The House has passed a 1200-page “climate bill” focused on development of new forms of energy and reducing “greenhouse gas” emissions. The bill will impose extensive regulations on a broad range of activities and on many different parts of the economy, and could have extraordinary long-term consequences for American society.
I admit that I am skeptical about the entire “global warming consensus,” simply because I don’t believe that real scientists try to quash debate — rather, they welcome it, because the process of testing hypotheses is precisely what leads to development of scientific truths. The bill’s acceptance of global warming as a basis for massive regulation, though, is really beside the point. What I find amazing about the “climate bill” is that so many of our elected representatives are prepared to vote for far-reaching legislation that they have not read, to which hundreds of pages of amendments were added at the eleventh hour. How many times have these kinds of last-minute bills been larded with amendments that reflect fundamentally corrupt political bargains and horse-trading? How many pet projects were funded through some unread provision added by a Rules Committee member?
Is it too much to expect that Members of Congress will at least read legislation before they vote on it? Â Our Founding Fathers no doubt contemplated that elected representatives would read and understand the terms of bills and their potential consequences before they approved them — and, in this case, committed the nation to abrupt and extensive changes.
Pingback: As Predicted « Webner House