The fifth story in the "Countdown," the president hands a victory to
corporate polluters and their enablers in the GOP, and uses some of
their own job creation nonsense lingo in the process, giving his own
supporters another whack across the back of the knees for having had the
audacity to support him. "Smog," old-fashioned term, you know, the
brown stuff in the air that comes from power plant emissions and
industrial smokestacks and car exhausts and landfills -- what we've been
working against since the '60s. The EPA had planned to set its new
standards significantly higher than those set by the Bush
Administration, which EPA Administer Lisa Jackson had just told the
Senate, "We're not legally defensible given the scientific evidence."
But the president, seen here leaving Washington for the weekend at Camp
David, said the new standards would be obsolete soon anyway. He wrote
in a statement that "work is already underway to update a 2006 review of
the science that will result in reconsideration of the ozone standard
in 2013. Ultimately, I did not support asking state and local
governments to begin implementing a new standard that will soon be
reconsidered." So, if you're having trouble breathing, or if you just
occasionally do breathe, kindly help the president out and hold your
breath until the year 2013 or later. Big business and big energy hated
the new standards, now the U.S. Chamber of Commerce is thrilled, "This
is an enormous victory for America's job creators and a big first step
in what needs to be a broader regulatory reform."
When the Chamber of Commerce applauds you, they are not applauding a
liberal or a Democrat or even a people president. Environmentalists are
angry or in mourning. Bill Snape, from the Center for Biological
Diversity -- "Obama," he said, "utterly caved." Gene Karpinski,
president of the League of Conservation Voters -- "This is a huge win
for corporate polluters and huge loss for public health." And Daniel
Weiss, from the Center for American Progress -- "It's unfortunate that
the administration is siding with big oil over the health of children,
seniors and the infirm." You can say that again. Smog effects can
worsen bronchitis, emphysema and asthma; inflame and scar lung tissue,
which makes you why -- wonder why House Majority Leader Eric Cantor had
called the now canceled standards "possibly the most harmful of all the
currently anticipated Obama Administration regulations." Harmful to
whom? Sorry, corporations are people.
Meanwhile, the economy is in the financial equivalent of a coma that a
person might have. Job numbers released by the labor department today
put the August unemployment rate at 9.1 percent, unchanged from July.
Private sector jobs rose by 17,000. Public sector jobs fell by 17,000.
The first absolute zero since February, 1945. GOP presidential
candidate Mitt Romney played indignant.
(EXCERPT FROM VIDEO CLIP)
MITT ROMNEY: No new jobs. No new jobs created in the last month.
From my first day in the office, my number one job will be to see that
America, once again, is number one in job creation.
OLBERMANN: He'll announce his jobs plan on Tuesday.
Presidential candidate Jon Huntsman, who has already put out his
corporate-friendly job plan, complained that, "In a country with 307
million people, zero job growth is unfathomable." The president, of
course, is on much firmer ground here. The crocodile tears of the
Republicans fool nobody. They have tanked the economy, they are tanking
the economy, they will tank the economy. Elements of the jobs plan the
president will announce next Thursday, unless it's been rescheduled to
overnight or something, are said to include the following -- tax cuts,
innovative infrastructure ideas, measures to help the long-term
unemployed and like a blender or something. They had better be good.
Bernard Baumohl, the chief global economist with the economic outlook
group, told The Huffington Post, "Many companies have simply come to the
conclusion that labor is just too expensive. We're moving increasingly
into a labor-less society." But take heart, if the GOP is right, tax
cuts will solve that. And five Republican presidential contenders --
given their polls, that's contenders with a very, very, very small "c"
-- are offering a really big tax cut. Michele Bachmann, Ron Paul,
Herman Cain, Jon Huntsman and Newt Gingrich all want to eliminate
capital gains taxes, a move that would benefit the wealthiest 1 percent
of Americans who pay about 63 percent of the taxes each year -- and
re-institute serfdom.
For more on the politics of the EPA decision and the numbers of jobs,
I'm joined by Brian Beutler, reporter for Talking Points Memo. Thanks
for your time tonight, Brian.
BRIAN BEUTLER: Good to be back, Keith.
OLBERMANN: What does the president's decision to overrule his
own EPA administrator suggest about where he thinks he stands with his
own supporters? I mean, who on Earth in the White House thinks this is a
positive for them, and in which delusional parallel universe do they
live?
BEUTLER: I would say two things about this: One, it's the sort
of, like, clear slap in the face to his constituents and to the
interest groups that sort of make up the Democratic party that we've
seen yet. You know, this is something that didn't require any action by
Congress. This is something that he told these interest groups that he
was going to do. He said, "Don't sue the EPA. We're in office now. We
got this."
It turned out, well, he didn't got this. And it's not going to happen
because he chose not to do it, not because Congress stopped him, not
because anything procedural was standing in his way. It was just a
decision to do it. The other thing I'd say about it is it's, you know
-- I think real evidence that either the White House isn't aware of
President Obama's political mortality, or that they just don't care that
much about the outcomes. If this doesn't happen in his first term, and
then he loses, it just isn't going to happen for years and years and
years. And they made the decision, for whatever reason, to take that
risk. You know, maybe he loses, and maybe President Perry just doesn't
do it for four or eight years.
OLBERMANN: I won't speak for you. I know that in the last three
years, there have been occasions in which I have been convinced of
something, and convinced this president was totally mistaken, and it
turned out we were opposites. The truth was exactly opposite to what I
believed -- that he was absolutely right, and I was absolutely wrong.
But here's a question that I think is an indicator on this -- the
president really believed this was the right thing to do, that just
postpone everything to 2013, 'cause why change now, 'cause we'll be in a
stronger position? Well, then, why don't you just postpone it to 2023?
But why wouldn't he have the guts to announce this on something other
than the least paid attention to news day of the year?
BEUTLER: You know, I think that that just adds a little bit of
sting to it for environmentalists and for public health people -- public
health advocates. But, you know, he ordered this review of all costly
regulations, you know, sort of as a chip to Republicans, and this is one
of the ones that they've been coming at the hardest.
And, you know, he didn't get anything for it, but I think that there's a
lot of people in the White House and in the Democratic party, frankly,
who think that if they just say, "All right, well, you know, businesses
and Republicans are demanding 'x,' and if we give them 'x,' then maybe
they'll give us some running room a week from now, a month from now, for
the next year on some of the stuff we want to do." And it really
doesn't work that way. So I got to imagine the decision to do it now is
both a sign that they're sort of embarrassed of doing it, but also that
they kind of hope that they're going to get things from doing it that
I'm pretty certain they're not going to get.
OLBERMANN: Yeah, they should be embarrassed because they're
still playing the plaintive victim of the bully who keeps thinking if he
turns the other way around, the bully's going to stop bugging him
rather than asking for more. Clarify one thing -- for people who are
saying, "No, don't criticize President Obama. He's forced into this
because there's something else connected with this. There's something
bad in the bill. The House went Republican." This has nothing to do
with the House, does it? This is just him, correct?
BEUTLER: This is all within the executive branch. The EPA is a
cabinet-level agency. This is something that is, basically, required by
law. The Bush Administration's standards do not meet the standards
that science advisors at the EPA recommended. And Clear Air Act says
that he -- that the White House, whoever is in the White House has to
match those standards. This is all written out for him to able to do on
his own. Congress can make a stink about it, and they can try to pass
these -- basically symbolic measures of disapproval that he can veto.
But, there's no filibuster here. There's no direct legislative action
they can take to stop him that he doesn't have immediate ability to
veto. It's just up to him. And this is what he chose.
OLBERMANN: Yeah. The mind reels. Brian Beutler with Talking
Points Memo, great thanks for coming in on a Friday night and good
reporting on this today, sir. Thank you.
BEUTLER: Thanks, Keith.
