Sens. Kerry, Graham in NYT: What a Racket!

by William Yeatman on October 13, 2009

in Blog

In a New York Times opinion piece published last Sunday, Senators John Kerry (D-Massachusetts) and Lindsey Graham (?-South Carolina) seem to resort to blackmail as an argument for climate legislation.

Here’s what they wrote:

Failure to act comes with another cost. If Congress does not pass legislation dealing with climate change, the administration will use the Environmental Protection Agency to impose new regulations. Imposed regulations are likely to be tougher and they certainly will not include the job protections and investment incentives we are proposing.

The first half of this paragraph amounts to a threat: Act now on climate change, or the EPA will, and those guys are crazy. The last sentence includes a bribe: Kerry and Graham are proposing “job protections and investment incentives,” no doubt tailored to your constituents and financed by the general public. Of course, it’s the American taxpayer who is getting extorted. Threats, bribes, extortion…That’s a lot of racketeering, even for Senators.

P.S. My colleague Marlo Lewis amply explains (here, here, especially here, here, and this one‘s good, too) why the Senators’ threat is toothless.

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