Politicians who demand that any new legislation show how it will be paid for are rare, and we need more of them, regardless of what their party affiliation is.
Some Inconvenient Truths
Rep. John Dingell wants his colleagues to be honest about the costs of tackling global warming.
BY KIMBERLEY A. STRASSEL
Saturday, October 6, 2007 12:01 a.m. EDT
WASHINGTON--At the beginning of every Congress, Michigan Democrat John Dingell offers a bill to create a national health insurance system--the same bill first offered by his father in 1943. As the longest-serving House member, that means Mr. Dingell has been offering the exact same legislation for, oh, 52 years now.
Such tenacity might explain why his own party is alternating between fury and worry over Mr. Dingell's role in today's great energy debate. Democrats took over Congress vowing to make global warming a top priority, and House Speaker Nancy Pelosi planned to notch a quick victory with a bill that was long on political symbolism and cost, if short on actual emissions reductions.
Standing in her way has been Mr. Dingell. Much to the speaker's consternation, the powerful chairman of the Energy and Commerce Committee is insisting that any bill should actually accomplish something, and that its pain be borne by all Americans (rather than just his Detroit auto makers). In recent months he has been circulating his own proposals for hefty new taxes on energy, gasoline and homeowners--ideas that are already giving the rest of his party the willies.
His position arguably makes Mr. Dingell the lone honest broker in the global warming debate. But it also makes him a headache for all his Democratic friends, who'd prefer he just play political nice. For his part, the 81-year-old Dean of the House--as feisty and courtly and colorful a congressman as you'll ever find--is unrepentant.
"I wasn't sent down here to destitute [my district]. And I wasn't sent down here to destitute anyone else. . . . I've got a responsibility to legislate, but I've got a responsibility to legislate well. I'm going to be honest with the American people about this and say 'look here, fellas, this is what we're going to have to do to you to fix global warming. You tell us whether you like it or not.' "
