Maul the Midwest. Coddle California. Dictate to doctors. Hobble health care. Ban the bulb. Cancel coal. Destroy Detroit. Grovel to the Greens.
Goodbye to all that.
Chairman Henry Waxman (D., Left Coast) is out. Hail the new chairman, Fred Upton (R., Middle America).
In a demonstration of the sea change that November 2 has brought to Washington, Upton — an auto-friendly Obamacare-reviling global-warming critic — has been given the reins over the House committee with perhaps more power to reverse President Obama’s radical agenda than any other: Energy and Commerce.
With jurisdiction over the EPA and the Department of Health and Human Series, Upton has a chance to deal crippling blows to Obama’s anti-carbon and pro-socialized-medicine vision. In an extraordinary turnabout, the midwest will go from being in the cross-hairs of Chairman Waxman — a Green religious zealot with a Left Coast disdain for “flyover country” — to being in the driver’s seat under Upton, the 13-term congressman from St. Joseph, Michigan. Upton will also be a very different chair from the last Michigander to hold the post, John Dingell, who — though pro-auto — used the bully pulpit to preach socialized medicine.
“We face many challenges, but priority number one is to repeal the job-killing Obamacare law,” says Upton. But he will also be fighting a rogue EPA which Waxman gave cat to regulate carbon emissions in defiance of public will and the failure of Washington to pass cap and trade. “The Obama administration is on notice — they will not be allowed to regulate what they have been unable to legislate,” Upton warns in a shot across EPA’s bow.
Read more at The Michigan View here.