President Obama Ignores His Own Jobs Council
It
must be difficult being the smartest man who has ever lived. For evidence of this one need only look at the rapidly graying hair of President Barack
Obama, which seems to show every frustrating battle with us mortals in each grey strand.
As befitting a man who is utterly convinced of his
own intellectual superiority, the President on Wednesday rejected the advice of his own Jobs Council and decided not to approve construction of the
Keystone XL oil pipeline. First, here's a report
on the council's recommendation:
President Obama’s jobs council called Tuesday for an “all-in approach” to energy
policy that includes expanded oil-and-gas drilling as well as expediting energy projects like pipelines.
“[W]e should allow more
access to oil, natural gas and coal opportunities on federal lands,” states the year-end report released Tuesday by the President’s
Council on Jobs and Competitiveness.
The report does not specifically mention the Keystone XL oil pipeline, but it endorses moving forward
quickly with projects that “deliver electricity and fuel,” including pipelines.
“The Council recognizes the important
safety and environmental concerns surrounding these types of projects, but now more than ever, the jobs and economic and energy security benefits of
these energy projects require us to tackle the issues head-on and to expeditiously, though cautiously, move forward on projects that can support
hundreds of thousands of jobs,” the report says.
The report retreats slightly from an interim report released in October that
addressed the Keystone XL pipeline directly. The interim report appeared to offer cautious support for Keystone, calling on officials to
“balance” environmental protections while realizing what it called the benefits of the pipeline."
But, in what could
only be described as a rejection of the ideas presented by people who have never been community organizers, the president ignored the recommendation:
The Obama administration will announce this afternoon it is rejecting a Canadian firm’s application for a permit to build and operate a
massive oil pipeline across the U.S.-Canada border, according to sources who have been briefed on the matter.
However the administration
will allow TransCanada to reapply after it develops an alternate route through the sensitive habitat of Nebraska’s Sandhills. Deputy Secretary
of State William J. Burns will make the announcement, which comes in response to a congressionally-mandated deadline of Feb. 21 for action on the
proposed Keystone pipeline.
Of course, this is nothing new to the Smartest Man Who Has Ever Lived, as he even rejected the economic
advisory council that he himself created when it dared to return with advice that didn't suit His Majesty's ideals. We are referring to the
Bowles-Simpson council, which His Majesty, King Barack the First created in order to provide long-term economic solutions for the country. Heck, even The Washington Post liked it,
championing the bipartisan support that the commission had.
The Smartest Man Who Has Ever Lived has a long record of achievements while in
office, such things as:
- The first credit downgrade in American history.
- Increasing the deficit by over $5 trillion in three
years
- Unemployment staying above 8% for 33 continuous months
It certainly is hard to be humble with a record like that.
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