Dear Weekend Jolter,
Chuck Schumer’s scheme, whispered aloud to Ms. Maddow, urged the Not-Socialist President to declare a “Climate Emergency” so’s to grab power and shake his dictatorial groove thaaang. Hey! Don’t even think about complaining: Three co-equal branches and separation of powers and all that olden-days constitutional hoo-hah is the stuff of privilege.
Anyway, Cuomo and Newsom have spent the last year test-driving the emasculation of representative government, so we Dems know what to do — which is, whatever the expletive we want. And if one of us (Tulsi!) gets wobbly we’ll remind them of the First Democratic Commandment: Never let a crisis go to waste. And the Second: If you don’t have the crisis, then manufacture one. Presto: Climate Emergency!
David Harsanyi, wise as all get-out, had a few things to say about the razor-thin-margin Senate Majority Leader’s contemptuous game plan. From the beginning of the piece:
This week, Senate majority leader Charles Schumer told MSNBC’s Rachel Maddow that it may be “a good idea for President Biden to call a climate emergency.”
In other words, the leader of what is allegedly the world’s greatest deliberative lawmaking body — tasked with, among many other things, checking the power of the executive branch — is advocating that his ideological ally bypass Congress, declare a perpetual emergency that affects the entire economy, and rule by fiat.
Of course, anyone who believed Democrats were attempting to preserve “norms” or strengthen institutions, or that they were genuinely upset by the overreaches of Donald Trump rather than frustrated that they weren’t the ones wielding power, was just a sap.
In the Maddow interview, Schumer reasons that Trump had used the emergency powers “for a stupid wall, which wasn’t an emergency.” Indeed, I opposed Trump’s funding sections of the border wall. Yet securing the border — Schumer, incidentally, voted in favor of a barrier when it was politically expedient — is a tangible project, with a beginning and end, and a clear purpose. Schumer wants to activate special executive powers to fight a nebulous all-encompassing future “emergency” that entails control of entire sectors of the economy, all the while erasing the legislative choices of states and economic choices of individuals.
Meanwhile, the editors of this institution thundered about Chuck’s lefty concoction; Get a load of our condemnation:
Biden has promised to transform the United States into a 100 percent clean-energy economy with net-zero emissions by 2050 and to decarbonize the power sector in a mere 15 years. The massive cost of policies that deny Americans affordable and abundant energy sources would almost certainly fail to win approval in Congress under its usual rules. Which is why Democrats are doing everything they can to short-circuit or make an end-run around the system.
The majority leader told MSNBC that Democrats were also trying to figure out ways to sneak climate-change policy into Biden’s “Build Back Better” plan under reconciliation, a budget tactic that allows some spending-related bills to pass with only a simple majority in the Senate. Depending on the particulars, that might be an abuse of the process, and would likely be objectionable on policy grounds, but would at least involve congressional action.
In all the circumventing of responsibility, Congress — entranced by the Governing by Executive Order — seems to be engaging in a little circumcision of sorts too. Well, Our Esteemed Editor puts it more appropriately. From Rich Lowry:
Consider what Biden did on his own the other day. He directed the Interior Department to stop new oil and gas leases on federal land and to identify steps to double renewable-energy production by 2030.
He created a special presidential envoy for climate, as well as a White House Office of Domestic Climate Policy, a National Climate Task Force, a Civilian Climate Corps Initiative, an Interagency Working Group on Coal and Power Plant Communities and Economic Revitalization, a White House Environmental Justice Interagency Council, and a White House Environmental Justice Advisory Council.
On top of this, he established a Justice Initiative to steer 40 percent of relevant federal investments to disadvantaged communities.
And on the seventh day, Biden rested (after tucking his pen back in his pocket).
If Congress had passed a bill doing all this, it’d be considered a pretty active day. Instead, Congress stood on the sidelines . . . and commented.
You ask, When will the pendulum start to swing back? If Your Humble Correspondent knew, he’d tell you. Pray, soon. While you wait, do get a heapin’ helpin’ of conservative wisdom with this week’s WJ: Grab your putter and 9 iron because this edition has more links than the PGA Tour.
(And One Last Thing: You’ll find the Heat Miser song here).
SHORT, SWEET, ECONOMICAL LINKIFICATION
Articles
John Fund: Bernie Sanders Pushes Biden and Democrats Far Left
David Harsanyi: Joe Biden & Coronavirus: Deceptions about Plans
Rich Lowry: Journalists Now Want to Limit Free Speech
Kyle Smith: Cancel-Culture Craziness — Stop It
Michael Brendan Dougherty: Cancel Culture Fear: People Who Disagree Passionately Should Be Able to Work Together
Michael Brendan Dougherty: California and Coronavirus: Gavin Newsom’s Failures & Broken Promises
Robert Delahunty and John Yoo: Originalist Case against a Trump Impeachment Trial
Andrew C. McCarthy: Dissent, Patriotism & Insurrection: Important Distinctions
Andrew C. McCarthy: Justice Department: Voter-Disinformation Charge Dubious
Mario Loyola: Biden and America First: Economic Nationalism the New ‘Washington Consensus’
Alexandra DeSanctis: Down-Syndrome-Abortion Restrictions Gain Steam at State, Federal Levels
Jimmy Quinn: Javad Zarif & Foreign Affairs – Iran’s Brazen Falsehoods in an American Magazine
Tevi Troy: Ronald Reagan’s 1986 Challenger Speech Was a Window into Presidential Greatness
Christopher J. Scalia: Washington Post’s Virginia Military Institute Story Shows Inconsistency on Campus Due Process
Dan McLaughlin: Edmund Burke and the British Monarchy’s Loss of Power
Cheri Williams: Coronavirus Has Made Human Trafficking of Children Worse
Editorials
Joe Biden’s Abortion Extremism
Joe Biden’s War on Women
Calls to Shut Down Fox News Show Contempt for Free Speech, Ignorance of the Law
Coronavirus & Public Schools: Teachers’ Unions COVID Ransom Demand
Biden’s “Climate Emergency” Power Grab
Conservatism, Biden’s Administration, and the Path Forward
Joe Biden’s Immigration Plan Ignores Enforcement Completely
Remembering Hank Aaron, Baseball Legend
Capital Matters
Kevin Hassett see POTUS pandemic politics: Biden’s COVID-Relief Bill: A Glass Not Full
Marc Joffe poo-poos future projections: COVID-19 Stimulus & Relief: State and Local Aid Should Be Guided by Historical Data
David Harsanyi says it walks like a duck: President Biden Wants to End Fracking
Nicholas Phillips wants to end a taboo: Tariffs: Reckoning with Their Advantages Better than Dogmatic Opposition
Lights. Camera. Review!
Kyle Smith scores a knockout: Dear Comrades! Is a Vivid Portrait of the Soviet Nightmare
Armond White takes on the AFI list makers: American Film Institute Best Films of 2020 List: Race-Baiting and Wokism
More Armond, who doesn’t have a sole thing nice to say: Soul: Disney and Pixar Sell Numbing Mind Games to Family Market
Michael Brendan Dougherty sees a movie about the ancient conundrum: Tenet Tackles Christian Mystery of Fate and Free Will
Kevin Williamson likes a new Scorsese flick: Pretend It’s a City: Fran Lebowitz’s Conservative Character Revealed in New Documentary
But Wait, There’s More . . . Take One
There’s a new NR podcast, a weekly bit of wisdom and delight that has sprung from Capital Matters. It’s called Capital Record and it’s hosted by David Bahnsen (yes, he of Radio Free California fame. Episode One is a gem, and it features the great Kevin Hassett. Strap on the ear buds and Listen up here.
But Wait, There’s Still More . . . Take Two
Our friends at National Review Institute are seeking applicants for its acclaimed “Burke to Buckley” program, NYC and Philadelphia division. Some dimwit has done a passable job of providing all the details here.
DÉJÀ VU, BUT ...
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