Short Term Pain for Long Term Prosperity.
What I have read about the climate change bill makes me think it is too weak, despite what Republicans are complaining about.
The problem with politicians is they’re only worried about how their decisions will effect their chances of being re-elected, which means they’re not going to buy into short term pain for long term prosperity. If we need to sacrifice certain things over the next five years, like losing companies who want to pollute to force companies to use more energy efficient methods, that is just part of economic evolution. The oil problem is twofold, we need regulation that prevents artificial price spikes and we need alternative energy that ends dependence on foreign oil. Obama spoke about this economic evolution:
“These incentives will finally make clean energy a profitable kind of energy which will lead to new technologies and new industries that will create millions of new jobs that can’t be shipped overseas,” he said. The president added that the nation that leads with a clean energy economy is the nation that will lead in the 21st century global economy.”MMN reveals the initial costs are overblown…
Critics have warned that such legislation will end up costing American families more than $3,000 a year. However, new numbers from the Congressional Budget Office put that figure much lower. CBO says, by 2020, proposed climate legislation would cost an average of $175 per household, about $22 billion a year nationwide.
Here’s where I’ve come to on the climate change bill: It is definitely too weak, and it surely does not do enough. Congressional Republicans are assholes, we all know that. However, the bill is a good start. It is better than nothing, and seeing as how it just barely squeaked by, it’s probably a good thing it didn’t go further. It’s depressing that it is considered politically risky to vote for the health of our environment and country, but this is where we’re at.
Even though Obama won decisively and even though Democrats cleaned house in the past two elections, I don’t think it’s yet fair to say that Americans are completely supportive of a liberal agenda, or that the country has drastically shifted to the left. America was completely fed up with Bush — not because he didn’t end global warming or get everyone health care, but because he was objectively an incompetent slimy fuck who started an unnecessary war and drove the economy into the ground.
Almost everything the Democrats and Obama have done thus far has been awesome, but definitely not enough. While this timidity is annoying to me because we should get everything we can possibly get done while we have the chance, it is probably good for America. Americans get a taste of what Democrats running everything looks like. If they like what they see and reward Democrats in 2010 with larger or similar majorities, I think you’ll see them gain some courage and we’ll hopefully see this climate bill revisited and beefed up. On the other hand, if Republicans pick up a shitload of seats in 2010, it will be made clear that Obama was more a fluke than anything else, and that we still live in the same country that gave George W. Bush four more years not so long ago.
