Teachable moments are rare in America. George Bush missed the chance right after 9/11 to call for a new era of service to the nation; he asked instead that Americans do more shopping.
Tuesday night, President Obama did not call for a tax on carbon. He didn't even ask the Senate to pass the cap and trade legislation that emerged from the House. Instead, he said there were lots of good ideas out there and he's willing to consider any of them -- which seemed more like a way of declaring cap and trade dead.
But maybe the president has a more subtle strategy in mind. Here's what New York Magazine's John Heilemann thinks may be going on:
Lacking the 60 votes necessary for cap-and-trade, the administration plans to get behind a more modest conservation measure in the Senate, then push for a carbon pricing mechanism during the conference committee merger with the House bill -- and do so during a lame-duck session after the midterms, when victorious Democrats will find it easier to make a tough vote and losing ones will be freed of political constraints.
It's plausible. After all, the president has now gotten BP to agree to a $20 billion escrow fund. Maybe the MO of this president is, like Teddy Roosevelt's, to speak softly and carry a big stick -- make nice to adversaries in public and conceal his weapon until he gets them behind closed doors.
But if that's his strategy it's a curious one considering Obama's great gift (on display especially during the 2008 presidential election) to stir the nation and mobilize it behind him.
Furthermore, given the unprecedented power of large corporations to call the shots in Washington, aided by unlimited campaign contributions and platoons of lobbyists, surely the only way to advance the public interest these days is to rally Americans to a cause. Closed-door conference committees, back-room deals, and lame-duck sessions keep the public out. And when the public is shut out, the big guys have even more clout.
Yet hard-boiled Washington hands I talk with disagree. They point to the $80 billion back-room deal that bought off Big Pharma for health care. They claim there's no other way to do business in Washington now because public opinion is too easily manipulated.
They say Machiavellian (more accurately, Emanuelian) deal-making behind closed doors ain't pretty but the public can't be counted on. The only way to get close to a carbon tax or anything else that's good for America is to buy the bums off.
Maybe. But when the bums are paid off the public gets stuck with the tab. We'll be paying far more for our drugs under the new health care law than otherwise because of the deal with Big Pharma.
The $20 billion deal with BP was also crafted in secret, and we have no way to know what assurances were given the oil giant that might cost us later.
So too with the financial reform bill that's now being finalized in conference committee, and with any potential energy bill where the real deals are made in the back room.
Remember the back-room deal that bailed out Wall Street? We still don't have all the details but it's clear the public was taken to the cleaners, and the titans of Wall Street are beaming through their bonuses.
Call me old fashioned but I still think democracy is better than corporatist negotiation. And when we have a president as articulate and thoughtful as the one we now have -- more capable than almost any occupant of the Oval Office in modern times to educate the public about real challenges and real solutions -- he and his advisors do a disservice to the American people when they make the important deals in secret.
This post originally appeared at RobertReich.org.
Wealthy corporations like Greenpeace or the WWF are indeed a threat to democracy
(2) 'And when we have a president as articulate and thoughtful as the one we now have -- more capable than almost any occupant of the Oval Office in modern times to educate the public about real challenges and real solutions -- he and his advisors do a disservice to the American people when they make the important deals in secret.'
Is this a not-so-subtle cry to get back to Washington DC?
The president is not articulate (have you seen him perform when the autocue is not there?), and is not thoughtful. He has been borne along by others looking after him, often not very well, all his life. His lack of writing at Harvard does not talk of 'thoughtful', his lack of ideas (I ignore the off-the-shelf socialism/hatred he has been stuffed with over the years) is becoming all too apparent. Yet you still seem to want to work for him.
move all gov breaks and subsides from fossils and nukes to green energy.
Only solar wind and waste bio fuels can supply the worlds energy and fuel needs, clean, safe, cheaper in the long run and forever.
Immediately order energy retrofits for all gov buildings.
Rooftop PV Solar, Offshore wind, and Waste Bio char, can supply the worlds energy and fuel needs: cleanly, safely, Forever, within 12 years and cheaper in the long run 2-6 cents now, and 26$ per barrel bio oils.
http://www.ecobusinesslinks.com/solar_panels.htm
about 1$ per Wp solar panels, new.
install solar plants for about $1.30 per watt, compared with an industry average of about $1.75, according to Hardy." http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=20602099&sid=a7K1FZoNgJ0w
Wind: “between two and six cents today, depending on location.12 Wind power approaches competitiveness with conventional generation at this price point. “
http://www.repp.org/articles/static/1/binaries/wind%20issue%20brief_FINAL.pdf
http://www.css.cornell.edu/faculty/lehmann/publ/BiofBioproBioref%203,%20547-562,%202009%20Laird.pdf
26$ per barrel bio oil from waste bio char.”
There looks to be some bio fuels that in the near future could be a cheap and abundant source to power power plants across this country in the future, but we are decades or longer away (if ever) for wind or solar to be a primary source for this country. IThey are good secondary sources for power, but the U.S. doesn't have the real estate to make them a prinary source.
Rooftop solar USES NO LAND!
Offshore wind USES NO LAND!
Waste Bio Char uses the waste we now pay to throw away.
EACH alone can provide several times the worlds energy needs. Together, they can provide base load cheaper energy.
No other set of energy sources can be installed as fast.
The roof area of the average house is enough to generate the electricity they need from solar pv.
Sadly, I don't think it would make much difference. It's not like Rahm is forcing Obama into bed with these corporations.
Exactly how would you propose to negotiate a $20,000,000,000.00 deal in public???
......In a "lynch BP" atmosphere....???
----can't be done---
.
well done
Can we now assume that the media will lament at least an equal amount of anguish towards republicans for their failure to express a modicum of anger towards BP? Will they take republicans to the woodshed for their unyielding support of BP? Will they highlight the fact that it is these same BP defenders who hold the rest of the country hostage in addressing global warming and who continue to block our path towards a green future? In the coming weeks and days it will be interesting to see the response or non-response from those in the media and here at HP. Can you hear me, Mr Reich?
And what happens to the rest of us? Who cares! Not government, not corporations, not nobody. There's an outer limit to this kind of corruption, and when our country reaches it, it ain't gonna be pretty. When working people have nothing to lose, they can be persuaded to adopt extreme agendas. Many already are. It won't take much to set it off if jobs don't come back--and they won't.
http://nymex.greenfutures.com/
Exactly.
If we need do do something to save the planet can't we just once in all of the history of mankind actually do something that benefits everyone? It appears to me that cap and trades big claim to fame is that it let's the middle class feel good about saving the planet while putting a lot of money and power into the hand of people who just want to own and control things.
The money that could be raised with a carbon tax could potentially erase poverty and hunger around the world if it was managed properly. Instead every plan I've heard or read about requires a bunch of middle men making deals and squeezing out as much of the money for themselves.
I don't want a system where there is little or no change (or actually gets worse) while a bunch of greedy rich people walk off with even more of the nation or worlds wealth.
So, let' truly make the world a better place for everyone not just a bunch of greedy rich people! Is that really too much to ask for?
Only when society can share in the profit, as well as the sacrifice, will we be able to transform our energy systems..
We cannot sit back and "hope" these energy companies will pay the required taxes and royalties while gas is six dollars a gallon and it costs $500 a month to cool your home. I simply do not trust they will meet their end of the bargain.
They are our resources, that we have allowed a group of government cronies to sell for a pittance in royalties. It's called the M.M.S.
We cannot trust private corporations and private profit margins with the needs of society. They can have the "wants", but society should control the needs.
Wow, now that's a change we can all pay for. Literally.