Kill [the] Bill: We DON’T Have to Have this Bailout

 

Kill the Bill

Via Michelle Malkin:

We don’t have to have this trillion-dollar bailout shoved down our throats.

You can make a difference.

Make your voice heard now. Every second counts: 202-224-3121.

It’s already working. Peter Viles at L.A.Land:

A key quote in this morning’s Senate hearing about the Paulson bailout is worth repeating. This comes from Ohio Sen. Sherrod Brown, a Democrat:

“Like my colleagues, my phones have been ringing off the hook. The sentiment from Ohioans about this proposal is universally negative.”

Not “overwhelmingly negative.” Not “deeply suspicious.” Not “extremely upset.” Universally negative.

I’ll state the obvious: Members of Congress aren’t generally in the habit of passing historic and spectacularly unpopular legislation five weeks before election day.

Conservatives should consider making a special call to John McCain’s office. He’s playing politics and waffling on this while American taxpayers have a huge tab at risk.

Let the Drilling Begin

Finally. Starting October 1, the moratorium on off-shore drilling will be lifted. States will no longer have any federal restrictions. The Democrats have relinquished the issue to Republicans at long last.

Democrats have decided to allow a quarter-century ban on drilling for oil off the Atlantic and Pacific coasts to expire next week, conceding defeat in an months-long battle with the White House and Republicans set off by $4 a gallon gasoline prices this summer.

Appropriations Committee Chairman David Obey, D-Wis., told reporters Tuesday that a provision continuing the moratorium will be dropped this year from a stopgap spending bill to keep the government running after Congress recesses for the election.

Republicans have made lifting the ban a key campaign issue after gasoline prices spiked this summer and public opinion turned in favor of more drilling. President Bush lifted an executive ban on offshore drilling in July.

Does this mean drilling can begin? As soon as the states and the federal government lease the lands. But the states aren’t likely to do so without revenue sharing, something the Democrats are still trying to block. But that’s expected to cede soon as well.  

Ed Morrissey is right on:

This puts quite the capper on the 110th.  Not only did Democrats fail to achieve their broad policy goals, they failed on almost every specific goal they set in 2006.  They failed to stop funding the Iraq war, they failed to impeach George Bush, and they surrendered on energy policy.  Their only policy goal achieved — an increase in the minimum wage — came in a war-funding bill.

This battle may have been won, but the larger war for a rational energy policy continues.  Congress has to pass a revenue-sharing bill with the states in order to get investment started in American production — a process that will create American jobs and keep our wealth in the US rather than overseas.  With the meltdown in the financial markets still looming, this could not come at a better time.

Since the Democrats have conceded oil production, I wonder if these failures still think it’s the War in Iraq that got them elected in 2006.