You can’t fool us anymore

On Tuesday, White House Press Secretary Robert Gibbs left open the possibility that Democrats would try to pass cap and trade during a Lame Duck session of Congress after the November elections.  Even though polling data, citizen protests, town halls, and – most likely – this fall’s election results will show uniform rejection of another federal takeover of our economy, the Democrats refuse to back away from their jobs-killing, anti-growth agenda.

Continuing in their practice of using smoke-and-mirrors to pass legislation, the Democrats are planning to use legislative trickery to pass cap and trade.

Let me set the scene for you.

The House passed a draconian cap and trade bill in June 2009 by a vote of 219-212.  Presently, however, Senate Democrats know that they will have difficulty getting 60 votes for a similar bill just a few months before an election.  So, Senate Democrats want a pared-down energy bill that might be politically-palatable enough to garner these 60 votes.  Then, when the two bills go to conference committee, the egregious carbon capping provisions will be added to the final bill behind closed doors where accountability goes to die.  A Lame Duck Congress will vote on, and pass, said conference report which, incidentally, cannot even be amended by either the House or the Senate.  All of this will allow President Obama to sign a cap and trade bill into law before the new Congress is sworn into office.

I, for one, can’t say that this resembles anything close to the open and transparent process that then-candidate Obama promised but, after the use of reconciliation to pass Obamacare, what can we expect?

Senate Democrats actually confirmed my suspicions on Tuesday night with the introduction of an energy bill that “focuses on oil spills, clean alternatives” (CNN’s words, not mine).   Senator Reid was quick to point out this was a “compromise” bill since it dropped the most controversial measures from the June 2009 House bill, including caps on carbon emissions.  And it is precisely this “compromise” that he hopes will attract 60 votes, so that cap and trade can be added back in during the conference process, and passed by a Lame Duck Congress.

In other words, this seemingly innocuous energy bill could actually be the Trojan horse through which cap and trade becomes law.

Although the Democrats keep trying to use legislative maneuvering and trickery to sell the American people on their agenda, I have faith.  I have faith that Americans see, understand, and ultimately reject these thinly-veiled attempts to take away our liberty.   As such, the biggest hurdle for the Obama-Reid-Pelosi team is that, after the games with health care and the budget (and beyond), a large percentage of these citizens have actually become de facto experts in Congressional procedure and the Constitution’s limits.