Hannah Montana the kids have to create a country… one girl creates “Sarahtopia” which will be completely green with everything being recyclable (etc.)… the kid who creates “Okenland” (Oliver Oken) which produces “hot women and hot beaches” and notes “our chief export is love“… asks Sarah “Do you have an army?”… she is repulsed and answers with disgust “No!”… to which he responds, “Good luck.”
Funny, and true!
mankai on July 21, 2009 at 3:29 PM
Dan Boren, I assume, is David Boren’s son. David Boren was another Democrat, Okie congressman. Last I heard he was president of OU.
These are Zell Miller like, conservative Democrats. The ones the defecrat party left behind a long time ago.
BowHuntingTexas on July 21, 2009 at 3:31 PM
Ah. . .Boren, Ya wearn’t supposed to read it!
Wander on July 21, 2009 at 3:38 PM
Good one…but fear not – we shall overcome!
redwhiteblue on July 21, 2009 at 3:43 PM
So what if this Blue Dog says Cap and Trade is an awful piece of legislation. It passed, didn’t it. And it passed because just enough Blue Dogs voted for it.
How about the stimulus? It passed, too…because the needed number of Blue Dogs voted for it.
Given the track record of the Blue Dogs for passing the Democrat leadership’s socialist agenda, do you want to bet on them blocking ObamaCare?
Unlike conservatives, who spend their time and money trying to purge RINOs, Democrats keep their eye on the big picture. They are perfectly fine with allowing their Congressmen and Senators to sound as Conservative as they want and even to vote that way so long as whatever the leadership wants passed gets passed.
The Democrats are smart enough to know they need the Blue Dogs to have a majority…and without a majority, they cannot advance their agenda. Conservatives, OTOH, insist on idealogical purity which ends up giving Democrats a majority.
The only way the Blue Dogs will block ObamaCare is if they are more afraid of their constituants than they are of their leadership. And Pelosi and Obama have the power to strike fear in the heart of even brave men…not to mention the mostly cowardly congressmen.
goldfinch on July 21, 2009 at 3:44 PM
Seriously. Are they going to lie and say he voted for them? This is Oklahoma we’re talking about. Being against cap and trade and socialized medicine can only help him.
Bobbertsan on July 21, 2009 at 3:53 PM
As a reward for electing Sen. Inhofe, in Reagentopia Oklahoma gets some beachfront.
bitsy on July 21, 2009 at 3:58 PM
Am I right in assuming that OhEssYou means Oklahoma State University?
I read a RAND report on oil shale from 2005 that said that a process had been developed to extract oil shale “in situ” (underground heating without mining) for about $30 per barrel. That would still be profitable if oil was at $40 per barrel. The reserves were estimated between 500 billion and 1.1 trillion barrels, which represent between 100 and 220 years’ worth of U.S. oil imports. If developed, the U.S. would control the world oil market, and we could tell the Saudi king, Iranian mullahs, and Hugo Chavez to go pound sand–we wouldn’t need their oil. Not to mention the thousands of jobs for workers to extract the oil.
But, of course, the geniuses in Washington want to save the pristine land in the Rockies, even if we could get the oil and leave it almost-pristine anyway.
Kudos to Rep. Boren anyway–we need to get him talking to coal-state Senators!
Steve Z on July 21, 2009 at 4:00 PM
Awww, ty, but that will come with global warming.
Yup, and God was gonna go there, until He remembered that He didn’t need the degree.
:O)
OhEssYouCowboys on July 21, 2009 at 4:08 PM
What about San Bernardino county? One of the Largest counties in the U.S. and mainly conservative.
FontanaConservative on July 21, 2009 at 4:15 PM
My first thought also. But on further pondering I think he’ll do more for the country by helping/attempting to change the Dems from within.
patrick neid on July 21, 2009 at 4:18 PM
Even several Democrats in Oklahoma are not socialists. Praise God for them and for Inhofe and Coburn. Before this is over I am convinced that many more sensible Democrats even in the left coast and in New England will become freedom fighters. Join the Tea Party Patriots!
Christian Conservative on July 21, 2009 at 4:32 PM
Boren is going to be out of a job in 2010, regardless.
Vashta.Nerada on July 21, 2009 at 5:01 PM
(202) 225-2701
(202) 225-3038 fax
CALL HIM AND THANK HIM. TAKES 30 SECONDS!!!!!
bloggless on July 21, 2009 at 5:19 PM
Is the RNC going after their traitors too? Probably not, they’re the Stupid Party after all.
edshepp on July 21, 2009 at 5:28 PM
It won’t be “Climate Change” for much longer.
People are catching on to that Grand Scam.
They need to rename the Unscientific Planetary Weather Fraud, quick.
Proposed obscurantist renamings:
Firmament Variability.
Atmospheric Indeterminacy.
Meteorological Malleability.
Quantum Micro-Paradigm Permutations.
(Obama like the last one.)
profitsbeard on July 21, 2009 at 5:42 PM
The Borens go way back in Oklahoma. They are old fashioned Democrats. I think most people underestimate the effect that region has on how people vote. It is not all Republican vs Democrat. In fact I am sure that most Democrats in Oklahoma are more conservative than a lot of Republicans in California. They represent the voters. In Oklahoma, not one county went for Obama.
And oil is very important to that state. I grew up in Oklahoma, I know.
Terrye on July 21, 2009 at 6:06 PM
.
Just so you know, ND bought septic tanks, and as soon as they learn how to drive them they are going to invade Montana. Don’t mess with the Dakota’s
Ghostbuster on July 21, 2009 at 7:08 PM
no reason for most of them to read it. It’s not like they disagree with any of it.
xblade on July 21, 2009 at 7:32 PM
Comment pages: « Previous 1 2