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inthysite -> RE: McCain to Congress: "Come back to work!" (8/6/2008 10:44:40 AM)
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Is this a political stunt? Probably.
Would it matter it they came back? No!
Nancy Pelosi has vowed that there will not be a vote on energy this year, period. She doesn't care what the majority of Americans want, the people who voted her into office, the people who she supposedly represents. No, she would rather squelch the voice of the people so she can have things her way.
MR. STEPHANOPOULOS: Let me get to the substantive point he was raising there. You've been getting a lot of heat for not allowing a vote, an up or -- straight up-or-down vote on expanding drilling off the coasts of the United States. Why won't you permit a straight up- or-down vote?
REP. PELOSI: What we have presented are options that would really make a difference at the pump. Free our oil, Mr. President. We're sitting on 700 million barrels of oil. That would have an immediate effect in 10 days. What our colleagues are talking about is something that won't have an effect for 10 years and it will be two cents at the time. If they want to present something as part of an energy package, we're talking about something. But to single-shoot on something that won't work, and mislead the American people as to thinking it's going to reduce the price at the pump -- I'm just not going to be a party to it.
MR. STEPHANOPOULOS: Except that it's not just Republicans calling for this. Members of your own caucus say we must have a vote. Congressman Jason Altmire -- let me show our viewers right now -- is saying there's going to be a vote. Here he says exactly, "there's going to be a vote. September 30th will not come and go without a vote on opening the outer continental shelf. The message has been delivered. The issue can't be ignored any longer." He says he speaks for a lot of Democrats. He's talked to the leadership, and a vote must happen.
REP. PELOSI: Well, maybe it will as it's part of a larger energy package. But let's step back, call a halt, and put this in perspective. What we have now is a failed energy policy by the Bush- Cheney, two oilmen in the White House -- $4-a-gallon gasoline at the pump. And what they're saying is, let's have more of the same. Let's have more of big oil making record profits, historic profits -- you see the quarterly reports that just came out -- who want to be subsidized -- they don't really want to compete -- and let them use those subsidies to drill in protected areas.
Instead, we're saying, free the oil. Use it, don't lose it. There are 68 million acres in lower 48 and 10 or 20 million more acres in Alaska where they're permitted, where they can drill anytime. This is a diversionary tactic from a failed energy policy.
MR. STEPHANOPOULOS: But if you feel you have the better arguments, why not give a straight up-or-down vote for drilling?
REP. PELOSI: Because the misrepresentation is being made that this is going to reduce the price at the pump. This is a, again, a decoy. It's not a solution.
MR. STEPHANOPOULOS: Well, but if you're right, why not let it be debated out and have the vote?
REP. PELOSI: We have a debate every single day on this subject. What you saw in the Congress this week was the war dance of the hand maidens of the oil companies. That's what you saw on the Republican side of the aisle. Democrats and Republicans are not right down party lines on this issue. There are regional concerns as well as some people concerned about what this means back home for them. But we have a planet to save. We have an economy to grow. And we can do that if we keep our balance in all of this, and not just say, but for drilling in unprotected -- in these protected areas offshore, we would have lower gas prices.
MR. STEPHANOPOULOS: So what exactly are you trying to say? You say you might allow a vote as part of a comprehensive package, but you won't allow a straight up-or-down vote on drilling oil?
REP. PELOSI: Well, I'm not going to -- we have put on the floor free our oil; strong bipartisan support for that. Use it don't lose it; strong bipartisan support for that. End undue speculation; strong bipartisan support for that. We've talked about these things. Invest in renewable energy resources so that we can increase the supply of energy for our country; strong bipartisan support for that. Over and over again --
MR. STEPHANOPOULOS: And yet, you've brought those measures to the floor in a way under the suspension of the rules so that it couldn't be amended with a drilling proposal.
REP. PELOSI: Well, we built consensus and have a strong bipartisan -- this is what's going to make a difference to reduce our dependence on foreign oil, to stop our dependence on fossil fuels in our own country, to increase the supply of energy into -- and immediately, and immediately to reduce the price at the pump to protect the consumer.
So this is a policy matter. This is very serious policy matter.
It's not to use a tactic of -- one tactic in order to undermine a comprehensive energy package, to reduce our dependence on foreign oil, which is a national security issue, to reduce our dependence on fossil fuels in our country. Now, we should be talking about natural gas. That's cheaper, better for the environment.
MR. STEPHANOPOULOS: But why not allow votes on all that? When you came in as speaker, you promised in your commitment book, "A New Direction for America" -- let me show our viewers -- you said that bills should generally come to the floor under a procedure that allows open, full, and fair debate consisting of a full amendment process that grants the minority the right to offer its alternatives. If they want to offer a drilling proposal, why can't they have a vote?
REP. PELOSI: They'll have to use their imagination as to how they can get a vote and they may get a vote. But I'm trying to -- we have serious policy issues in our country. The president of the United States has presented this -- but for this our economy would be booming, but for this, gas would cheaper at the pump. It's simply not true. And even the president himself in his statement yesterday and before then has said, there is no quick fix for this by drilling.
MR. STEPHANOPOULOS: And Senator Obama has agreed with you. He says, listen, this is not the answer. Drilling is not the answer. But he said over the weekend that he might be willing to sign on to drilling as part of a comprehensive proposal.
REP. PELOSI: What Senator Obama said is what we want a president to say. Let's look at all of the options. Let's compare them. And let's see what really does increase our supply, protect our environment, save our economy, protect the consumer, instead of a single-shot thing that does none of the above. While we give subsidies to big oil to drill in environmentally protected areas and instead of letting them --
MR. STEPHANOPOULOS: So just -- I want to move on to other issues. Just to be clear, you're saying you will not allow a single up-or-down vote on drilling, but you will allow a vote on a package that includes drilling?
REP. PELOSI: No. What I'm saying to you is, as far as I am concerned, unless there is something that -- you never say never to anything. People have their parliamentary options available to them. But from my standpoint, my flagship issue as speaker of the House and of this 110th Congress has been to reduce our dependence on foreign oil and to save -- reverse global warming. I'm not giving a gavel away to a tactic that will do neither of those things, that supports the big oil at the cost -- at the expense of the consumer.
MR. STEPHANOPOULOS: So you will not permit a vote. You may get beat, but you're not going to permit a vote on your own.
REP. PELOSI: Well, again, we take this one step at a time, but while we're spending all of this time on a parliamentary tactic when nothing less is at stake than the planet, the air we breathe, our children breathe, we have --
MR. STEPHANOPOULOS: But that's what I don't understand. If you could get votes on everything else you care about, which you say there is strong bipartisan support, why not allow a vote on the drilling as well?
REP. PELOSI: Because the president will not allow any of these other things to come forward. Why are we not saying to the president, why don't you release oil from the SPRO? In 10 days, we can have the cost of -- the price at the pump go down? Why are you opposed to ending undue speculation in the oil markets? Why do you not insist that people who have leases on our land with permits ready to go use those?
The oil companies don't want competition. And what we would do by saying, go ahead, give them their subsidies, allow them to drill in areas that are protected now instead of where they're allowed to drill is to diminish all of the opportunity that we have for an electricity standard for our country where we set out standards that makes the competition for renewable energy resources better; which says to the private sector, invest here, because there is a standard that they have to honor. If you just say, it's drill, drill, drill, drill, drill, what is the -- and we're going to subsidize it, we're going to subsidize big oil -- what is the motivation for the private sector to come in and say, we're going to support these renewable energy resources --
MR. STEPHANOPOULOS: Let me move on to another --
REP. PELOSI: -- wind, solar, biofuels, plug-in cars, natural gas, and other alternatives?
Pelosi's oil slick
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