DEM SENATOR ON SPEAKER PELOSI’S NATIONAL ENERGY TAX:

DEM SENATOR ON SPEAKER PELOSI’S NATIONAL ENERGY TAX: “WE DON’T WANT TO BE A SUCKER”
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BLOWBACK FROM THE ENERGY TAX VOTE BACK HOME LEAVES HEARTLAND DEMS “RATTLED”
July 13, 2009 House Republican Leader John Boehner (R-OH)
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As the House Democratic Leadership tries to gather support for their massive small business tax and government takeover of health care, they are finding reluctance from many in their own caucus. Why? Well, many Democrats who walked the plank and voted for the Speaker’s unpopular national energy tax faced a blistering reaction back home, and the Senate looks unlikely to act on the legislation – meaning House Democrats got “BTU-ed” all over again.
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Roll Call this morning reported on the Democratic House Members’ unease, and the hurdle it is creating:

“Democrats who helped the sweeping climate
change bill squeak through before jetting home for the July Fourth break got a
surprisingly ugly homecoming, encountering a barrage of protests, attack ads and
negative press. Police turned up at a local protest aimed at Rep. Allen Boyd
(Fla.), a leader of the moderate Blue Dog Coalition. Freshman Rep. John Adler
(N.J.) told a local paper he got shoved.”
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“The bruising
endured by the moderates — along with serious substantive concerns —prompted
them last week to derail the planned Friday rollout of the health care bill. And
it presents a continuing challenge to leaders hoping to wrap work on the package
this month. ‘They are completely and totally rattled,’ one senior Democratic
aide said of the centrists. ‘I’ve never seen them as bad as they are
now.’”

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Those Democrats are right to be worried, since Politico finds little enthusiasm for Speaker Pelosi’s national energy tax in the Senate:

“President Barack Obama’s plan for climate change legislation faces
an extraordinarily tough climb in the Senate. For proof, look no further than to
some of Obama’s closest allies.”
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“‘We’ve got to be very careful with what we do with this legislation,’
Sen. Claire McCaskill (D-Mo.), a near—constant cable surrogate during Obama’s
presidential campaign, told Missouri talk radio show host Mike Ferguson last
week. ‘We need to be a leader in the world, but we don’t want to be a
sucker.’”
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“When it comes
to climate change, McCaskill and other Midwestern Democrats are putting their
home-state concerns ahead of one of the president’s biggest first-year
priorities; many of them fear that the legislation, which narrowly passed the
House earlier this month, will hurt manufacturing- and coal-dependent areas that
are already struggling.”

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Republicans have a better solution. Our “all of the above” plan will lower energy costs, clean up the environment, and create millions of new American jobs. When will the Democratic leaders realize that we need a serious plan to help our economy and reduce our dependence on foreign sources of energy, not the job-killing boondoggle like Speaker Pelosi’s national energy tax?

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REPUBLICAN LEADER PRESS OFFICE
REP. JOHN BOEHNER (R-OH)
H-204, THE CAPITOL
(202) 225-4000 GOPLEADER.GOV

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Taken from a GOP E-mail by House Republican Leader John Boehner (R-OH)