| June 25, 2009 | House Republican Leader John Boehner (R-OH) | Permalink Scrambling
for votes to pass Speaker Nancy Pelosi’s (D-CA) national energy tax,
former Vice President Al Gore was slated to come to Capitol Hill today
to make the case for increasing electricity bills, raising gasoline
prices, and shipping more American jobs overseas to places like China
and India. But Democratic leaders have had some second thoughts,
according to Roll Call: | “Former
Vice President Al Gore had been scheduled to deliver a final pitch to
the House Democratic Caucus for the global warming bill on Thursday
alongside Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.), but Pelosi’s spokesman said
Thursday morning that Gore will stay in Tennessee.” | Wondering what the real reason is for the Democrats’ last minute change of heart? Here’s a clue: 
This is the map of the 2000 electoral college, reminding Democrats that former Vice President Gore lost many of the same states
that will be crushed by higher energy costs and job losses under
Speaker Pelosi’s national energy tax. As the Speaker and her
colleagues in the Democratic leadership seek to corral the votes of
rural Democrats, they made the calculation that bringing in the former
Vice President to lobby for the national energy tax was undoubtedly the
wrong strategy. In addition, bringing in Mr. Gore may have brought
back some bad memories for House Democrats, who were famously “BTU’d”
by the former Vice President and House Democratic leaders during
another major energy tax vote 16 years ago. The Washington Examiner explains: | “For
some House Democrats, the situation is reminiscent of at 1993, when
Democrats passed a bill, pushed by then-Vice President Al Gore, that
would have taxed the amount of energy used by measuring British Thermal
Units, or BTUs.”
“Many House Democrats at the time went out
on a political limb to support the bill, which was pushed by then-Vice
President Al Gore.” “It passed by just three votes by the
Democratically led Congress, only to die in the Senate, where Democrats
there refused to even vote on it.” “The bill that Democrats plan to vote on as early as Friday appears headed for a similar fate.” “‘That
is the fear of most House members,’ said Rep. Gene Green, D-Texas, who
is planning to vote on the bill. ‘No one wants to get BTU’d. A lot of
members took a lot of heat back home over that bill.’” | Family
farmers and rural small businesses have much at stake as tomorrow’s
vote on Speaker Pelosi’s national energy tax draws closer. After all,
Americans are registering their opposition to a national energy tax
that would raise their electricity bills by as little as $25 per month,
according to a Washington Post poll. And don’t forget, President Obama has already said that electricity bills will “skyrocket”
under this legislation. Speaker Pelosi’s national energy tax will hit
rural Americans even harder since they travel 25 percent farther than
urban residents to go to work and run errands. They spend 58 percent
more on fuel than urban residents as a percentage of their income, and
electricity is far more costly to deliver to rural households than to
urban homes across America. No wonder an increasing number of rural organizations are demanding that heartland Democrats oppose this harmful legislation. So, in spite of the Vice President’s last-minute change of schedule, the question remains: On
one of the defining votes of the 111th Congress, will moderate
Democrats stand with their constituents who would be punished by the
national energy tax, or will they stand with Al Gore, Speaker Pelosi,
and left-wing special interests?
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