Can you hear America now? Take 2

Yesterday I posted
about a CBS poll that showed that a solid majority of Americans did not
want congressional Republicans to defund the Affordable Care Act and
eliminate all the consumer protections, deficit reduction and job
creation it supports.

{mosads}The effort of the repealers is in stark contrast to the wishes of the
American public — and in direct conflict with their promise to “listen
to the American people.” I pointed out how John Boehner (R-Ohio),
Speaker of the House, had said that the people’s agenda would be his
agenda. I also pointed out how Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell
(R-Ky.) apparently didn’t get the memo — he told the rabid
anti-everything crowd at the Conservative Political Action Conference
(CPAC) that he wasn’t interested in doing what “is popular.”

Now along comes another independent poll that shows that not only are the repealers in Congress not listening — the deniers aren’t listening either. The deniers, those who spend their time undermining scientific evidence of climate change in order to deny its very real existence, are pushing forward with their plan to block any standards that would set reasonable limits to carbon pollution and protect our air and water.

While the repealers are working to defund healthcare in this country, the deniers are working to defund the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) to let polluters pollute as much as they’d like.

A bipartisan poll released yesterday by the respected American Lung Association found that 78 percent of those polled believed that “protecting the quality of the air we breathe” was extremely important and 68 percent believe that “reducing air pollution” was also extremely important. Nearly 65 percent of those polled believed that Congress should not block EPA’s attempts to limit greenhouse gas pollution through the Clean Air Act.

Those are staggering numbers for the deniers who have spent the better part of the last two years attacking the EPA and the Clean Air Act. Almost half of those polled were self-identified Republican voters, which indicates how out of touch congressional Republicans are with their constituents’ agenda.

So far in this Congress we’ve seen votes to repeal the Affordable Care Act, new abortion legislation, reckless and thoughtless spending proposals, attempts to hide earmarks from public scrutiny and multiple hearings and bill introductions to gut the Clean Air Act. We haven’t seen any attempt from the new House majority to address jobs or unemployment — except Boehner’s “so be it” comment about job losses resulting from repeal of the healthcare law.

It’s early in the Congress, but it seems the congressional Republicans have already abandoned their campaign message for their extreme agenda.