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If House republicans had any policy ideas that were worth pursuing, those ideas would be able to stand on their own. But like their opposition to consumer finance reform, their opposition to health finance reform, their unabashed support of the wealthy and their commitment to destroying the safety nets that keep the elderly from having to eat cat food, republican fealty to lining the pockets of those who would destroy our nation for their own benefit is on full display. Afraid that the Keystone pipeline is yet another meritless policy proposal, they must tie it to something important to the nation - middle class tax cuts - in order to get it through.
No surprise that diatribes in support of their continued brinksmanship are long on obtuse vitriol and woefully short on salient facts, starting with the myth that the Keystone XL pipeline is some big job creator. It isn't. The only shovel-ready aspect to this is the bull$hit from the oil lobby for the consumption of he willfully nescient. Multiple studies confirm that the pipeline's job impact is both minimal and temporary.
http://money.cnn.com/2011/12/13/news/economy/keystone_pipeline_jobs/index.htm
Any remotely astute person understands that the job-creation arguments in favor of the pipeline offered by the energy lobby range from fantasy to flat out lies.
Further, the pipeline does nothing to decrease our dependence on foreign oil and we don't get to use the oil that goes through it. The oil originates in Canada, is pumped to refineries in Texas and is out on the world market by a globally-based corporation.
As if that weren't enough, the republican House version of the payroll tax cut legislation put all of the burden for paying for it on federal workers, Medicare & Medicaid recipients and the unemployed while completely protecting millionaires from any participation whatsoever.
If republicans were at all serious about a one year extension, all they would have to do is take out the Keystone pipeline and change the word "two" to "twelve". But today's House republican caucus is the biggest bunch of corporate whores ever to infest the halls of Congress. They know that their policies are either too destructive or not at all useful enough to stand on their own so they attempt to attach their crap to important legislation and blackmail the entire country into allowing some special interest leach to put the nation in even greater long term danger.
I expect democrats to once again cave because republicans are committed to killing the hostage in order to extract value for their corporate pimps. But the arguments presented in favor of House republican brinksmanship are nothing more than intellectual impotence wrapped in umbrage and ignorance for the consumption of the galactically stupid.
smh
