Well, The Angry Moderate is back from his self-imposed year long exile. I don't know how these states with off-year elections can sustain it. They must feel like they have an election every year. Oh yeah, they do. More power to you Virginia and New Jersey. The Angry Moderate needed a break.
Anywho, I'm back and ready to get back into the swing of things. It's not as though I retreated to small island in the South Pacific away from all media and news, although I fantasize about that a lot. No, I have kept right up to speed on the mind blowing amount of events that have happened since I last blogged. Economy and financial system crashing around our ears, pandemics, rising unemployment, still mired in 2 wars, etc.. No, we won't have a lack of things to talk about.
The topic I wanted to start with is related to climate change, but not really about climate change per se. Let me explain. It seems that in the climate change bill that is before Congress something very funny has happened. Funny odd, not ha ha. It seems that the Democrats have embraced a Republican idea that the Republicans forgot they had.
Back in the 80's when Reagan was in office, a remarkable thing happened. There was a meeting of minds between Republicans, who were naturally opposed to regulation, and Environmentalists, who were trying to come up with a solution to acid rain. I can't really do the story justice, so here's a link to an article in the Smithsonian Magazine from August of 2009 that describes it perfectly.
The Political History of Cap and Trade
It seems that Cap & Trade, which at the time was derided by Democrats and liberals, actually worked. Spectacularly. It was a market based solution that truly delivered.
Fast forward to 2009, the Democrats have embraced Cap & Trade as the center piece of their efforts to cut back on greenhouse gas emissions to help alleviate global warming. Now, there are some on the left that still object that it doesn't go far enough and won't work, as before. The Republicans in the meantime, forgetting that this was originally a Republican idea, now blast it as socialism and a job killer. To me, the proof is in the pudding. We've tested this once, it worked. Let's put the ridiculous name calling aside and get it done.
Most importantly, it shows that when two people work together, even when coming from completely polar approaches, you can come up with creative ways to solve problems. The current Congressional Republicans have taken to just obstructing everything, instead of trying to make things better. Compromise and working across the aisle have become anathema. This is not how to run a government. If your only strategy is to obstruct, it is bad for your party, bad for the Country, and frankly just lazy. What the country needs is politicians that are creative and not afraid to work with people they don't agree with. Another fine reason to abolish the two party system, in my humble opinion.
3 comments:
Down with the two party system! If we had just one party everyone would get along and be successful, look at China! 1.3B people who get along just fine and are all in perfect agreeance. (Did that come off as too sarcastic?) Anyway, I just heard about Cap and Trade on NPR tonight on the show Counterspin. They had on a couple of EPA lawyers (whose opinions were not those of the EPA...this was made clear several times...that said Cap and Trade doesn't work, but they offered up something called Carbon Fees. There mumbo jumbo and jargon made my head hurt so I thought about pudding for a while instead. However if you are interested in their ideas you can check out their website www.carbonfees.org. Enjoy!
I am studying Chemistry right now and I happen to be assigned the cap and trade topic for a report. Actually, cap and trade worked great for acid rain issues because the pollution and its sources were limited in scope. But they do not think cap and trade will work as well for green house gases for many reason including the fact that it is a global problem and that carbon emissions come from a whole variety of sources that no one is willing to regulate, like farms. The thought is that a carbon tax will work but I am not sure why. I have not gotten that far in my reading. Does your head hurt from this? Mmmmmm pudding.
But the more important point is that politicians are hypocrites and we let them get away with it.
No question but what the issue is more in doubt.
But I agree with Matt that our political system is letting us down. Issues like this and health care are too important to be treated the way it's going.
Interesting article. And interesting that Rob heard the EPA schmucks dissing the idea.
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