Pattern Of Abuse
Legislation: Joe Barton (R-TX) sponsored energy legislation.
The New York Times reports "The bill would streamline government permits for refineries, open federal lands including closed military bases for future refinery construction and limit the number of gasoline blends refiners have to produce, eliminating many blends now designed to reduce air pollution." Essentially it opens the doors for more abuse from refiners who have enjoyed a 255% profit margin increase over the past year while not addressing pump prices, home heating, or planning for a cleaner more secure future.
The Showdown: A 5-minute vote was called. At the end of five minutes the vote stood at 206 for and 209 against. Again, Republican leaders held open the vote to twist, deal, and otherwise cajole their caucus to finally secure a two-vote margin victory, 212-210, after 45 minutes of voting.
THE SHAME: Foxes take control of the hen house
The Republican Leadership in the House of Representatives has abandoned all pretense of decorum by abusing their powers as majority party to manipulate the outcome of critical pieces of legislation.
A decade after the Republican "Contract With America" declared that it would "restore the bonds of trust between the people and their elected representatives" that contract has clearly been breached.
The abuse of power seen in these tactics is one in a long line of untrustworthy dealings by Republican leaders.
READ the full ADAction Alert HERE
The New York Times reports "The bill would streamline government permits for refineries, open federal lands including closed military bases for future refinery construction and limit the number of gasoline blends refiners have to produce, eliminating many blends now designed to reduce air pollution." Essentially it opens the doors for more abuse from refiners who have enjoyed a 255% profit margin increase over the past year while not addressing pump prices, home heating, or planning for a cleaner more secure future.
The Showdown: A 5-minute vote was called. At the end of five minutes the vote stood at 206 for and 209 against. Again, Republican leaders held open the vote to twist, deal, and otherwise cajole their caucus to finally secure a two-vote margin victory, 212-210, after 45 minutes of voting.
THE SHAME: Foxes take control of the hen house
The Republican Leadership in the House of Representatives has abandoned all pretense of decorum by abusing their powers as majority party to manipulate the outcome of critical pieces of legislation.
A decade after the Republican "Contract With America" declared that it would "restore the bonds of trust between the people and their elected representatives" that contract has clearly been breached.
The abuse of power seen in these tactics is one in a long line of untrustworthy dealings by Republican leaders.
READ the full ADAction Alert HERE
2 Comments:
There are justifiable outcries that the new energy bill undermines democracy by ignoring the will of the people. The flaw in this criticism is that it assumes there was democracy in America in the first place.
Delaying a vote until the republicans were assured of a victory on an energy bill that clearly serves the interests of the oil industry is a symptom of a much deeper problem. The American government rarely serves the interests of the people in a deeply flawed democratic system the structure of which opens the door to business-friendly governments.
The U.S. is one of only three domocracies in the world that does not use proportional representationm to elect people to Congress. The result is a very unrepresentative Congress where only 12% of its members are women. The American electoral system imposes huge barriers to any third party seeking to elect people to Congress.
Although there appear to be two parties vying for votes at election time, both parties are owned lock, stock and barrel by big business and lobbyists. They drive trucks through the loopholes in the election laws to fund often both parties to hedge their bets.
Another problem is that the members of Congress serve the interests of lobbyists who represent large corporations rather that the people who elected them. In a democracy everyone should have equal political power and input into decision-making. This isn't a fantasy of some pie-in-the-sky dreamer but a realistic idea for which there are many methods of implementation. Anything is better than the current system where big corporations almost write government policy while ordinary citizens suffer the consequences. All lobbying should be banned. It is nothing more than influence-pedalling despite the feigned cries of big business that the government needs their expertise. The expertise of all stakeholders and all interested groups should have equal input into decision-making not just those with an abundance of money.
The third pillar of the principle of separation of powers, the Supreme Court, is corrupted by the election process which deprives the court of its independence.
So scream foul when Congress delays bills to gain an advantage but put it in the larger context rather than create the impression that this case is only one of a number of isolated examples.
David Model (latest book - Lying for Empire: How to Commit War Crimes With a Straight Face)
David Model
What Democracy?
There are justifiable outcries that the new energy bill undermines democracy by ignoring the will of the people. The flaw in this criticism is that it assumes there was democracy in America in the first place.
Delaying a vote until the republicans were assured of a victory on an energy bill that clearly serves the interests of the oil industry is a symptom of a much deeper problem. The American government rarely serves the interests of the people in a deeply flawed democratic system the structure of which opens the door to business-friendly governments.
The U.S. is one of only three domocracies in the world that does not use proportional representationm to elect people to Congress. The result is a very unrepresentative Congress where only 12% of its members are women. The American electoral system imposes huge barriers to any third party seeking to elect people to Congress.
Although there appear to be two parties vying for votes at election time, both parties are owned lock, stock and barrel by big business and lobbyists. They drive trucks through the loopholes in the election laws to fund often both parties to hedge their bets.
Another problem is that the members of Congress serve the interests of lobbyists who represent large corporations rather that the people who elected them. In a democracy everyone should have equal political power and input into decision-making. This isn't a fantasy of some pie-in-the-sky dreamer but a realistic idea for which there are many methods of implementation. Anything is better than the current system where big corporations almost write government policy while ordinary citizens suffer the consequences. All lobbying should be banned. It is nothing more than influence-pedalling despite the feigned cries of big business that the government needs their expertise. The expertise of all stakeholders and all interested groups should have equal input into decision-making not just those with an abundance of money.
The third pillar of the principle of separation of powers, the Supreme Court, is corrupted by the election process which deprives the court of its independence.
So scream foul when Congress delays bills to gain an advantage but put it in the larger context rather than create the impression that this case is only one of a number of isolated examples.
David Model (latest book - Lying for Empire: How to Commit War Crimes With a Straight Face)
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