The Congress is ending the year much as it began -- playing politics with our nation's future and putting American families at risk to score partisan points.
In the closing act to a shameful year of paralysis and indecision on the issues that matter most, House Republicans held common-sense tax relief for American families hostage to a holiday gift to Big Oil.
After the GOP-led House welded the Keystone XL tar sands pipeline rider onto the tax-relief bill, the Democratic-led Senate went along for the ride, passing a bad piece of legislation rather than being accused of blocking a needed tax cut.
When the United State Congress intentionally ties these two things together, though, it's not a joke: it's a national disgrace.
Let's be clear about the purpose of this move. It's a naked political stunt designed to hurt the president in an election year. Excuse the sarcasm, but you can see the connection here: tax relief worth about $1,000 a year for the typical working family, and a misguided plan to goose the fortunes of an industry that has already hauled in profits topping $100 billion this year.
With needed tax relief for working families set to expire at year's end, Congress should be sending President Obama a clean bill that asks a simple question: should we extend middle class tax relief and unemployment benefits at a time when our workers are struggling with hard times? For anyone who cares about fairness and families, that's an easy one.
Instead, House Republicans tacked onto that bill a contentious and unrelated question: should we allow Big Oil to build the Keystone XL pipeline, to take the dirtiest oil on the planet from the tar sands of Canada, through the heartland of America, to refineries and ports on the Gulf of Mexico?
Tar sands crude is not only the dirtiest oil on the planet, but it is produced through some of the most destructive industrial processes ever devised.
In requiring the administration to make up its mind within 60 days, this bill ensures that the State Department will not have been able to establish that the pipeline is in the national interest. It would require a decision that pre-approves the safety of an unknown, mystery route, through Nebraska meant to avoid the precious Ogallala Acquifer. There will be no choice but to deny the pipeline permit.
Further, Keystone XL would cross more than 1,500 waterways, threatening them with the kind of accident that dumped 42,000 gallons of oil in the Yellowstone River last summer and put 20 times that much tar sands in Michigan's Kalamazoo River in 2010, in a spill that hasn't been cleaned up yet.
For Congressional Republicans, though, that doesn't really matter.
What they care about is trying to somehow embarrass the president, to force his hand with an arbitrary deadline and cause a rush to judgment on a matter of serious national concern.
The misinformation spouting from GOP Congressional leadership on the Keystone XL tar sands pipeline is stunning. Just this morning on NBC's Meet the Press, Speaker Boehner lied repeatedly about every aspect of this project. And it sat there, as truth.
Never mind that the majority of the contracts for the processed oil are already cut and most of it will likely be exported to foreign countries. Speaker Boehner sat there and said it's a matter of national security. It's not. It's a matter of a big payday for his friends in the oil and gas industry.
Never mind that every independent study on how many American jobs will actually be created says, at most, 6,500 temporary construction jobs, very few of which would be local hires, according to the State Department. And never mind that Cornell University concludes it would kill more than it would create, by reducing investment in the clean energy economy. Speaker Boehner can pop off with more misinformation saying hundreds of thousands of jobs will be created. And it sits there, as truth.
Here's the simple truth, they're all willing to put our people and resources at growing risk to help boost oil company profits.
For the millions of Americans who care about clean air and water for their families, national security and a re-energized economy, all GOP Congressional leadership can come back with is a personal slap down. That somehow Americans who feel public health and safety are priority concerns, are crazy and irrational.
Newt Gingrich, the Republican's leading candidate for President of the United States portrayed these American citizens, living in a democracy as "... left-wing environmental extremists in San Francisco." Senate Republican leader Mitch McConnell called for the president to not "... let a few radical environmentalists stand in the way... " All of this feels more like middle school than political leadership.
The American people are a lot smarter than these so-called leaders give them credit for. They can tell when they're being played. They know that this is a Congress that's more concerned with scoring political points than it is with doing the country's business.
Michael Brune: The Keystone XL Pipeline Scam
Rep. Gerry Connolly: GOP's Keystone Bait and Switch Will Cost American Consumers
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Published: January 1, 2012 The New York Times
"The Republicans believe they have President Obama in a box...This is precisely the moment for him to argue the case for alternative fuel sources and clean energy jobs ... The payroll tax cut bill... gave him 60 days to decide on the Keystone XL pipeline. That is not enough time to complete the required environmental review of a project... The Republicans’ claim that the pipeline will create tens of thousands of new jobs... are wildly inflated. A more accurate forecast from the federal government, one with which TransCanada, the pipeline company, agrees, says the project would create 6,000 to 6,500 temporary construction jobs at best, for two years....
This country needs a comparably broad strategy that will create a pathway from the fossil fuels of today to the greener fuels of tomorrow. ...House Republicans voted 191 times last year to undermine existing environmental protections or reject Democratic efforts to strengthen them...or do anything at all that might disturb their patrons in the fossil fuel industries. American voters are smart enough to see through the ridiculous pipeline gambit. And they will surely listen if Mr. Obama makes a compelling argument for both protecting the environment and investing in clean energy industries that will create lasting jobs.
http://www.nytimes.com/2012/01/02/opinion/where-the-real-jobs-are.html?nl=todaysheadlines&emc=tha211
John Adams December 1770
US diplomat & politician (1735 - 1826)
If these are American companies hiring tens of thousands of American workers, why is this despicable?
http://www.ombwatch.org/node/11937
Are we going too fast for you?
Thanks
jobs for two years, according to TransCanada’s own data supplied to the State
Department.
http://www.ilr.cornell.edu/globallaborinstitute/research/upload/GLI_KeystoneXL_Reportpdf-2.pdf
http://www.nytimes.com/2011/12/24/us/provision-may-halt-keystone-pipeline-but-oil-is-still-likely-to-flow.html
Transcanada, the pipeline builder said it.
"TransCanada’s 2008 Permit Application states “Existing markets for Canadian heavy crude, principally PADD II [U.S. Midwest], are currently oversupplied, resulting in price discounting for Canadian heavy crude oil. Access to the USGC [U.S. Gulf Coast] via the Keystone XL Pipeline is expected to strengthen Canadian crude oil pricing in [the Midwest] by removing this oversupply. This is expected to increase the price of heavy crude to the equivalent cost of imported crude. The resultant increase in the price of heavy crude is estimated to provide an increase in annual revenue to the Canadian producing industry in 2013 of US $2 billion to US $3.9 billion.”
Independent analysis of these figures found this would increase per-gallon prices by 20 cents/gallon in the Midwest..."
http://itsgettinghotinhere.org/2011/09/27/keystone-xl-debunking-transcanadas-lies
Section 3.4.3
Paragraph 3
"...The resultant increase in the price of heavy crude is estimated to provide an increase in annual revenue to the Canadian producing industry in 2013 of US $2 billion to US $3.9 billion..."
http://stopbigoilripoffs.com/documents/keystone-xl-pipeline-application-section-3-supply-and-markets/at_download/file
"Fact Check: Keystone XL Would Ship Foreign Oil To Foreign Lands"
by Anthony Swift, policy analyst for the Natural Resources Defense Council
http://thinkprogress.org/green/2011/12/20/393247/fact-check-keystone-xl-would-ship-foreign-oil-to-foreign-lands/
http://priceofoil.org/wp-content/uploads/2011/09/OCIkeystoneXL_2011R.pdf
I've already posted it, but it's essential to be aware of it.
CBS Radio's Mark Knoller has kept track of presidential vacations for years and supplied the data.
So far, President Obama has taken 61 vacation days after 31 months in office. At this point in their presidencies, George W. Bush had spent 180 days at his ranch where his staff often joined him for meetings. And Ronald Reagan had taken 112 vacation days at his ranch.
August 17, 2011
http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2011/08/17/eveningnews/main20093801.shtml
No president has spent more on vacations around the world....than the Obamas.
Today as then, the pattern holds true. The law students who graduate with higher academic scores are lured into private industry. While “we the people” are left with the (relative) dregs of the class who are relegated to public service. This is why “we the people” have been and continue to be enslaved to the whims and profits of the corporate oligarchy. We are simply out smarted by private industry.
This pattern needs to change. To put it simply, our elected representatives need to be "the smartest guys in the room" , with a compensation structure that insures that “we the people” have the best and brightest..working for us.
Because this subject concerns everyone. And everyone can understand GOP's trickeries without being expert on it.
And it costs you 50 bucks a barrel to keep the US navy over there protecting the oil supplies in the middle east.
Canada's oil costs you 50 bucks less a barrel.
They would ship that oil overseas and import heavy crude from Venezuela to feed the refineries?
Seems odd.
http://moneymorning.com/2011/12/20/five-fallacies-of-the-keystone-oil-pipeline/
"Tar sands crude is not only the dirtiest oil on the planet,.."
Simply not true, not even close.
Those aren’t my numbers. That’s what the U.S. State Department concludes in its Final Environmental Impact Statement on the proposed Keystone XL. Anyone who wants to can read it right here.
http://www.keystonepipeline-xl.state.gov/clientsite/keystonexl.nsf?Open