Don’t laugh. The headline could happen. Michele Bachmann should be taken seriously by the establishment. Democrats, liberals, and the Republicans who dismiss her do so at their own peril.
Long-term thinking is missing in US politics, and one huge factor is because of the demise of moderates, once known as “Rockefeller Republicans,” within the Grand Old Party.
Last year advocates for corporate social responsibility were abuzz over the Security and Exchange Commission’s directive that advised public companies to articulate any risks associated with climate change. The GOP Congress, however, wants the US business climate to lurch backwards.
Did you love Obama’s joke about salmon Tuesday night? Chuckles aside, the truth is that when it comes to genetically modified (GE) salmon, things do get complicated, and no, we are not smoking.
Under the Bush Administration, greenhouse gases were not considered pollutants. The question was settled in a Supreme Court case in 2007, and whether you agree or not, it is settled law. Now the EPA is enforcing the law. And folks are howling.
The USA needs to get its fiscal house in order now to stop the bleeding that resulted from two wars abroad, a massive banking bailout, and tax cuts that turned surpluses from the Clinton years into massive deficits over the past decade. Tax simplification would be step towards a fiscal policy that enriches the few well connected while punishing the many. Our energy policy could benefit.
The President punted tonight. He could have given a clarion call to push for a clean energy policy that would have been painful, but necessary. He could have given a “teachable moment” about the costs involved with our addiction to oil. But instead he gave us platitudes, boasted about his energy secretary’s Nobel Prize (why do we keep hearing that?), asked that we pray, and made no attempt to push Congress to pass any energy-related legislation.
The Obama Administration told us that these oil leases were approved for drilling because they were far from the coast, were “safe,” and in the spirit of compromise, offshore drilling advocates were thrown a bone in order to get some kind of climate change legislation crammed through Congress.