Who Needs Democracy Anyway? (Scroll For Update!)

A lefty friend of mine, dave bones, across the pond sent me to this lefty site about Copenhagen's Climate Change summit. I came across this interesting tidbit:

(U.S. Environmental Protection Agency) Lisa Jackson appeared yesterday at the UN Climate Change Summit to assure the international community that the EPA will not let democracy get in the way of regulating the deadly toxic gas known as carbon dioxide at home. Her “endangerment” declaration means that CO2 will still be subject to intense regulation under the Clean Air Act, giving the White House executive power to limit CO2 emissions- even if Congress does not pass a definitive climate bill in 2010.

I could hardly believe that. She is saying that even if Cap and Trade doesn't pass, the Obama administration will implement these regulations anyway. So I looked it up on Yahoo News:

U.S. Environmental Protection Agency chief Lisa Jackson, meanwhile, said her agency's decision that greenhouse gases should be regulated would be a dual path of action by the Obama administration and Congress.

The EPA determined Monday that scientific evidence clearly shows they are endangering the health of Americans, and that the pollutants — mainly carbon dioxide from burning fossil fuels — should be regulated under the Clean Air Act. That means the EPA could regulate those gases without congressional approval.

Who needs Democracy? Why even have Congress? Represent the people? Oh, come on. That's so old school. Now, with the Obama administration we no longer need that pesky Congress. We will just regulate the h*ll out of everyone and bypass this annoying thing called Democracy.

Unbelievable.

UPDATE: Newt Gingrich is paying attention:

But take a step back and consider what this ruling means in practice. According to the EPA, greenhouse gases include carbon dioxide, methane, nitrous oxide and a host of other gases that are emitted whenever people heat their homes, drive their cars, mow their lawns, tend their farms, or, for that matter, breath.

Without so much as a vote being cast, the EPA regulation suddenly micro-manages all of this. It makes all economic activity more expensive. It makes creating jobs more difficult. It puts government bureaucrats, not entrepreneurs, at the center of our economy.

The ruling is alarming in its breadth, but perhaps even more disturbing is what it reveals about the Obama administration's view of democratic and constitutional government.

The Obama administration seems to regard government of the people, by the people and for the people as an inconvenience rather than a blessing. If the peoples' representatives in Congress do what it wants, great. If not, they will use their power to get their way by any means necessary.

Apparently, that includes issuing open threats to another branch of government. Here's what an anonymous senior administration official told Congress, speaking through the New York Times:

"If you don't pass this legislation, then ... the EPA is going to have to regulate in this area," the official said. "And it is not going to be able to regulate on a market-based way, so it's going to have to regulate in a command-and-control way, which will probably generate even more uncertainty."

The arrogance and totalitarianism of this statement are breathtaking. Not only does it reveal shocking contempt for the rule of law, but the official concedes that he or she will allow the EPA to further damage the struggling economy -- i.e. "generate even more uncertainty" -- in order to enact the administration's climate change agenda.

.............................

Its interest is in power, and there is a word for a government whose primary purpose is the accumulation and exercise of power over the citizenry -- totalitarian.


*note: My daughter is getting her wisdom teeth out today so I will publish comments tonight.