Keystone Copout Outmaneuvered

A lot of his supporters thought that President Obama had promised to veto the bill extending the payroll tax cut if it contained language expediting a decision on the Keystone XL pipeline. It does and he won't. The House passed a bill containing such language and Senate leaders have apparently agreed to move the bill. The President has indicated he will sign it.

For most of the drama over this issue, the Democrats held the upper hand. Republicans would have to agree to extend the "tax holiday" or otherwise run for reelection after raising taxes on 160 million hardworking Americans. At the last moment, the Republicans turned the tables and got Keystone XL back on the table for this coming year. From the Washington Post:

Under the agreement, Congress would approve language requiring that a construction permit be issued for the 1,700-mile Keystone XL pipeline within 60 days unless the president determined the pipeline was not in the national interest.

The President still has options. He can reject the pipeline on the grounds that the State Department can't complete its review in the allotted time. That, however, will force him to make a real decision about the pipeline before the election, precisely what he wanted to avoid when he recently extended the State Department's review until after the election.

The State Department was supposed to issue a report and the Administration was supposed to make a decision this month. The problem is that the pipeline question splits his constituencies. Environmentalists are vehemently opposed to the pipeline. The unions, by contrast, would really like the work. To put it mildly, the larger electorate is likely to come down on the side of jobs.

I don't know how this one will come out, but Keystone XL is clearly back on the table. The President has all but abandoned governing in favor of campaigning. Every serious player realizes that the President's decision to defer a decision on Keystone had nothing to with policy analysis and everything to do with November 2012. The Republicans have forced his hand and that is pretty good politics.

I think the Keystone XL project is clearly in the national interest. We might be about to get it because the Democrats were outmaneuvered in a battle over tax policy. Or we might see the President kill the pipeline for that same reason. If you think that is a ridiculous way to make policy, you're right. It is also the only way to make policy. Welcome to the last three centuries of political history.

Comments

[Bill Fleming]

Of course, the agreement will have the R's on record as voting against a middle class tax cut yet again in another two months when this extension expires. That strikes me as another way of saying that Obama is holding all the political cards here.

Plus, he no longer has to veto a bill attached to a tax law to axe the Pipeline, having effectively decoupled the two issues with this short term agreement. He can just say no (or, "yes, maybe later, when we're done with the research"... whatever... his call).

So KB, if the R's thought linking Keystone to tax law was a good idea, didn't they just kinda get their asses handed to them here?

What kind of unholy deal do you suppose they'll come up with next time?

And why do they always want to be seen as trying to suck up to the oil companies and the über wealthy at the expense of the struggling American middle class?

[duggersd]

Gee, this is an example of a jobs bill that the Democrats have been refusing to consider. Are the Democrats really going to force the Republicans to increase a tax on job creators instead of cutting the money from a bloated budget? What you say? There is not any waste in the budget? Here is an example of a quarter of a billion $ that did not need to be spent over the past decade. http://www.teaparty.org/article.php?id=1824 And you know how it is, a billion here and a billion there and pretty soon you are talking about some REAL money. The Republicans who have any sense contend the cut does not need to come with an increase somewhere else. There are all kinds of offsetting cuts that can be made and that included defense. BTW, Bill, can you name a tax cut that went only to the rich that the Republicans sponsored?

[caheidelberger]

Duggersd, did we offset the tax cuts for the wealthy?

Ken, saying no to Keystone XL puts no one out of work. We only lose promised job gains that are at least exaggerated, if not wholly imaginary.

[Donald Pay]

It's just another in a long line of examples of Republican crony capitalism.

[duggersd]

Cory, did we offset the tax cuts to the everybody else? "saying no to Keystone XL puts no one out of work. We only lose promised job gains" I am curious why you want to not allow jobs to be given to people. And if Obama can say he saved a bunch of jobs, then logic tells us if he refuses this then he is losing a bunch of jobs.

[Ken Blanchard]

Bill with one m: yes, Obama is always right. Go back to sleep.

Cory: Yes, the jobs created by Keystone XL will be wholly imaginary. The company plans to sell all the oil to Martians and all the work will be done by elves. At least that is how things work on planet Heidelberger.

Here on planet Earth, someone has to drive the trucks to transport the equipment. Someone has to dig the holes. There are contrary arguments about how many jobs will be created, but it can't be zero. It has to be in the tens of thousands. The President himself thinks the economy needs stimulus and that the best stimulus is JOBS NOW. Is he a fool? Regardless of long term job projections, Keystone would create jobs now. That, at least, is what the Unions think.

Donald: yes. Everyone who ever disagreed with you was morally corrupt. Go back to sleep.

[larry kurtz]

Cleaning up after the BP spill in the Gulf has created jobs, cleaning up after the BP spill in the Platte has created jobs. Fracking effects on water sources have created jobs...mortuary jobs are forever.

Vote Republican: it's easier than thinking.

[Donald Pay]

Larry, you are so right. Companies involved in environmental remediation create lots of jobs, and Republican regulatory policies are the primary cause of such government funded jobs.

Take as an example the mining Superfund sites in South Dakota. Most of the money going into stabilizing these sites come from the federal government. Republicans gutted the polluter pays concept years ago, so now cleanups take longer, cost more and are paid for by you and me. These are make work projects the Republican way: first allow the corporate elite to poison the environment while raking in obscene profits through lax regulation, then make the taxpayer pay for the cleanup.

[larry kurtz]

Welcome to the chemical toilet.

RT @DonEWG: “For the past five years in South Dakota, ethanol plants have been the leading emitters of carcinogens — toxins thought or known to cause cancer — having surpassed plastics manufacturers.”

http://www.argusleader.com/article/20111218/NEWS/312180036/1001

[larry kurtz]

More on Obama and KXL. Turns out he thinks like a college professor:

http://thehill.com/homenews/administration/200125-keystone-climbdown-leaves-obama-supporters-scratching-heads

[Stan Gibilisco]

"Cleaning up after the BP spill in the Gulf has created jobs, cleaning up after the BP spill in the Platte has created jobs. Fracking effects on water sources have created jobs...mortuary jobs are forever."

Larry, that's one of the best comments I've read from anyone in some time.

I have mixed feelings about the pipeline. Our main objective should be the greatest good for the greatest number -- of Americans. The task of figuring out that multivariable problem belongs to greater minds than mine.

[Ken Blanchard]

Larry: your link is very instructive. Obama is sitting on his hands, as usual. Maybe this is like a college professor, but then we aren't paid to make policy.

[Ken Blanchard]

Stan: Larry's computer was plugged in when he posted his comments.

[Dave]

The House Republican leader (Boehner) on Sunday flatly rejected a short-term, bipartisan Senate measure to extend a payroll tax break and unemployment insurance, setting the stage for a bitter year-end Congressional collision and the potential loss of benefits for millions of Americans.

In an interview on “Meet The Press” on NBC, Speaker John A. Boehner said his members broadly opposed the two-month extension that passed the Senate 89 to 10, believing that it would be “just kicking the can down the road.”

Personally, I believe that stimulating the economy is good at a time like this. The GOP? not so much...

[Jimi]

Dave,

Unemployment insurance stimulates the economy? What about the evidence that suggests that the longer someone stays on unemployment the more they have long term dependency on it?

I thought the Democrats baby was Social Security? The payroll tax cut just makes the "baby" get sicker and sicker?

[Dave]

And then there's this... from politico

National Economic Council Director Gene Sperling said Sunday the White House is unlikely to approve the controversial Keystone XL pipeline project after only a 60-day review.

The Canada-to-Texas pipeline has become a rallying cry for Republicans on Capitol Hill, and language included in a payroll tax extension approved by the Senate on Saturday would force President Barack Obama to make a quick decision on whether to allow the project to move forward or kill it.

But Sperling indicated that the State Department, which is overseeing the Keystone permitting process, cannot complete an full review in that short time frame.

"The experts at the State Department . . . made clear before this legislation was even voted on that, if they were only given 60 days to look at alternative routes in Nebraska and do the serious environmental and health reviews, that that would [not] be enough time and would make it almost certainly impossible to extend that permit," Sperling said on CNN's "State of the Union."

Sperling, though, did not say definitively that Obama would reject the pipeline application. Senate Democrats have said Obama is unlikely to approve the project by the new deadline.

[lynn]

Dave, if Obama were truly concerned about creating jobs, he would allow Keystone, allow drilling for oil, get rid of job-killing regulations by an over-reaching EPA and executive orders, and repeal Obamacare. A better way to frame your last statement would be, "Personally, I believe that stimulating the economy is good at a time like this. Obama and his Dems in Congress? not so much..."

[Dave]

And Boehner kills the bill... Raising taxes on middle class Americans, and scuttling any attempt to expedite Keystone... Now watch as the GOP blames both sides...

[Dave]

Geeze! The House GOPers even got the reliably conservative WSJ editorial page PO'd...

http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052970204791104577110573867064702.html?mod=WSJ_Opinion_LEADTop