Obama would veto Keystone pipeline bill

The first new piece of legislation introduced in the new Republican-majority Senate was one that would force the approval of the Keystone pipeline.

President Obama's press secretary, Josh Earnest, said this about it:

"The fact is this piece of legislation is not altogether different than legislation that was introduced in the last Congress,. . . . And you would recall that we put out a Statement of Administration position indicating that the president would have vetoed [it], had that bill passed the previous Congress."

"I can confirm for you that if this bill passes this Congress, the president wouldn’t sign it either."

So the president is not backing down from his new-found stance of aggressive governance.   And this particular bill is not just a Republican backed issue.    This legislation was introduced by a bipartisan team of  Sens. John Hoeven (R-N.D.) and Joe Manchin (D-W.Va.), and it has 60 co-sponsors, including 6 Democrats.

The bill is likely going to pass -- and be vetoed.    This will make progressives happy and go some distance to repair what many had felt was Obama's abandoning the "Democratic wing of the Democratic Party."

A note of caution, however:   at this point the president is opposing the bill on a procedural objection, because it is not following the established protocol of waiting for the official evaluation as to whether such a project is in the best interests of the country.    It's possible that, when that evaluation is completed, the report might possibly give the project a thumbs up -- and then we might see a different position from the president.

A side issue in this controversy over the pipeline is that the Republicans have been trying to sell it as a job-creator, which is truly false.    Although there would be some temporary jobs for the construction, in the long run it has been determined that the number of long-term jobs is negligible.

Stay tuned.

Ralph