#Climatebill Update: House GOPers Mangle Facts on the Taxpayer's Dime

by Emily Gertz · 2009-05-21 03:31:00 -0700
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Rep. Joe Barton (R-Texas) (above) on how carbon dioxide is harmless because it's in cola...Rep. John Shimkus (R-Ill.) echoing House colleague Michelle Bachmann's (R-Minn.) recent "harmless gas" routine by saying that CO2 just can't be bad because we breathe it out. Dave Roberts of Grist has compiled videos of these and other "vintage fruitloopery" coming from House GOP members during this week's energy-and-climate bill markup.

It strikes me as important to keep in mind that we are paying these elected officials as they take up everyone's time in the House and go before the media, with this stuff. It's not merely unscientific, but runs counter to this nation's best economic, environmental, and security interests, and too few of their colleagues, as well as mine, seem ready to call them on that.

[[Reps. Bachman and Shimkus could conduct some empirical research, by covering their heads with plastic bags, breathing in and out for a few minutes, and then getting back to the voting public on just how harmless carbon dioxide is.]]

Emily Gertz
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