Obama Remakes the DNA of American Capitalism, GOP Yawns

Once again, Obama is delivering on a promise from his 2008 campaign to necessarily skyrocket the cost of electricity by regulating power plants out of existence. Despite the fact that Obama could not pass Cap and Trade out of a Democrat-controlled Congress in 2009, his EPA is threatening to write a rule forcing power plants to cut carbon dioxide emissions by 32% unless the states submit a plan to do so first.

And once again, Republicans are failing to deliver on their promise to block the war on coal. During his contested primary and general election campaign, Sen. Mitch McConnell (R-KY) produced ad after ad promising to fight back against the war on coal. But aside from some pro forma maneuvers and general bluster, McConnell has done nothing. He has called for states to fight back against the EPA; he has called for a judicial battle in the courts. However, he will never use the one recourse he has to redress this grievance – the power of the purse over the EPA.

Sen. Lisa Murkowski (R-AK), the top EPA appropriator in the Senate, has already made it clear she will oppose any effort to defund Obama’s energy regulations. Oh, and McConnell sits on that same appropriations subcommittee.

Much like the battle over immigration, Iran, and Planned Parenthood, Republican leaders will huff and puff but they will not blow down Obama’s administrative empire by collapsing the funding edifice on the bureaucrats.

And speaking of punting the legislative powers to the courts, what ever happened to the Court’s ruling against Obama’s mercury regulation in Michigan v. Environmental Protection Agency?

Writing for the majority in one of the few major cases the administration lost this term, Justice Scalia ruled that the EPA lacks the authority to regulate power plants under §7412(n)(1)(A) of the Clean Air Act without “considering cost—including cost of compliance—before deciding whether regulation is appropriate and necessary.” Keep in mind that the cost of the mercury regulations at issue in the Michigan case, were infinitesimal compared to the projected cost of the carbon regulation. According to the Chamber of Commerce (Obama likes to cite their work when it comes to the corporate subsidy side of the federal ledger), the proposed regulation will cost the industry as much as $51 billion a year. The mercury rule would have cost an estimated $9.6 billion a year.

What gives?

Notice how, unlike Republicans, Obama has no problem ignoring the courts and pursuing an even more brazenly unconstitutional legislative agenda via administrative fiat. Contrast his behavior to that of the GOP leadership following the marriage decision in which they all declared the redefinition of marriage “the law of the land.” There is no mention of marriage in the Constitution, yet Republicans treat the court decision as inviolable law. But when it comes to regulatory power, it is explicitly vested in Congress’ Article I powers. Accordingly, in this case the court was justified to step in and call a strike on Obama’s usurpation of power. As Justice Thomas noted in his concurrence, “if we give the ‘force of law’ to agency pronouncements on matters of private conduct as to which “ ‘Congress did not actually have an intent,’” Mead, supra, at 229, we permit a body other than Congress to perform a function that requires an exercise of the legislative power.”

And who are these individuals supplanting Congress’ power to regulate? As Mark Levin details, in what is perhaps the best chapter in his new book Plunder and Deceit, these are administration officials who believe in a “degrowth agenda” as an ends to itself. Hence, the massive cost of these regulations is not merely an unintended casualty of their environmental agenda; it is the raison d’etre of their green economic agenda to, in the words of former EPA official John Beale, “modify the DNA of the capitalist system.”

Obama has shown an unyielding desire to fulfill every one of his campaign promises by using all legal and unconstitutional tools. Why won’t Republicans at least use the constitutional tools they possess to block this? Is it too hard to blame Obama for shutting down the government in order to destroy jobs and raise the cost of the most vital goods and services?

Notice how John Boehner conveniently leaves out any mention of the power of the purse in his press release railing against the carbon regulation. And while McConnell uses the words “power of the purse,” he is referring to the phony appropriation bills he has abandoned and not the Continuing Resolution he plans to pass in September. Moreover, his promises are meaningless after he already announced to the country in no uncertain terms after the November election that he will not use must-pass government funding bills as leverage.

Add Obama’s war on energy, which is the lifeblood of the economy, to the growing list of kill shots on our nation’s foundation that will go unanswered by the GOP majority – so long as the conservatives refuse to push for new leadership. Nothing short of “the DNA of our capitalist system” is at stake. (Re-posted with permission from the author, “Obama Remakes the DNA of American Capitalism, GOP Yawns”, originally appeared HERE)

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