GOP Sen. James Inhofe on the Obama administration pollution regulations and a government shutdown: "I would do anything to block it, including that."
With Republican senators
talking about using must-pass appropriations legislation to jam through coal industry favors, the White House has a message: Don't even think about it.
TPM's Sahil Kapur:
The White House fired a warning shot to Republican senators on Wednesday after several of them expressed interest in using a must-pass government funding bill to block the Obama administration's environmental regulations.
"If Republicans want to repeat their government shutdown play to protect the profits of big polluters, they're placing a pretty risky bet," a White House official, who wasn't authorized to discuss the matter on the record, told TPM.
I'll be honest, my first reaction was to laugh at the notion that Republicans would consider another shutdown, especially given that in an otherwise rough poll released today by NBC and the
Wall Street Journal, the public
strongly supports the Obama administration's position on stronger regulations to prevent global warming over the coal industry's pro-pollution agenda.
But then I remembered I didn't think Republicans would be crazy enough to shut the government down over Obamacare, yet they did. And if they were willing to shut down the government to prevent a program that is now delivering affordable health insurance to millions of Americans who were previously without coverage, then there's no reason to assume they wouldn't do it again over something that their financial backers are demanding. I still have trouble imagining it happening, but with today's GOP, truth is stranger than fiction. Just ask Eric Cantor.