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   Dan Savage, the brilliant and foul-mouthed sex columnist, has become one of the most important ethicists in America. Are we screwed?
 The federal government is supposed to issue new rules about debt levels for students in for-profit colleges. In the meantime, the states are working on their own regulations.
 Washingtons budget hawks want to decimate the federal workforce to shrink the deficit. It will have the opposite effect.
 There arent nearly enough counterterrorism experts to instruct all of Americas police. So we got these guys instead.
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May 18, 2009
HENRY WAXMAN'S MOMENT.... Late last week, members of the House Energy and Commerce Committee reached an agreement on a bill that represents Congress's first serious attempt to wrestle with climate change. Among other things, it seeks to create a cap-and-trade system that would limit the amount of greenhouse gases industries could emit, reducing America's carbon emissions by 17 percent over the next decade. But the bill has a long road to travel before it becomes law. While the Obama administration has supported the legislation, it has higher priorities this year, and getting together enough votes for cap and trade in the Senate -- where Republicans are almost unanimously opposed and many centrist Democrats remain skeptical -- will be a tall order. But if there's a reason for supporters of climate change legislation to not be concerned about this, it is the man in charge of guiding the House bill through Congress: Representative Henry Waxman, a California Democrat and the committee chairman. In the May/June issue of the Washington Monthly, Charles Homans looks at Waxman's record as a legislator, which includes decades of battles against the tobacco industry, a surprising series of health care expansions under the Reagan administration, and, most significantly, a decade-long fight to expand the Clean Air Act. In fact, Homans writes, most of Waxman's accomplishments have been like the battle over cap and trade: struggles that lasted longer -- sometimes much longer -- than a single session of Congress, and were won largely based on the congressman's ability to outlast and outflank the opposition. The bid to regulate climate change is the most daunting assignment Waxman has faced -- but it is one for which he has been preparing his entire career. Read Homans's profile of Waxman, "Marathon Man." —Steve Benen 2:00 AM Permalink | Trackbacks | Comments (12)
Comments
Marathon Man? Perhaps that's suitable for polite society; I wouldn't know. Me, I've always thought of Waxman as a terrier: digs and digs and digs and, once he grabs ahold of the tiniest bit of what he's after, shakes and shakes and shakes... Until all the s**t comes out. Posted by: exlibra on May 18, 2009 at 12:18 AM | PERMALINKI am pleased and proud to say that I'm a constituent of Rep. Waxman (how many people can say that about their elected representative?). A few years into the Dark Years (2000-2008), I started visiting his website on a regular basis when he chaired the minority oversight committee against the Bush administration. It seemed like every day he was sending a letter calling them out on all their transgressions. An exercise in futility? Perhaps at the time. But the guy was RELENTLESS, and he'll do the same thing with clean energy. His chairing the Energy Committee is the best thing that could have happened. Go, Hank, go!! Posted by: bdop4 on May 18, 2009 at 12:25 AM | PERMALINKWhat bdop4 says! What about all those reports he systematically released over that time? Those are a catalog of the Bush disasters and a roadmap for any "truth commission." Waxman is one of our heroes. Posted by: Rachel on May 18, 2009 at 12:58 AM | PERMALINKBut I fail to see what running shoes have to do with him. Cap and trade will destroy the economy. I thought Obama was all for creating jobs. The average household will watch their energy bills increase 20% each month. This leaves less money for spending, saving and investing. Coupled with a greater tax burden, this will cost our economy jobs and money to the likes that have never seen before. Yes, please pass cap-and-trade. 2010 will be a banner year for the GOP. Posted by: Delete This Now! on May 18, 2009 at 7:27 AM | PERMALINKHate to get back to this ridiculous argument, but Emptywheel website has done some good work unraveling the CIA v Pelosi problem, looks like Jay Rockefeller is sort of backing up Pelosi and it shows the inaccuracy of the CIA's records. Posted by: JS on May 18, 2009 at 7:44 AM | PERMALINKThere are far too few congressmen, generic not politically correct, who support good causes instead of being beholden to corporate interests. If corporate net earnings were limited thru price controls and taxation, they would not have as much money to bribe congressmen with campaign contributions. Posted by: capalistpig on May 18, 2009 at 8:01 AM | PERMALINKApparantly the monitors have fallen asleep here allowing cathy's footwear commercials to be posted more than once. Posted by: Gandalf on May 18, 2009 at 9:22 AM | PERMALINKDelete This Now wrote: "Cap and trade will destroy the economy ... The average household will watch their energy bills increase 20% each month." You are a deliberate liar. Based on my observation of the way the moderators run this site, they will allow you to post deliberate lies, as long as they are on topic. So if you want to trumpet to the world that you are a conscienceless liar, have at it. Posted by: SecularAnimist on May 18, 2009 at 12:02 PM | PERMALINKYou are a deliberate liar. http://www.dcthornton.com/2008/11/02/obama-would-bankrupt-coal-industry-raise-energy-prices-to-change-behavior/ Money quote, from Obama himself: You know, when I was asked earlier about the issue of coal, uh, you know — Under my plan of a cap and trade system, electricity rates would necessarily skyrocket. Even regardless of what I say about whether coal is good or bad. Because I’m capping greenhouse gases, coal power plants, you know, natural gas, you name it — whatever the plants were, whatever the industry was, uh, they would have to retrofit their operations. That will cost money. They will pass that money on to consumers. Who will this hurt the most? The working class and the "95%" of the households who will not see a tax hike under Obama. Deliberate liar? Hardly. Posted by: Delete This Now! on May 18, 2009 at 1:20 PM | PERMALINK
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