Lieberman-Warner not dead enough

The US $6 Trillion tax and spend bill known as Lieberman-Warner is dead. For now.

U.S. lawmakers Friday blocked a sweeping climate change bill in the Senate after a bitter debate over its cost and impact on fuel prices.

The bill received only 48 of the 60 votes needed to bring it for a final debate in the Senate.

President Bush was prepared to veto this legislation, so it really was a non-starter. But did the Democrats actually wake up to the fact that mammoth tax increases on fuels was just not such a bright idea right now? Iain Murray writes at the Corner that the effort to pass this bill was, well lackluster:

I don't think I've ever seen as pathetic an attempt at legislative management as the majority's bumbling attempts to promote the Lieberman-Warner global warming bill this week (and I lived through the Major government in Britain). From Sen. Boxer's stumbling delivery, through the farce of the full reading of the 491-page "minor textual" amendments to today's failure by the majority even to reach 50 votes for cloture when it was a free vote, this has been high comedy all around (or low tragedy if you are an alarmist).

Whatever possessed them to believe that a time when Americans are suffering from high food and energy prices would be appropriate to discuss a bill whose only point is that is raises those prices further to discourage energy use?

Hmmm... politicians talking the talk, but not walking the walk. As if we needed to be reminded, Fox News has this: Politicians have a knack for saying one thing and doing another.

Take their seemingly never-ending preaching over CO2. The world is in peril without major action, we’re told. According to Al Gore, we’ve never faced a greater threat, which ought to come as news to any veteran of World War II.

What is Washington’s response?

"America’s Climate Security Act," which the Senate recently debated. Sponsored by Sens. Joseph Lieberman, D-Conn., and John Warner, R-Va., it would mandate economy-busting caps on emissions and push subsidies for failed technologies. Add in some energy rationing, and you have Washington’s global-warming policy.

But don't fret, this legislation is not dead enough yet. In one form or another it will be back. And chances are it won't be faced with a veto from the future occupant of the White House.