The Shadow
There is an old saying that there are two things one does not want to see made, one is “sausage” and the other is “legislation.” I appreciate that analogy from two perspectives, one, because I made sausage back in 1953 when I worked in the meat department at a grocery store, and, two, because I helped make legislation for 16 years in the Virginia House of Delegates.
I tell you that because the recent “Debt Ceiling Bill” which passed in the U.S. Congress, demonstrates some of the least palatable “sausage” I have ever witnessed.
First of all, the “Debt Ceiling Bill” should have been a pure, stand-alone bill, with only one purpose: to raise the ceiling of the U.S. ability to borrow money. Sadly, Republicans saw that bill as an opportunity to put a squeeze play on the Democrats to force them to agree to some pet projects, i.e., reducing spending and requiring recipients of Medicaid to demonstrate that they had made a reasonable effort to go back to work, all of which would normally have been fair debate in the usual legislative process.
It was not, in my opinion, fair play regarding the “Debt Ceiling Bill.” It was obviously hard-ball politics, but the risk of the gamble was that the parties would not agree and throw the country into a recession, or worse. It was rough and tumble politics and it worked for the Republicans because they prevailed in some of their conditions.
I am upset about that because the Republicans were wrong and foolish to put our country in that jeopardy, but I am really upset about the sweetheart deal struck between the Democrats and Senator Joe Manchin, of West Virginia, regarding the Mountain Valley Pipeline (MVP).
What was that deal? Well, most of us know that the MVP, a proposed 303-mile natural gas pipeline, running from West Virginia through Virginia and onto the coasts of Virginia and North Carolina, has been in real trouble from the get-go, starting years ago. The price tag for that project has gotten into the billions and one ill-advised permit after another has been overturned by the US Court of Appeals for the 4th Circuit. The Court has pointed out over and over that the agencies, which are supposed to be protecting our environment and the public, have not done so, and have ignored the facts in issuing those permits. So, the “deal” that was struck, and which is in the “Debt Ceiling Bill,” which has now passed and been signed by President Biden, would fast-track the MVP to completion, basically bypassing the 4th Circuit and the regulatory agencies, so that the MVP, which is now labeled “in the U.S. interest,” can be completed as requested by Senator Joe Manchin of West Virginia.
This sad “Deal” should be an embarrassment to both Republicans and Democrats, but especially to Democrats, who are supposed to be the party most protecting our environment. Sad to say, President Biden was in on the “Deal” and, as the saying goes, he and his fellow Democrats “sold their souls to the Devil.”
I am a Democrat, historically speaking, but I am ashamed of the Democrats for agreeing to this “Deal.” There is an old saying that “hard cases make bad laws.” Well, this scandalous “Deal” is not only “bad law,” it is “horrible law.”
Bill Wilson is a Covington attorney; a former Member of the Virginia House of Delegates; a Member of the Isaac Walton League; and President of the Jackson River Preservation Association, Inc.
William T. Wilson
Covington, Va.
