Posted on 06/20/2008 8:37:29 AM PDT by Mr. Mojo
(CNSNews.com) - President's Bush's call on Wednesday for Congress to lift its 27-year moratorium on offshore drilling is an "example of typical Bush White House politics," Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev) told Cybercast News Service Thursday.
Other leading Democrats on Capitol Hill also said they were surprised that Bush has not yet rescinded the executive office ban on drilling, which was established by his father, President George H.W. Bush, in 1990.
"What the president is doing is unfair to the American people to indicate, 'We will let Congress do something about it,' " Reid said. "He has the authority to do it himself."
"This is typical Bush White House politics. It's Orwellian," Reid added. "He has the power, with the signing of a pen, to release more options for offshore drilling -- he has the power to do this."
Congress imposed a moratorium on offshore drilling in 1981 and has extended it annually each year for all coastal waters, except for parts of the Gulf of Mexico and some waters off the coast of Alaska.
In 1990, the elder Bush also implemented an executive ban, which was extended by President Clinton, to last until June 2012. If the current president were to rescind that executive order, it would be a symbolic move because the congressional moratorium would still disallow further drilling.
Several other Democrats suggested the president should rescind his father's executive order before calling on Congress to remove its moratorium.
House Ways and Means Chairman Rep. Charles Rangel (D-N.Y) said he finds it "strange" that the president would maintain the executive order while telling Congress to lift the ban.
"It's very difficult for me to understand the thinking of the president," Rangel told Cybercast News Service.
House Majority Leader Rep. Steny Hoyer (D-Md.), meanwhile, said the president has been back and forth on this issue, but that he should "probably" remove the executive order before directing Congress to eliminate their law.
But Sen. John Isakson (R-Ga.) told Cybercast News Service that while it would be "appropriate" for the president to rescind the executive order, the real burden is on Congress.
"He [Bush] is encouraging Congress to do it because that, in fact, vacates the current pending restriction on exploration," Isakson said. "We are sitting on a ham sandwich starving to death. There should not be a source available to us that we are not enhancing."
There’s your green light, Mr. President. Go for it!
From what I've seen, it's hard for Charlie to understand a lot of things.
Dear Mr. President,
Be bold and issue executive orders for drilling here now.
Since the Dems have dared that he do it, he certainly SHOULD do it.
Come on Reid and Pelosi! Ball's in your court!
Reid is such a dope.
Yep, this is the one thing I have to agree with Harry on. GWB should issue the executive order and drill, drill, drill.
The Dems are just laying a trap. If Bush rescinded the executive order they would have a ready made political club with which they could beat the Republican party the whole election cycle. Bush is doing it the right way, letting the public put pressure on their representatives in congress to do something.
“We are sitting on a ham sandwich starving to death.”
What a great line that precisely conveys the image of what’s going on.
Pres has the authority. Make it so! Also repeal the 1967 UN Outer Space Treaty so we can go get the steel needed for these new drilling projects.
No he needs to rescind it. Any decisions of that magnitude should never be left to an EO. Let Congress pass laws and the President sign or veto as it should be so accountability can be traced.
What? You didn’t know who I was talking about? I type slow so take some short cuts. Hope is doesn’t offend you too much.
Going against Daddy. How does that fly in the Bush Family?
You are right the President is using the right strategery by letting the public become the political club to beat the Rats with all the way to the election. Expect to see Rat numbers drop in the polls significantly and soon.
It is more fun for the pols to point fingers at each other than to actually do something productive.
Both the Dems and Pubbies have been playing this finger-pointing game since Nixon was president and some of the first long gas lines were happening.
Most of the current pols just dusted off the old lines, speeches, policies, arguments, that have been used for nearly 40 years.
None of it is new. Little action has been done in the previous 40, so don’t expect too much in the next 40.
I disagree. If the American people decide it’s time to drill and do so through forcing their representatives in congress to agree the result will be much better than the president deciding to lift the ban on his own. The first could be described as the will of the American people, the second as the arbitrary action of an autocrat. Let the political process take it’s course. The result will be the same but the political landscape will be much better.
Yes I did know who you were talking about. You were being disrespectful to the President’s office
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