Dear America,
The XL segment of the Keystone pipeline system made news again this week. The Republicans in congress lived up to their threat as the bill from The House to approve the pipeline over The President's objection was also passed by The Senate and sent on to the White House where President Obama vetoed it...as he promised he would do. The bleating of the purportedly wounded conservative Republicans could be heard around the country as they claimed that the Democrats, and The President in particular, were obstructing the creation of tens of thousands of jobs as they continued to leave the Department of Homeland Security unfounded in lieu of reversal by Mr. Obama of his executive directives regarding immigration. But the claim of obstruction rings hollow enough that Senate (Republican) Majority Leader Mitch McConnell sent a bill to The House that would fund Homeland Security without the quid pro quo of rescission of executive orders on immigration. House Speaker John Boehner promptly declined to predict whether he would allow a vote on the senate bill as he cowered in a corner in fear of what the conservative wing of his party...aka the Tea Party...banged on his office door demanding that he take administrative measures to prevent passage of the bill, which everyone knows would pass if put to a vote in The House as a function of political pragmatism if not conscience, conscience in The House being something of an oxymoron. But the facts that are relevant to all this belie the Republican puling about it.
According to The Economist magazine, President Obama has exercised his veto power only three times in his entire presidency, fewer than almost any president in history, so the claim that he is preventing congress from exercising the will of the people is unjustified. Then there is the Republican record of obstruction during the first six years of the Obama administration, which was overt and unabashed. I heard a congressman on the news making the claim that the Democrats were obstructing Homeland Security funding by filibustering the house bill requiring reversal of executive immigration orders before funding the department. But just after he made that claim, even he...brazen as he is...qualified his claim of obstructionism by saying that the Republican party had been the obstructionists, but now the Democrats were. Partisan hyperbole is not very effective when you admit that it is hyperbole in the next sentence...and what's more, it looks moronic, but that never stopped Republicans. Then there is the issue of the XL segment of the pipeline itself. All it does is increase the volume of tar-sand oil that can be shipped from Canada to a preexisting junction in the pipeline system that already exists in Steele City, Nebraska. And as to the number of jobs that construction will produce, The Economist points out that at most about 3,900 jobs will be created for two years to build the pipeline, and we produce nearly ten times that many every month without the pipeline, and those will be mostly in Montana, which doesn't have an unemployment problem. Add to that the fact that The Senate passed a bipartisan immigration bill...in fact two of them...early in the last session of congress, but Boehner--again in fear that the conservative wing of his party would take his speakership away from him--refused to even allow a vote on it. How can that obstruction be blamed on the Democrats or President Obama; how can any of this obstruction be laid at the doorstep of anyone but the Republican Party, yet they continue to try.
But, while I oppose the XL because I think it will result in nothing better than a few temporary jobs with the capacity to export Canadian oil through our Gulf Coast refineries and ports, it just doesn't seem that important in light of the continuing trends in accidental spillage of crude oil as it is transported by rail instead of pipeline. Even environmentalists may now be reconsidering their opposition to it in light of the comparative scale of damage done by rail transport over pipeline conveyance. Maybe this isn't the battle of principle that the Democrats should be waging. It probably isn't a good idea to raise the amount of Canadian crude that goes through our country to other places, but it just may be that the better course of prevention would be campaigning for legislation that does so. The Republicans and their patrons in business oppose such legislation, preferring to loosen the restrictions on exportation of domestically produced petroleum that have been in effect for forty years or more. Maybe the contrast between their position and Democratic opposition to allowing petroleum exportation before filling all domestic need would be good for the Democrats. Maybe introducing another immigration bill in The Senate would help too. And then there is Republican effort to vitiate the positive effects on our populace that the Affordable Care Act has had. There are over ten million of us whose lives have been improved by the ACA, and all of those represent votes in 2016, both in congressional races and in the presidential election. There is still the possibility that the Republicans will see the light, even if it is just the illumination of their own self-interest. Why are you laughing; it could happen.
Your friend,
Mike
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