It’s always drill, baby, drill with these people:
A proposal from House Republicans to funnel energy development revenues into infrastructure spending calls for a massive expansion of offshore oil-and-gas leasing and opening up the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge to drilling rigs, according to new details unveiled Friday.
The proposal sets up a collision with the Obama administration, which opposes drilling in the Alaskan refuge and is proposing a far narrower offshore leasing plan.
The House will spend the next couple of weeks moving this non-starter of bill. Why? For political cover.
The measures stand little chance of clearing the Democratically controlled Senate and would almost certainly be vetoed if they reached President Obama’s desk.
But they nonetheless provide House Republicans a way to tout their energy-focused economic plans and offer a way to pay for infrastructure.
Democrats, in contrast, have called for paying for infrastructure projects with higher taxes on the wealthy.
I get that the Republicans are staking out their position in opposition to the Democrats’ plan. But can we please stop wasting time debating things that will never happen? The president has begun doing the same thing, but it’s only out of desperation. He was able to break through and provide our veteran’s with a job package present for Veteran’s Day, but Congress has mostly stopped functioning at all. It’s all posturing. People are out of work. And the GOP simply does not care.
