Blue Dog Democrats Urge Caution on Cap and Trade, More Spending
Nicolas Loris /
Congress is rumored to be considering passing a cap-and-trade plan through budget reconciliation, which is a process that is only completed if there are special instructions passed in the budget resolution and requires a simple majority, rather than a 2/3rds vote to pass the Senate.
Unfortunately, this action sets a very low bar for a high-cost, big-government bill such as cap-and-trade, but fortunately the Blue Dogs, a group of fifty-one fiscally conservative House Democrats, have warned that the reconciliation strategy is a bad idea.
The budget reconciliation “is utilized when Congress issues directives to legislate policy changes in mandatory spending (entitlements) or revenue programs (tax laws) to achieve the goals in spending and revenue contemplated by the budget resolution.”