US House passes historic climate change bill

The US House of Representatives have narrowly passed historic legislation to cut pollution blamed for global warming, handing President Barack Obama a major, hard-fought victory.

After hours of bitter debate, lawmakers voted 219-212 to put the US economy under a “cap-and-trade” system for managing carbon emissions in a move its backers said would create jobs and restore shaky US leadership on climate change.

“Just remember these four words for what this legislation means — jobs, jobs, jobs, jobs. Let’s vote for jobs,” Democratic House Speaker Nancy Pelosi exhorted her colleagues minutes before the vote.

Republican House Minority Leader John Boehner warned the measure would send energy costs skyrocketing and denounced it as “the biggest job-killing bill that has ever been on the floor of the House.”

Time will tell. But if Boehner is correct and Pelosi is not, how will we be able to correct it?

I think you will be able to date the swift decline in the American standard of living to this vote.