Despite Veto Threat, Senate Approves Keystone
In a 62-36 vote, the Senate sent a bill authorizing the Keystone XL pipeline to the House. Nine Democrats voted for the pipeline, but that still leaves the legislation five votes shy of overriding a promised presidential veto. The bill came with amendments benefitting the Left, including a vote which showed that 98 senators believe climate change is happening. “I’d like to congratulate Sen. [Mitch] McConnell for passing this bill in an open, inclusive and bipartisan way,” House Speaker John Boehner said. “After dropping his scheme to tax middle-class college savings, we hope President Obama will now drop his threat to veto this common-sense bill that would strengthen our energy security and create thousands and thousands of new, good-paying American jobs.” But the White House will unlikely do so. As political analyst George Will wryly observed, “America built the Empire State Building, then the world’s tallest office building, in 410 days during the Depression. We built the Pentagon, still the world’s largest low-rise office building, in 16 months while waging a war across two oceans. Keystone has been studied for more than six years. And Obama considers this insufficient?” More…
