Climate Change Bill could haunt Democrats in future elections

As liberal Democrats struggled to win a narrow, party-line approval of climate change legislation, they had to be haunted by a critical question: has the political climate changed since 1993?

Under pressure from the Clinton administration, many House Democrats reluctantly backed a proposed B.T.U. tax pushed by a young inexperienced president.

The ill-fated B.T.U. bill was intended to tax each unit of energy consumed.

When the bill later went down in flames in the Senate, many Democrats in the House got burned when it was seized upon as a campaign issue by Republicans, who took control of the House the next year.

Now that another equally absurd bill, promoted by another young inexperienced president, has squeaked by the House, how many Democrats who voted for it are looking over their shoulders thinking déjà vu?

Whether Democrats realize it or not, the 2010 election campaign officially began with the narrow passage of this climate change bill in the House.

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