It’s a common misconception that a tradeoff exists between economic growth and environmental cleanliness. For decades Gallup has been conducting a poll asking about this very tradeoff. According to its latest one, “53 percent said economic growth should be the nation’s top priority, even if the environment has to suffer. Just 38 percent put their priority on environmental protection, even if it limited growth. The share of Americans favoring the environment over growth is the lowest since 1984.”
In 1990, the results were 71 percent preferred protection of the environment even at the chance of curbing economic growth compared to only 19 percent suggesting economic growth should be the priority. Clearly this is indicative of the current state of our economy but the trend in the Gallup chart shows more people favoring the economy. This year’s results should send a strong signal to Congress that now (but not ever) is not the time to implement policies that would raise the price of energy and stunt economic growth, especially when these policies produce negligible or detrimental environmental effects. Legislation that aims to cut CO2 reduces resources available to grow our economy and become more energy and environmentally efficient. John Tierney from the New York Times says,
In dozens of studies, researchers identified Kuznets curves for a variety of environmental problems. There are exceptions to the trend, especially in countries with inept governments and poor systems of property rights, but in general, richer is eventually greener. As incomes go up, people often focus first on cleaning up their drinking water, and then later on air pollutants like sulfur dioxide. As their wealth grows, people consume more energy, but they move to more efficient and cleaner sources.”
The market yields economic and environmental outcomes people desire by allocating scarce resources and inviting competition. Fred Smith of the Competitive Enterprise Institute provides an example:
Consider, for example, the fears expressed in the early post-war era that copper would soon be in short supply. Copper was the lifeblood of the world’s communication system, essential to link together humanity throughout the world. Extrapolations suggested problems and copper prices escalated accordingly. The result? New sources of copper in Africa, South America, and even the U.S. and Canada were found. That concern, however, also prompted others to review new technologies, an effort that produced today’s rapidly expanding fiber optics links.
Such changes would be viewed as miraculous if not now commonplace in the industrialized, and predominantly capitalistic, nations of the world. Data assembled by Lynn Scarlett of the Reason Foundation noted that a system requiring, say, 1,000 tons of copper can be replaced by as little as 25 kilograms of silicon, the basic component of sand. Moreover, the fiber optics system has the ability to carry over 1,000 times the information of the older copper wire. Such rapid increases in communication technology are also providing for the displacement of oil as electronic communication reduces the need to travel and commute. The rising fad of telecommuting was not dreamed up by some utopian environmental planner, but was rather a natural outgrowth of market processes.”
And the importance of well established property rights cannot be stressed enough. When property rights cease to exist, people do not have the proper incentives to devote their own resources to protect and improve their land. It also allows for a conservation market to thrive. Pacific Forest Trust, for instance, makes payments to a tree farm “in return for an agreement to never subdivide its land and always maintain a sustainable forest.” Nature Conservancy and Ducks Unlimited purchase land to create and protect habitats and establish wildlife preserves, and billionaire Ted Turner is attempting to restore bison wildlife by buying property in Montana.
In today’s economy, it’s no surprise Americans are prioritizing the economy ahead of the environment, but these two issues are not mutually exclusive. We can have our cake and eat it too.
Yesterday the White House circulated a memo by pollster Joel Benenson. It was designed to create momentum for Obamacare by convincing wayward House Democrats that support for the President’s plan has been building since the State of the Union. As with everything else that comes out of the White House on health care these days, the memo is nothing but pure fantasy.
This Tuesday, Gallup released its latest poll showing that by a 48%-45% margin Americans would tell their representative in Congress to vote against President Obama’s health plan. Compare that to the last time Gallup asked the question in January, Americans supported the President’s plan 49%-46%. That’s a net six point loss in support for the President’s plan since the State of the Union. That is momentum. Against Obamacare.
And Gallup isn’t alone. The Associated Press released a poll this week showing that 68% of Americans believe the President and Congressional Democrats shouldn’t pass their health care plan without Republican support. “Nothing has been more disconcerting than to watch Democratic politicians and their media supporters deceive themselves into believing that the public favors the Democrats’ current health-care plan,” Democratic pollsters Pat Caddell and Doug Schoen add in today’s Washington Post, “A solid majority of Americans opposes the massive health-reform plan.”
Yesterday was particularly tough for the President’s plan. First, the White House underwhelmed the Democratic Caucus in a presentation of the new (still unwritten) reconciliation bill. Then, the Senate Parliamentarian killed the Democrats favored procedural path for passage by signaling he would rule that President Obama must sign the original Senate bill into law before the Senate could act on the President’s new reconciliation package. Finally, the Associated Press reported that House leaders have abandoned all hope of finding language to satisfy Rep. Bart Stupak’s (D-MI) concerns that the Senate bill funds abortion. By the end of the day, the leftist firedoglake site had dropped its count of committed House Democrats for passage to 189 (Speaker Pelosi needs 216 for passage).
With the loss of Stupak and his 7-12 member caucus opposed to taxpayer-funded-abortions, Speaker Pelosi will have to find the remaining dozen plus votes from the ranks of cost conscious Blue Dog Democrats. For example, Rep. Suzanne Kosmas (D-FL) who voted against the House bill in the fall explained at the time: “According to the Congressional Budget Office, the House health care bill will actually increase federal health care spending over the long term, while proposals being considered by the Senate would have a net decrease.” But according to a new CBO score of the Senate bill passed on Christmas Eve (the one with the Cornhusker Kickback), it actually increases health care spending. And the reconciliation bill only make things worse, since, among other increased spending measures, President Obama “fixed” the Cornhusker Kickback not by eliminating the new spending, but by extending it to all 50 states.
With no votes piling up, and “yes” votes materializing, the Democratic plans to shove Obamacare down the throats of the American people are becoming more and more desperate. This Monday, the House Budget Committee will begin markup on the new reconciliation bill even though actual legislative text does not exist for it yet. The Democrats plan to pass a shell of a bill through the appropriate committees so that the Rules Committee can then substitute the bill that is being drafted completely behind closed doors by the White House and Senate and Democrat leaders.
Politico reports that despite the Parliamentarian’s initial verbal ruling, they will press on with their Slaughter Rule plan to pass the Senate bill without voting on it. NRO’s Yuval Levin quips: “Democratic leaders should be asking themselves just how they have gotten to the point that their strategy is to amend a law that doesn’t exist yet by passing a bill without voting on it.”
But President Obama’s progressive base is way past rational thought when it comes to health care. They want it passed at any cost. And as George Will pointed out yesterday, the very essence of progressivism sublimates the democratic process to the rule of experts in Washington. No one can say if this bill will finally pass, but if it does, it is abundantly clear that our republican form of government will be permanently damaged by it.
Quick Hits:
- House Republicans agreed Thursday to adopt a ban on congressional earmarks in spending bills for next year.
- The Justice Department acknowledged yesterday that Attorney General Eric Holder failed to disclose to the Senate that he had signed several briefs arguing the President has no power to detain American citizens as enemy combatants.
- Countrywide Financial special loan recipient Sen. Chris Dodd (D-CT) will unveil his financial reform bill on Monday without any bipartisan support.
- The Obama administration has fallen far behind in making anti-corruption checks on new hires and current employees on the Mexican border.
- President Barack Obama promised yesterday to revive legislation that would grant amnesty to millions of illegal immigrants currently in the United States.