Cap&Tax: The China-India Economic Stimulus Act of 2008 [2]

June 3, 2008, U.S. Senate. The Warner-Lieberman "Climate Security Act Of 2008" is debated the day before amendments are brought to the floor.

Second and third clip show Senator Larry Craig [R-ID]. Pested by his colleagues and not having political capital to lose, Senator Craig delivers a phenomenal speech, he will be missed:

"Why don't we call this bill the China-India Economic Stimulus Act of 2008?, because clearly those countries that are rapidly becoming the largest emitters of greenhouse gas are going to be allowed to run free in the world economy while we put the clamps on our economy."

(Transcript)

President, I thank the managers of the bill, the chairman of the Environment and Public Works Committee for the debate that has gone on.

The chairman was opining a few moments ago that the debate today had been focused on gas and high gas prices and that somehow her bill was going to push gas prices even higher. That may happen. I don't know that. What I do know today is that the American consumer is fed up with $4 gas, and anything we do that would even risk pushing gas prices higher ought to make the American consumer mighty unhappy.

So I say to the chairman tonight, I am not going to talk gas prices, I am going to talk something different because I was convinced, based on my time on the Environment and Public Works Committee and having crafted a bill that got hearings, got a markup, and was ready to come to the floor when the chairman's staff took it, turned it inside out, and brought it back to the floor in an unheard document, I was convinced then gas prices were going to go up, and I think my colleagues this afternoon who have spoken openly in opposition to this bill have strongly made the case that the American consumer is going to pay mightily for this bill that is before us if, in fact, it becomes law.

So I am a bit puzzled when I hear the title of ``Climate Security Act.'' I am confident that this might protect the environment, but what does it do for people? What does it do for the consumer who is going to be put through a financial wringer, not only with their home heating bill but continually at the gas pump, if the chairman of the Environment and Public Works Committee, Senator Boxer, has her way?

Why don't we call this bill the China-India Economic Stimulus Act of 2008, because clearly those countries that are rapidly becoming the largest emitters of greenhouse gas are going to be allowed to run free in the world economy while we put the clamps on our economy. That is a reality we all know and to which the American consumer has already reacted. Fewer jobs in our country, more jobs in China--does that make economic sense at a time when our economy is struggling?

We are just going to stick another hole in our economy and send those jobs to India or China? Or maybe we could call this the U.S. Recessions Act of 2008.

I have said it, I believe it, I have been in this Congress 28 years, and I have never seen a piece of legislation to equal this one. It is the largest single redistribution of wealth in our country ever tried by the human mind through the public policy process.

(...)

[ http://www.c-spanarchives.org/congress/?q=node/77531&id=8574894 ]

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