CPAC Holds Three Day Convention in Washington

WASHINGTON, DC
Thursday, February 9, 2012

C-SPAN's coverage of the 39th annual Conservative Political Action Conference (CPAC) begins Thursday and continues through the weekend.

This morning, Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-KY) will address the convention.

The three top GOP candidates for the Republican nomination -- former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney, former House Speaker Newt Gingrich and former Pennsylvania Sen. Rick Santorum -- will speak tomorrow. Rep. Ron Paul was invited to speak this year at CPAC but will instead continue campaigning.

Each year, CPAC brings together nearly 10,000 attendees along with leading conservative organizations and speakers.

Updated: 1 hr. ago

Panel Calls for End to Obama EPA’s Assault on Economy

Posted on February 9, 2012 by Bill Hobbs

Even if Washington D.C. politicians manage to balance the budget and resolve the current fiscal crisis, the economy is not likely to recover within the current regulatory environment, Myron Ebell, the president of Freedom Action told listeners at the Conservative Political Action Conference (CPAC).

Instead of assuming responsibility over the “well-meaning green laws” that were passed, Congress delegated this authority out to federal agencies like the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) that not as accountable to the public as the elected branches of government, Ebell explained.

“There are a lot of important issues but I think the one that gets the least attention is the regulatory onslaught that is being conducted by the Obama Administration and the Democrats in the Senate,” he said. “Congress should set the standard, the EPA should come to Congress.”

Ebell also challenged President Obama’s worldview.

“We have a president who wants to turn the heartland of America into something that looks a lot like New England or California,” Ebell said. “He [Obama] thinks we can all be lawyers or financial analysts, or sit at a screen at all day. He has very little clue that our economy also depends on digging stuff up, growing stuff and making stuff. He is waging war on the heartland of America. His model is California and if you want ot look at a state that has gone down the tubes look at California.”

Fred Smith, president of the Competitive Enterprise Institute (CEI), served as moderator of the panel, which was entitled: “The Obama EPA’s Assault on Green Energy Jobs.” Other panel participants included Marlo Lewis, a senior fellow with CEI and Rep. Cory Gardner, R-Colorado.

America’s free market economy is in jeopardy because “regulations are being manipulated off stage” beyond the orbit of constitutional checks and balances, Smith warned. This process is most evident within the environmental movement, he said.

Although “cap and trade” schemes have failed to pass through Congress, the Obama Administration continues to work through administrative agencies like the EPA to implement large-scale policy changes, Lewis said. Team Obama is making a concerted effort to raise electricity prices and put the coal industry out of business, he added.

“My main gripe in all of this, and I think it should be yours too, is that it represents the theft of your rights to govern yourself under the Constitution of the United States,” Lewis said. “The Obama Administration has gone around the separation of powers and taken these big legislative policy decisions out of the legislative arenas where there can be some political accountability.”

Ebell described Sen. James Inhofe, R-Oklahoma, as the “indispensible figure” in the U.S. Senate in the battle against “cap and trade.” Inhofe has a new book coming out called “The Greatest Hoax.”