| June 30, 2009 | House Republican Leader John Boehner (R-OH) | Permalink
Across Capitol Hill, congressional offices continue to receive scores
of phone calls and e-mails from Americans outraged by last Friday’s
vote by House Democrats to raise electricity prices, increase gasoline prices, and ship American jobs overseas
to countries like China and India by passing Speaker Pelosi’s national
energy tax. Middle-class families and small businesses aren’t just
angry about the devastating consequences of the legislation; they’re
also angry about the manner in which the Democratic leadership obtained
the votes needed for passage. In short, the leaders cut back-room
deals behind closed doors with powerful special-interests, carving them
out of the bill to pave the way for Friday’s House vote, while leaving
middle-class families and small businesses to take a hit. Fox News
highlighted these special-interest deals this afternoon, noting that
even the environmental group Friends of the Earth said Speaker Pelosi’s
national energy tax “is corrupted by special interests.” Following is full video and a transcript of the Fox News report: 
Click HERE for Full Video
MARTHA MCCALLUM:
Well, much has been talked about in terms of the cap-and-trade energy
bill that was passed in the House and now before the Senate.
Supporters say that it will push the American economy into the future
while helping the environment. Critics say that it is a job killer
that will hit Americans hard in the wallet. Either way, the impact of
this cap-and-trade energy bill is huge. So what is really in it and
what do you need to know and understand about it? Brian Wilson is live
in Washington. Brian, there are a lot of questions about whether the
house passed legislation – it is a very big bill once again – without
perhaps knowing all of what was in it. What are you hearing? BRIAN WILSON: Oh, are you kidding me that the House would pass a piece of legislation without knowing what was in it? MCCALLUM: Say it isn’t so. WILSON:
I cannot imagine they would do such a thing, well actually it probably
did. That is certainly at least the charge being leveled by Republican
Leader John Boehner. Listen to what he said last week as the debate
was winding down. (Begin Video) REPUBLICAN LEADER JOHN BOEHNER (R-OH):
The chairman has the audacity to drop a 300-plus page amendment in the
hopper at 3:09am this morning. And so, I would ask my colleagues:
don’t you think the American people expect us to understand what’s in
the bill before we vote on it? (End Video) WILSON:
Mr. Boehner goes a step further by claiming the bill, as passed by the
House, would be a major job killer. A lot of people are throwing
around numbers. He claims it would kill between two and two and half
million jobs every year for 10 years, Martha. MCCALLUM:
Yeah, that is incredible if that turns out to be true. What about the
environmental groups because even they are somewhat divided over
whether they like this plan, right? WILSON:
You might expect that the green groups would be very much in favor of
this legislation. That is not entirely true. The Friends of the Earth
just sent me a newsletter stating that the bill that the House passed,
this is a quote here, “is corrupted by special interests, as well as
corporate agribusiness and Wall Street.” They go on to say the bill is
counterproductive and guts the EPA’s ability to fight global warming.
You see, when you need to pass a piece of legislation that’s sort of on
the bubble, you have to make it palatable to members so deals get
struck. It sounds like the green groups do not particularly like those
deals that were struck to make the bill pass the House and the Senate. | 
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