It obviously doesn't bother President Obama a whit to usurp congressional power to impose more draconian environmental regulations -- and probably not much more to do so in an election year, even when his action will hurt Democrats.
What's he going to do now, you ask?
Well, his Environmental Protection Agency, in deference to and collusion with Obama's war on domestic energy producers, has unveiled a proposed rule to mandate power plants to cut U.S. carbon dioxide emissions 30 percent by 2030 from levels 25 years earlier.
According to The Wall Street Journal, the rule would affect hundreds of fossil-fuel power plants and hit America's 600 coal-fired power plants the hardest. The rule, says the Journal, "is a major element of (Obama's) attempt to secure a second-term legacy."
Someone please deliver Obama the memo: He has already secured his second-term, first-term and entire-term legacy by doing more harm to this nation across the board than not only any former president but any other human being in our history. Why can't he just be satisfied with the damage he's already caused?
Obama demagogued the announcement by joining a conference call with the American Lung Association, depicting the imposition of the rule as vital for public health and -- by all means -- "to reduce the carbon emissions that scientists say contribute to climate change."
Is climate change that bizarre phenomenon I've experienced all my life in which one season it's hot, the next it's in between and the next it's cold? Or is it when it's blazing hot on a July afternoon before a summer shower cools things off?
Nope. Climate change is the elaborate cover that enables environmentalist extremists to get away with having issued apocalyptic warnings decades ago about "global cooling" and then shamelessly and seamlessly shifting their hysteria to anticipated "global warming" and now remorselessly settling today for just plain old "climate change."
One of the most insidious techniques Obama has employed to wreak havoc on America and its institutions has been the imposition of laws and rules with delayed effective dates so that the public will not immediately realize the enormity of the hardships and destruction being caused.
Look at the delays he built in to Obamacare, including the thousands of preferential exemptions from the law he extended to buy off opposition and ward off political challenges during the various election years. Look at the trillions of dollars he is spending now to create the illusion that the economy is stronger than it is, with willful disregard for its bankrupting effect on future generations of Americans. The same is true with his refusal to reform entitlement programs, whose $100 trillion in unfunded liabilities is a ticking time bomb for America's financial stability. The Dodd-Frank financial reform bill was sold as a measure to prevent further consolidation of banking power, and we are already seeing that it is doing just the opposite. But why should Obama care? He got his law passed, and it's having his desired -- as opposed to promised -- effect.
The same is true of this new EPA emissions rule. The rule would give states and companies as much as 15 years to comply and thus presumably reduce both their opposition and the public's.
Not surprisingly, the White House is deceitfully promising -- as it did with Obamacare when no one could prove otherwise in advance -- that this rule would lower costs and create jobs. Are you kidding me? No intellectually honest person could believe that. Obama doesn't even want the rule to lower costs and create jobs. This is all part of his pre-announced plan to bankrupt conventional energy producers.
Obama will doubtlessly line up the usual corporate suspects to announce their support for his bill -- those he will have bought off through crony capitalism by ensuring the rule somehow would benefit them. Just as he lined up the white-coated physicians and insurance executives to stand with him in passing Obamacare, he'll hail this support as proof that it's in the best interests of American businesses and America itself.
But The Washington Examiner's Timothy Carney notes that corporate lobbyists are divided on Obama's current climate measure because it would benefit some companies and hurt others. He will garner the vocal support of those businesses that would profit from the regulations, a technique used by politicians to advance previous environmental regulations.
It is disturbing to contemplate the sheer power of this federal government, especially its unchecked and constitutionally unauthorized administrative branch, to whimsically issue such far-reaching decrees that negatively impact so many businesses and industries and so many lives -- all in the name of helping them. The Competitive Enterprise Institute calculates that the federal regulatory leviathan currently costs the U.S. economy some $1.86 trillion annually, which amounts to a hidden tax of nearly $15,000 per household.
Obama is proceeding apace to consummate his wholesale destruction, er, fundamental transformation of America, and adding insult to injury, he's doing it outside the scope of his constitutional authority.
He will not be denied. But he's making sure America will be.
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