The Magician and his Hat

The debate over the proposed healthcare bill is at fever pitch and one need not look far to read about the anger being displayed by the people attending the town hall meetings currently being held in every Congressional district. Some insist these are average American’s in fear of loosing the quality and quantity of their health coverage while others insist that this is manufactured rage perpetrated by political groups designed to disrupt the meetings.

If you read the news flash that immediately preceded this, then you already know that it is the proponents of this bill that are mobilizing to manufacture fraudulent rage. They have been caught red-handed posting ads actually offering salaries for those that are loud enough to drown out the voices of the people opposed to this bill. Or is it meant to intimidate their opponents until they no longer attend the meetings? You decide.

I’ve only attended one town hall so far and the meeting was spirited but not disruptive. The people I saw seemed sincere and did not appear to be organized other than in their common opposition to the provisions that they believe are hidden in the bill. What I saw was fear and not anger. I was not at any of the meetings that appeared on the news so it would be inappropriate for me to comment on the intent or the origin of the people that attended those.

I will say that the response from Congressional leadership to the anger shown in those meetings has done more to alienate Congress from their constituents than anything I have ever seen before. They have since toned down their rhetoric and today call the protestors “a loosely organized group of individuals”. While they apparently have abandoned their stance that these people were acting under the orders of big business and political parties, they are still seeking to dilute what these people are saying. How foolish. Actually, I think it’s a little too foolish not to have been by design. It seems that they desperately want to keep this debate alive and angry.

So why do I feel as though I am watching a magician waving a handkerchief in his right hand while his left hand is neatly hidden from view? Since they want to discuss health care reform so badly, I think I’ll talk about the Climate Bill.

If you recall, the American Clean Energy and Security Act narrowly passed the house on June 26, 2009 by a vote of 219 to 212. This bill is also going to the Senate after the summer break and though there were articles stating that this bill faces an uncertain future in the Senate, Mr. Obama is curiously silent about something he claimed was so critical to the planet. To a cynic like me, silence equals sneaky. There was a great deal of opposition to this that the timely appearance of the health care debate has effectively silenced. Is it possible I have found what the magician has hidden in his hat?

The American Clean Energy and Security Act is lauded as an important milestone in environmental legislation that promises to reduce the production of Carbon Dioxide, a greenhouse gas and the accused culprit in the crime of global warming. Unfortunately, scientists at MIT (The Massachusetts Institute of Technology) recently announced that they are confused by the test data they have accumulated which shows an increase in atmospheric methane sufficient to raise the question of whether it is methane rather than carbon dioxide that is the actual suspect. That is very disturbing now that we are prepared to pass legislation that will drastically challenge the financial stability of this nation and the personal freedom of the American people.

This is an enormous bill that requires megabytes of computer storage just for the PDF version of the summary. Big bills frighten me not only because there is a lot of room to hide the dirty little details, but because it is almost guaranteed that the people voting on this probably did not read it themselves but instead, have relied on an army of staffers with limited experience in law to provide them with a “Reader’s Digest” version that summarizes the major points.

Since Congress found this too big too read, the last thing I want to do is to crowd this site with a massive tome about any piece of legislation. I’ll resort to that if and when I feel it is time to retire this project because that would be a great way to make sure that you will find something else to read. Instead, I will dissect the bill and cover the major points as objectively as humanly possible. The areas of the bill that I feel are most important to for all of us are Cap and Trade, The Smart Grid, “Green” Jobs and the Forecasts of Economic Impact.

Why is the Climate Bill a subject for The Vigilance Project? There are portions of this legislation that will fundamentally expand the reach of government into our homes and into our daily lives. There are also truths about this bill hidden under the “green” blanket of environmental activism that must be uncovered.

Coming Tuesday. Carbon, Cap and Trade.

Paul