Posted on 10/19/2012 12:19:46 AM PDT by Cincinatus' Wife
President Obama is among the slickest practitioners ever of the Washington Wink-Wink -- what professional politicians in both parties do when they say one thing while planning to do something else entirely.
There was, for example, Obama's 2008 campaign promise to "cut the federal deficit in half." And that "net federal spending cut" he would achieve by the end of his first term? Anybody think he didn't know then that his first term would explode the deficit and spending to historic highs?
Sen. Jim Inhofe, R-Okla., the ranking minority member of the Senate Environment and Public Works Committee, sees more of the same from Obama on the Environmental Protection Agency front, which the Oklahoma Republican described in a detailed report he issued yesterday.
Here's the first wink: "Obama has spent the past year punting on a slew of job-killing EPA regulations that will destroy millions of American jobs and cause energy prices to skyrocket even more," Inhofe said. "From greenhouse gas regulations to water guidance to the tightening of the ozone standard, the Obama-EPA has delayed the implementation of rule after rule because they don't want all those pink slips and price spikes to hit until after the election."
For the second wink, Inhofe quotes Obama's former White House environmental czar Carol Browner, who recently reassured impatient environmentalists with these words: "I can tell you, having spent two years in the White House with the president, that this is not a fad. The president believes deeply in these issues ... there is no doubt in my mind this will be a big part of his to-do list and he will remain committed in the next four years."
In other words, Browner was saying, just wait, because Obama fears he might not get re-elected if he went ahead with his EPA plans before the election.
Here are just a few of many examples cited by Inhofe of costly new Obama-inspired regulations that EPA will impose on the economy after Nov. 6:
• Greenhouse gas regulations, including the infamous "cow tax." The EPA will finalize proposed regulations that will virtually eliminate coal use in electricity generation, thus driving consumer electric bills sky-high. This cluster of new regulations will also impose an annual fee on farmers for every ton of greenhouse gases emitted by their animals. The EPA estimates that 37,000 farms and ranches will have to pay on average a $23,000 annual "cow tax."
• New regulations will so severely reduce permissible ozone emissions that the EPA estimates the cost to the economy will be $90 billion per year. Other studies put the cost as high as $1 trillion. Split the difference between the estimates, and the result still means the loss of millions of jobs.
• New Tier III regulations will cut permissible sulfur emissions by two-thirds. That will add as much as 9 cents to the cost of a gallon of gas, according to Inhofe.
• The EPA's new coal ash regulation will cost as much as $110 billion over two decades and destroy more than 300,000 jobs, mostly in West Virginia, Pennsylvania, Ohio and Missouri.
This week, the Columbia Journalism Review and Pro Publica released a report stating that Obama has proved more secretive in some respects than his immediate predecessor in the Oval Office, George W. Bush. One of those quoted by CJR/PP is Society of Environmental Journalists President Ken Ward Jr., a staff reporter for the Charleston (W.Va.) Gazette, who tweeted this yesterday: "The Obama EPA is the most difficult to get information and answers out of that I've covered in 20 years."
That's the kind of transparency we get from politicians who do the Washington Wink-Wink.
"Puts Spotlight on an Agency that has "Earned a Reputation for Abuse"
The letter was addressed to the CEOs of Boeing Co., Lockheed Martin Corp., Northrop Grumman Corp., Science Applications International Corp., Raytheon, General Dynamics, Hewlett-Packard, Booz Allen Hamilton, Computer Sciences Corp. and DynCorp International.
In a separate letter to Obama administration officials, Issa sought more details on the legal reasoning behind the guidance from Labor and OMB. Ali Ahmad, a spokesman for the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee, said the commitment to pay legal costs related to sequestration may have changed the business decisions of some companies.
“Despite the Obama administration’s failure to be transparent about sequestration-related cuts and the Department of Labor’s instruction that contractors ignore their obligations under the WARN Act, many firms publicly indicated they thought it would be necessary to issue notifications to employees in early November,” Ahmad said. Early November is 60 days before the cuts are scheduled to take effect on Jan. 2.
“The White House’s commitment to foot the bill for WARN Act violation claims with taxpayer money evidently affected the decision-making of at least some of these firms, and the committee is seeking information about the White House’s motivations,” Ahmad said......"
The subpoena is expected to go out Friday morning.
"Basically somebody hit a button and said print out a bunch of spreadsheets in an illegible format," Issa told Fox News. "So we will be issuing the subpoena."
The chairman of the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee effectively is accusing the department of stringing them along for months in their request for documents about an $8 billion program that pays bonuses to Medicare Advantage plans.................."
FYI
Cow tax!
Will Romney be able to stop this crap?
They plan to pick us off through “piecemeal progress” - bit by bit - “sector by sector.”
____________________________________
Sept 5, 2012 - “President Obama’s use of executive authority and his Environmental Protection Agency’s (EPA) interpretation of existing laws might have laid the groundwork for renewed cap-and-trade efforts, political experts said Wednesday.
The courts have approved many of the EPA’s pollution regulations, giving Obama license to propose new rules, former EPA Administrator Carol Browner said during a Politico-hosted panel discussion at the Democratic National Convention in Charlotte, N.C.
She explained those court victories have created momentum that might make industry-specific cap-and-trade plans more palatable than the prospect of facing new regulations. Though comprehensive cap-and-trade legislation might be off the table for now, Browner said that dynamic opens opportunities for piecemeal progress on cap-and-trade.
“I think we will look at this sector by sector,” she said.....................................”
http://thehill.com/blogs/e2-wire/e2-wire/247697-obama-epa-actions-make-cap-and-trade-more-likely
I expect a lot of these regs will get put in place during Obama’s lame duck period. If Romney doesn’t take positive action to undo a lot of this nonsense in the first 90 days of his Presidency, we are screwed.
Obama just appointed a replacement for the regional administrator who resigned a few months ago in Dallas. Doing so just a few weeks before an election which could sweep all such appointees out is evidence enough of what Zero intends to do before January.
Browner is a gangster. Who fills her rice bowl?
The list, Ping
Let me know if you would like to be on or off the ping list
I don't have facts but it seems to me EPA and DOE rules + cap and trade has just destroyed the California economy. Taxation, Pelosi and her dagumed river smelt and harvest mice, tree huggers and screwnuts, and illegals. I've seen the fishing industry, pulp mills, logging, dairy and beef my cousins trees dead along Hwy 80, all withing the last ten years all destroyed and good people, GOD PEOPLE selling once good land that can only grow tumble weeds now, fishing boats in dry docks and rusting factory equipment in pulp mills and logging and ranches with red signs on their fences
No, I have no facts but I hear from my friends, acquaintances the EPA regs has a lot to do with ruining their once proud farms and businesses. . I seriously wish I had enough money to move to Idaho, the Dakotas, Wyoming, Montana, heck Alaska where I can see Russia from the eyes of Tina Fey and watch smiles from hard working men and women who still have the spirit of America, of free enterprise, and don't shun everything that has to do with God, the Bible and country.
That's what I'm asking for for The Winter Break Christmas. I'm willing to bet when the Nor'easters come through the right coast and the power lines go down people will be praying for just one lump of coal in their stockings to unfreeze the baby formula, or granny's feet.
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