Dems say Obama backtracking on land preservation

[snowdays]

Source: The Hill





http://thehill.com/leading-the-news/dems-say-obama-backtracking-on-land-preservation-2009-05-19.html

Dems say Obama backtracking on land preservation
By Walter Alarkon


Posted: 05/19/09 07:38 PM
Key Democrats in Congress are claiming that President Obama is backtracking on his previous support for government programs that preserve wildlife, wetlands and farms.

Sen. Tom Harkin (D-Iowa), chairman of the Senate Agriculture Committee, and Rep. Rosa DeLauro (D-Conn.), a senior member of the House Appropriations Committee, are expressing frustration that Obama wants to reduce funding for land conservation programs after he has backed other conservation efforts.

Obama, when he was a member of the Senate last year, voted for a bill creating farming programs and setting new funding levels for existing ones. And earlier this year, Obama signed a long-stalled massive lands bill into law.

A spokesman for the Senate Agriculture Committee said that Harkin has “consistently been opposed to cuts in conservation funding and to mandatory programs in the 2008 farm bill.”............................

Read more: http://thehill.com/leading-the-news/dems-say-obama-backtracking-on-land-preservation-2009-05-19.html

[villager]

1. Democrats fairly routinely sell out the environment...

...or certainly, the idea of "wilderness," wildness, and the other-than-human, because to truly protect such things would mean going against the entire economic/political paradigm in which their careers have flourished...

[ThomCat]

3. Democrats have supported the environment more than Republicans.

There was a lot of hope that Obama would be an environmental president, and that part of that would be protecting undeveloped land.

Unfortunately, we no longer have a national budget. Wall Street ate most of it, and the Pentagon got the rest. It's all gone. :(

[villager]

26. yes, Democrats are marginally better on enviro issues than Republicans

But again, to really do what the environment needs who require the kind of political bravery that no one in Washington seems to possess right now...

[ThomCat]

2. He is now under HUGE pressure to find ways to cut the budget

after GIVING AWAY all of our money to wall street and then INCREASING the military budget.

Unfortunately, the progressive stuff that most of us would support is all that's left for him to cut. :(

I expect a lot more of this to happen. Expect more funding cuts in places you would normally expect a Democrat to hold the line or increase funding.

[blindpig]

25. Then he should cut the fuckin' Pentagon.

Oh, wait, he's increasing the pentagon budget.

Silly me.

[Dumak]

4. Sorry, I just can't give Obama a pass on not preserving habitat

for budgetary reasons. Once land is taken from wildlife, it rarely goes back. Any Democrat who can show compassion for human beings, and not extend that compassion to wildlife should be ashamed. I expect that of Republicans, not Democrats. Obama gets a big red FAIL on this issue.

[sandyj999]

11. I agree. n/t

[Triana]

5. Why not? He's backtracking or reversing position on quite a few things ..

...it seems.

:mad:

[MannyGoldstein]

6. Easier To List The Things He *Hasn't* Flipped On

The list of things where Obama hasn't flipped, and where he's maintained traditional Democratic values, is small indeed.

Such a shame. There was so much hope.

[Jeep789]

9. That is not true

Most of the things people claim he flipped on were never promised by Obama but were instead things people hoped he would do. In fact, most of the issues DUers were hoping for were promised by Kucinich, who is routinely made fun of just about everywhere, including here.

You want your pony, figure out how to get someone like Kucinich elected. But for gawds sake quit putting unmade promises in Obama's mouth.

[MannyGoldstein]

13. Let's Try An Experiment

You list promises he's kept (or where there's evidence he's likely to keep them), and I'll list promises he's broken (or has indicated he will break). We'll take turns alternating.

Are you game?

[No Elephants]

21. I don't see anything but praise for Kucinich here. And, according to some here, Obama apparently

never really promised anything at all.

[quidam56]

7. It's a shame,

Appalachia is being bombed, blasted and bulldozed right into 3rd world America. http://www.wisecountyissues.com/?p=138

[madrchsod]

14. third world?--do you mean off this earth?

appalachia has been our third world since the europeans settled in those mountains.now they are being blasted off the land...

[mcollier]

20. While your looking at "problems"

Obama is implimenting solutions.... Sounds like we have some republican friends in our midsts....

A little spine with regards to support of our great leader would do your minds well.

[No Elephants]

23. A little objectivity is a heck of a lot healthier for our minds than

hero worship and idolatry. Praise Obama when he does right and criticize him when he does wrong. Otherwise, it's dangerous.

As far as Republicans in our midst, read the headline. It's Democrats AND Republicans who are complaining about this.

On the bright side, this seems to have brought both sides together.

[Jeep789]

8. The Link no longer works

so I cannot see if it gives the reason for him doing so. Did it?

[snowdays]

17. I just checked and it works......story is here.

http://thehill.com/leading-the-news/dems-say-obama-backtracking-on-land-preservation-2009-05-19.html

[secondwind]

10. hey, guys, let's not quibble now...........THE ECONOMIC SITUATION IS A MESS

[No Elephants]

22. And whatever you do, pay NO attention to the man behind the curtain!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YWyCCJ6B2WE

[placton]

12. Let's Not Criticize Obama!

He has a good supersecret reason for everything he does and he's a democrat - just like the name of this site! Nothing he does is bad or corrupt or contrary to what he promised - he is Obama!!

[madrchsod]

15. looks like the boys on the ag committee will slice and dice.

they`ll decide what they want funded this year. what obama wants and what he gets is up the the congress.

[No Elephants]

24. What part of "Obama wants," "Obama's budget" and "Obama's plan" were

unclear?


"Sen. Tom Harkin (D-Iowa), chairman of the Senate Agriculture Committee, and Rep. Rosa DeLauro (D-Conn.), a senior member of the House Appropriations Committee, are expressing frustration that Obama wants to reduce funding for land conservation programs after he has backed other conservation efforts."


and



"DeLauro, the chairwoman of the House Appropriations subcommittee considering Obama’s proposed agriculture budget, said that she is “concerned about some apparent inconsistencies” between Obama’s plan and his stated commitment to land conservation.

“The budget proposes very heavy cuts, in my view, to popular and effective programs such as the Wetlands Reserve Program, Wildlife Habitat Incentives Program the Farm and Ranch Lands Protection Program,” she said during a House Appropriations subcommittee hearing on the president’s budget plan last week."




Is your assertion that a Democratic President has no power over a Democratic Congress? Because that REALLY make Dummya look like a genius. Dummya got quite a bit of his own way with both a Republican Congress from January 2001-January 2007 AND a Democratic Congress from January 2007 through January 2009.

[psychopomp]

16. Trouble brewin'

[Captain Hilts]

18. He has on mountain top clearing in West Va. nt

[Tim01]

19. God damnit. Not acceptable.

Environment is issue #1 with me. And I only focus on a couple.

The government is the only thing that can and will protect wildlife and the environment.

[FriendlyReminder]

27. Dammit! This really pisses me off along with Gitmo not closing and backtracking

on the torture photo release and the wirtetapping issue. My gawd, when is this crap going to end.

[Vidar]

28. Why not? He's backtracking on everything else he promised.