Obama breaking out the veto pen today for Keystone

[Attorney General, Senator-Elect, & Former PPT Dwarven Dragon]

Make him veto it every single day for the rest of his term.

The public is behind it. He hasn't given any legitimate reason why he's against it. This is a joke.

It needs to stay alive even if it does get pushed into some other larger bill.

[Attorney General, Senator-Elect, & Former PPT Dwarven Dragon]

Make him veto it every single day for the rest of his term.

The public is behind it. He hasn't given any legitimate reason why he's against it. This is a joke.

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What a joke. He had no intention of ever giving a decision one way or another, thus de facto killing it.

Now the Republicans have forced his hand and proved that he would rather get donations from the Sierra Club than money for the economy.

[Attorney General, Senator-Elect, & Former PPT Dwarven Dragon]

From what I've heard, I think it makes sense to approve the Keystone XL. 

That said, Republicans act like this is some enormous issue and the pipeline would save the economy.  It terms of the economy, it's meaningless.  For both sides, it's clearly more symbolic than anything. 

So, why not use this issue to compromise?  Liberals give in on the Keystone and in exchange, we get the Infrastructure Reinvestment Bank or improvements to the Clean Air Act.  That would make sense, no?

Endorsed.

[Attorney General, Senator-Elect, & Former PPT Dwarven Dragon]

I enjoy laughing at the liberal "Keystone won't create jobs and a spill might happen, so don't do it!" argument. By that logic, no construction project should ever be approved because an accident might occur and big job gains won't happen. This is just so absurd it's not even funny, and shows the environmentalists have nothing left.

Obama should ratify the pipeline tomorrow. He's had six years to look at it, every investigation has said that a properly working pipeline is not going to have a significantly bad effect on the environment, and the Nebraska Courts are done with it. It's time to suck it to the dumb environmental groups and get building.

[Attorney General, Senator-Elect, & Former PPT Dwarven Dragon]

It's time to suck it to the dumb environmental groups and get building.

It's ironic that you call the opposition to Keystone dumb, considering the scientists who study these projects are against it.

Sure, I'd prefer to eliminate oil one day and be totally on renewables, but that's a LONG ways off.
 
Look, the environmentalists have no actual evidence, backed up by a study, that says that Keystone would significantly harm the environment in any situation that doesn't involve a spill, and I've already addressed why the "it's risky" argument is a ridiculous strawman. The pipeline is no longer being investigated by Nebraska Courts. We've had six years to study its possible effects - and it's clearly not the automatic, guaranteed environment ruiner that the far-left would like it to be.

Look I get that it's not some masterful economy saver and I'd like to see serious regulation of any exporting, but neither of those are big enough concerns for any sensible person to be against the pipeline. It's time for Obama to just tell the Sierra Group, and leftist Senators, and everyone else who opposes it to just give up because there aren't even the beginnings of a logical argument against the pipeline.

Obama likes to think that republicans get nothing after their big victory last year. That's not how things should work. Republicans won big, so they have earned the right to get some of their ideas passed, and it should start with this pipeline. Obama's Veto today shows that, at least on this issue, he only cares about ultra-liberal Chris Murphy, Elizabeth Warren, Jeanne Shaheen, and their allies, and doesn't care about what's popular among the people, which is the Keystone Pipeline.

[Attorney General, Senator-Elect, & Former PPT Dwarven Dragon]

Considering I would never vote for Cruz or Cotton at the presidential level, I'm not going to like them as president either. I don't mind Cotton in the senate because Pryor was a useless DINO who delivered very little for his state, but he's too far right to get my vote to be president.

I don't support Walker or Romney for president. Heck, I'm not even willing to commit to supporting Christie at this point. I'm against the Paul Ryan medicare plan, I don't support repealing ObamaCare, I don't support taking the nation into default over the budget, I don't support tax cuts for the rich, and I'll vote to increase the minimum wage. This idea you have that I'll suddenly join the tea party once a republican gets elected to the presidency is so absurd it's not even funny.

Read that article carefully, it doesn't say Brown is going to live in MA, he just wants his MA pension sent to him.

Brown was leftist enough in MA to have an approval rating over 50% - They just liked Warren even more. I have a hard time believing he'd be far-right as an NH senator.

And Keystone does have majority support, it's not some far-right thing no matter how much you'd like to be. I'm not saying that this is an argument for supporting it, just pointing out the facts:


http://www.politifact.com/truth-o-meter/statements/2015/jan/20/joni-ernst/joni-ernst-says-strong-majority-americans-back-key/

[Attorney General, Senator-Elect, & Former PPT Dwarven Dragon]

Wulfric, you keep asking for Obama to be reasonable but you don't seem to get what that means. The GOP wants something, the president is unwilling. Reasonable would be McConnell offering something Obama wants in return and them making a deal. Reasonable is not Obama just giving in.

Obama's given no indication that he would agree to such a compromise. Instead he just sits in a back room and whines about 'muh environmental groups' and 'muh procedural preferences'. Obama was even asked if he'd support the bill if the republicans were very cooperative in putting democratic amendments into it, and he said no.

I'd love it if we could reach a point in our technology where we could go completely without fossil fuels. But that's not where we are right now. At thus point, we need to reduce our dependence on saudi arabian oil, and that's exactly what this pipeline will do.

Look, no pipeline is perfect, but I'm optimistic that with careful construction and management of the pipeline, a bp-esque disaster will be avoided, and the pipeline will be an efficient manner in which to transport oil across the country. If we're going to reject this over worries about the worst-case scenario, then we should disable every oil pipeline right now. Yes, that's absurd, but it's what the environmentalists are essentially proposing by opposing the pipeline because of worries about the worst-case scenario.

The opposition from this pipeline comes almost exclusively from liberal congressmen and their environmentalist allies. Obama should instead be catering to the will of the American people as a whole, where there is strong support for this pipeline.

[Attorney General, Senator-Elect, & Former PPT Dwarven Dragon]

Obama's given no indication that he would agree to such a compromise. Instead he just sits in a back room and whines about 'muh environmental groups' and 'muh procedural preferences'. Obama was even asked if he'd support the bill if the republicans were very cooperative in putting democratic amendments into it, and he said no.

What exactly is "such a compromise?" He hasn't been offered anything and there hasn't been talk of anything. I'm pretty sure he would do it for a tax increase on upper brackets, a minimum wage increase, or a equal pay act. Or a comprehensive immigration bill. Any sort of red meat for the Democratic base.

Keystone XL is a huge issue for GOP donors. It's red meat for GOP members of Congress, and the President should demand an eye for an eye.

I personally doubt he'd do it. He'd probably hold up the deal because of my 'muh pipeline-related procedural preferences'.

On compromises that have been reached under Obama, there's the 2012 fiscal cliff deal (not a mandatory thing as going over the fiscal cliff wouldn't cause a shutdown), and the 2010 bush tax cut extension deal. For those who have forgotten, he's a good article on that deal:

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2010/12/16/AR2010121606200.html

There's also the 2011 budget control act, but that included an increase to the debt ceiling, so you could argue that it was a mandatory appropriations bill.

[Attorney General, Senator-Elect, & Former PPT Dwarven Dragon]

I'm surprised Donnelly didn't vote for it.