President Obama and the Keystone Pipeline

President Obama, who has the backbone of a jellyfish, has again caved to Republican pressure and agreed to sign a bill that he previously promised to veto.

Today – yes, on a Saturday – the Senate, by a vote of 67-32, passed a $915 billion spending bill that raises the Defense budget but cuts funding for Education, Health and the EPA.  Originally, President Obama wanted approval of his Payroll Reduction Tax and further extension of unemployment benefits, before he would consider such a bill, for fear that House Republicans would hightail it out of town at the first opportunity, leaving both measures flailing in the wind.  But in a move that is becoming all too common, Obama acquiesced to Republican demands, allowing everyone to go home for the holidays.  Isn’t he nice?

The Republican compromise, if you can call it such, simply extended both programs for two months, when it will again be debated.  And get this, even though it passed the Senate, the house still has to approve the two month extension agreed upon by both parties.  Tea Heads like Illinois Representative Joe Walsh have already voiced their displeasure with the bill.  What’s to stop them from shooting the bill down, now that they have what they wanted?

Furthermore, the Republicans were able to tack on a rider to the bill that will push President Obama to allow an oil pipeline that will stretch from Canada to Texas, in the mistaken idea that it will generate 20,000 jobs.  The company that will build the pipeline, the TransCanada Corporation, is obviously Canadian.  How is that going to create so many jobs?  Republicans have even begun to intimate that if we don’t buy the Canadian oil, they will simply sell it to China.  Gee, Republicans using fear to get their way?  Where have I heard that before?

No, this all smells of big oil.  Who do you think is going to profit from this pipeline?  Not the consumer, though Republicans will insist it is so.  Big oil gets whatever they want, proof being that they are still getting their $4 billion in subsidies from our government, despite the fact they are raking in record profits.  In the words of Kurt Vonnegut, so it goes.

Environmentalists are against the pipeline because of the havoc it could wreak while traversing over 1700 miles on its way to Texas.  Pipes leak, simply put, and what’s going to happen when it pollutes drinking water, or starts killing life along one of the seventy or so rivers it will need to cross.  Republicans have proven they don’t care about the environment where money is concerned.  And if you think pipelines are safe, google “pipeline oil leaks.”  There isn’t enough time in the day to read all the articles.

As to our spineless Commander-in-Chief, he needs to stick to his guns and quit worrying about reelection.  As it is, he is behaving like a Republican, and I really can’t understand why they are so dedicated to removing him from office.  So far, he has extended the Bush tax cuts, kept Gitmo open, tried terrorists in military tribunals despite claiming he would do otherwise, and bent over backwards to appease conservatives every step of the way.  His one triumph, healthcare, has been shredded continuously since he signed it into law, often with his approval.  Where does it stop?

President Obama has been our most ineffectual President since Carter.  His willingness to compromise with a group that doesn’t know the meaning of the word, while being vilified as a socialist/communist by them, is truly astounding.  What happened to the man who ran on the idea of change?  Where did he go?