Blumenauer on Bachmann: "Making things up on the floor of the House"

by Emily Gertz · 2009-04-27 21:16:00 UTC
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The GOP members of the House of Representatives are still working on political satire. (Look out, Jon Stewart?)

The latest sketch comedy is performed by Rep. Michelle Bachmann, (R-Minn.), who told the House on Earth Day, April 22, that "there isn’t even one study that can be produced that shows carbon dioxide is a harmful gas. There isn’t one such study because carbon dioxide is not a harmful gas, it is a harmless gas."

Rep. Earl Blumenauer (D-Ore.) did note that Rep. Bachmann was getting creative with the truth [[and on the taxpayer's tab, too]]:

My good friend, the gentlelady from Minnesota, doesn’t think there are any problems with the concentration of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere. It’s interesting to listen to her say that something that was naturally occurring simply couldn’t be harmful, ignoring the fact that we have the highest concentrations of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere for 2/3 of a million years.

The consensus of the scientific community — not people making things up on the floor of the House — is that this has been profoundly influenced by human activity, starting with the dawn of the Industrial Revolution, where we started consuming huge quantities of coal, burning fossil fuels, accelerating that over time. The consensus of the scientific community is that this is in fact a serious problem.

(Hat tip to Wonk Room)

Emily Gertz
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