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The Spectacle Blog
In their razor-thin victory on climate change legislation Friday, House Democrats prevailed by holding just enough votes from members in coal states to offset substantial defections from colleagues in Republican-leaning districts, a National Journal analysis of the vote shows.
The historic 219-212 vote for the climate change legislation, which seeks to impose the nation's first mandatory reductions in emissions of carbon dioxide and other gases linked to global warming, divided Democrats much more sharply than the vote on President Obama's stimulus plan. With 44 Democrats voting against the climate change legislation and 211 voting yes, the measure cleared the House only with support from eight Republicans who broke from their party leadership to support it.
The interactive table below allows readers to analyze the vote from a variety of angles, including the members' margin of victory, whether Obama or John McCain carried their district, and whether their state is one of the 30 that rely on coal to generate at least 40 percent of its electrical power, according to federal Energy Information Administration figures. (Those states are designated in the chart as coal states.)
Viewing the results through those prisms reveals several clear patterns. In all, the findings suggest that calculations about the underlying political and ideological inclinations of the districts may have shaped the Democratic vote somewhat more powerfully than assessments of the districts' vulnerability to energy price increases if the legislation passed.
In both parties, nothing appeared to drive the outcome more than the presidential result in last November's election.
Of the 49 House Democrats who represent districts that McCain carried last year, fully 29 voted against the measure. By contrast, just 15 of the 207 Democrats from districts that Obama carried last year voted against the bill. (Florida Rep. Alcee Hastings, whose district backed Obama, did not vote, meaning "Obama Democrats" ended up splitting 191-15.) Put another way, while 59 percent of the Democrats from districts that McCain carried voted no, just 7 percent of Democrats in Obama-majority districts opposed the White House on the vote.
It is particularly important to continue targeting the 20 Democrats who voted yes while hailing from districts carried by John McCain. They still could be won over to oppose any compromise coming out of a conference committee with the Senate, if similar legislation passes that both.
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More Blog Posts by Doug Bandow
http://spectator.org/blog/2009/06/28/analyzing-the-cap-n-trade-vote
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JJC| 6.29.09 @ 9:36AM
What drove the vote?
F E A R
Still too many Kool-Aid guzzlers in DC. If the Budget Office is correct, this will raise prices for everyone. It will do nothing to help the environment or secure our energy for the future.
Just a tax, nothing else.
God help us.
Kathy| 9.12.09 @ 3:09AM
WHY AREN’T WE DEMANDING TO BE REPRESENTED
Cap & Trade, HR2454 passed in the Senate, 7/7/09; Hate Crimes bill, HR19134 passed in House 4/29/09 – source, thomas.gov.(1) These bills, which will have a HUGE negative affect on our lives, are stealing our personal freedoms. The stimulus – (evidently to stimulate gov. programs) has done little if nothing to create permanent jobs. (As a candidate Obama said his primary objective would be to create jobs.) The stimulus bill was passed without even being read - 1.1 billion of the stimulus was used to produce a Council on Effectiveness Research,
heritage.org/Research/HealthCare/bg2239.cfm
AND APPARENTLY NO ONE IS DEMANDING AN ANSWER TO WHY PEOPLE WERE PUT IN DEBT FOR MANY YEARS WITHOUT ANY WARNING; AND, IT SEEMS NO ONE IS DEMANDING ACCOUNTABILITY FOR THIS STIMULUS MONEY. IT’S TIME FOR A REAL STIMULUS BILL (2). Also some, maybe much, of the HEALTH CARE BILL HR3200 was written by progressive/socialists idealists. Progressives of the past have destroyed the economy (3), and it seems they are pretty successful at advancing their agenda now –
While people were trying to stop nationalized health care– cap and trade conveniently passed in the house, IF IT BECOMES LAW, PEOPLE WILL HAVE EXTREME C*AP & TAX.
THE STIMULUS; GOV. CONTROLLING MUCH OF BANKING, AND AUTO INDUSTRY; CAP & TRADE, NATIONALIZEDHEALTH CARE, CASH FOR CLUNKERS, ARE ALL MONEY AND POWER GRABS. Progressives traditionally think the average citizen can not think for himself – therefore let the more qualified person do your thinking (4), while at the same time taking a major portion of our wages BY TAXING PEOPLE, in one way or other, and then justify their elaborate, extravagant, often mismanaged use of our money by saying they deserve this for REPRESNETING their constituents. WHY AREN’T WE RESEARCHING WHAT THE REAL “RICH”/BUREAUCRATS ARE DOING WITH OUR MONEY, INSTEAD OF GIVING THEM MORE CONTROL, THEREBY ENABLING THEIR PROGRESSIVE/SOCIALISTIC LIFESTYLE.
1. At thomas.gov website click on Senate/Congress to get e-mail, phone, address of reps for area code entered-aprox.1/3 are up for re-election in 2010
2. The Newt Gingrich Letter July 15, 2009 | Vol. 4, No. 28 Strategy Memo: Time for a Real Stimulus Bill
3. glennbeck.com/content/articles/article/198/23936/American Progressivism by R.J. Pestritto