One Representative Voted For the Climate Change Bill After Her State Was Awarded $3.5 Billion

  One of my biggest concerns about the healthcare reform bill is the final cost of the measure once all of the votes are bought and paid for with earmarks destined to go to those who are holding out their “yes” votes. My concern may be justified because it now looks as though this is exactly how Nancy Pelosi won final passage of the climate change legislation, we can expect more of the same once the healthcare reform bill gets voted on.

  It now appears that the lollipops and ice cream that Nancy Pelosi gave out to legislators, as well has her personal charm, wasn’t what finally persuaded enough people to vote for the climate change legislation.

  According to this article there was one member in the House of non-Representatives,  Marcy Kaptur, who was on the fence and couldn’t decide whether or not to vote for the cap and tax, national energy tax act of 2009. She could not even be plied by Nancy Pelosi’s ice cream bars. But in stepped Harry Waxman with a last minute 300+ page amendment to the bill that he released at 3:00 in the morning just hours before the vote. Upon reading the amendment (apparently she is the only one to have read the amendment) she finally decided that she could vote for the bill.

  So what was in this amendment that finally persuaded Rep. Marcy Kaptur to vote in favor of passage? $3.5 billion in taxpayer money for her state, that is what was in the amendment, and that is why she voted for it. She sold out the future of America for an earmark of an astounding $3.5 billion.

  And she was not alone, that is what the 310 page amendment was all about, earmarks of various sizes that went to the states of those legislators who were holding out. Basically the holdouts were bribed for their votes at the expense of the taxpayer, as if the taxpayer wasn’t going to pay dearly enough for this legislation.

  Is it any wonder that those who opposed this legislation, such as John Boehner; who called this bill a pile of shit, were so outraged that this amendment was dumped on them at the last minute and nobody had the time to read it before voting on it? Apparently the only people who knew what was in the amendment were those who were benefiting from it and it performed its primary goal of buying the votes needed to pass this legislation.