The Obama White House has been counting on the Democratic Senate to muscle through its controversial "cap and trade" bill by using the budget reconciliation process -- making it possible to enact the costly carbon tax plan with 51 votes rather than the 60 usually needed to cut off debate before a measure can be enacted.
That strategy was dealt a big blow last night after more than two dozen Senate Democrats sided with Republicans in publicly blocking use of the reconciliation loophole. A carbon bill now can't be attached to a budget resolution, one of the few Senate initiatives that under current rules can bypass the 60-vote threshold.
Republican Senator Mike Johanns of Nebraska told reporters he was pleased that every Republican voted for his proposal, along with 26 Democrats. He said that many of his Democratic supporters opposed the reconciliation loophole on grounds of Senate procedure and tradition, but were also frankly leery of hitting voters with visibly higher prices for everything from electricity to gasoline.
"There are huge economic consequences to cap-and-trade legislation," Mr. Johanns said. "It will impact everybody."
Opposing sides on the climate change issue offered different interpretations of the vote. Senator Lamar Alexander, a Tennessee Republican, hailed the passage of the Johanns amendment as "the biggest vote of the year" so far in the Senate. Senator Sheldon Whitehouse, a Rhode Island Democrat and a prime sponsor of "cap and trade," downplayed the significance of the vote: "The polluting industries are well-organized, supported by a phalanx in the Republican Party, and that is always a challenge," he told The Hill newspaper. "But I don't think we learned anything new today."
Mr. Whitehouse may think there's no lesson in yesterday's vote, but it looks as if a sizable "phalanx" of Democrats have discovered the political perils of slapping a huge tax on Americans.
Two groups of Democratic senators seem most worried about "cap and trade: Those up for re-election in 2010, such as Michael Bennet of Colorado and Blanche Lincoln of Arkansas, and those who hail from Midwestern states that disproportionately rely on carbon-emitting coal for their electricity generation. The latter include Kent Conrad and Byron Dorgan of North Dakota, Jay Rockefeller of West Virginia, Dick Durbin of Illinois, and Russ Feingold and Herb Kohl of Wisconsin.
Even Democrats appear uneager to go home and tell constituents to pay dramatically higher energy bills just to deliver a symbolic slap at climate change.
John Fund is an editorial writer for the Wall Street Journal. Subscribe to his political diary today at http://www.opinionjournal.com
