This week, Harry Reid says he's bringing the Energy Savings and Industrial and Competitiveness Act (S. 2262), sponsored by Jeanne Shaheen (D-NH) and Rob Portman (R-OH) to the floor for a vote. Support for a bill that should be the height of uncontroversial is widespread... on both sides of the aisle. But Republican obstructionists, content with nothing less than the complete disruption of an orderly functioning of government have vowed to prevent passage. The obstructionists, led by extremists like Ted Cruz, Mitch McConnell, Mike Lee and the Southerners, still refuse to recognize Obama as a legitimate president and vote against virtually everything and use any and all opportunities to cause dissension and discord. They were right in the 1860's and the North was wrong to keep them in the Union. They should secede, the sooner the better.
The vote on the bill, which seeks to boost building codes, train workers in energy-efficient building technologies, help manufacturers become more efficient and bolster conservation efforts at federal agencies, will probably come tomorrow. Obstructionists wanted to attach another Obamacare repeal to it but are now pushing for a binding vote on the Keystone XL Pipeline.
One of the neo-fascist Republican groups, Heritage Action, Jim DeMint's far right PAC, is demanding GOP senators vote NO. They claim the bill is paternalistic. "When the government forces efficiency measures on people," they said in a memo to right-wing true believers on behalf of their financiers at the Big Oil companies, "it takes away choices or, at the very least, overrides them. When families and firms are not spending money for the most energy-efficient technology, it is not that they are acting irrationally-- they simply have other preferences, budget constraints, and other tradeoffs."
Other GOP obstructionists are working to attach amendments to push for natural gas exports (which will drive energy prices up in America, something many of the top Republican donors would like to see) and others are trying to add wording that blocks the Environmental Protection Agency's carbon emissions limits for power plants.
Do you think I was being rash above when I was advocating allowing them to secede? They add nothing at all worthwhile and prevent any kind of progress. America would be so much better off without them. Just let them all vote and make up their own minds about who goes with Texas and Mississippi and who stays with America. Let's hope Florida, Virginia and North Carolina stay.
