UPDATE (3/10/2010): The Christian Science Monitor has more on the Obama Administration's Interagency Ocean Policy Task Force and its potential plans for our Nation's waterways.
According to CSM, the real concern for anglers rests the President's ties to 'anti-use' organizations, and their presumed representation on the President's Task Force:
But critics still worry about the Obama administration’s ties to environmental groups that espouse “anti-use” policies that put some habitats out of reach even for rod and reel fishermen, who take only 3 percent of America’s landed catch every year.
[Link]The article adds some extra depth that the ESPN Piece lacked, but it still doesn't really get at the root of the issue: No one knows what the task force will actually recommend to the President. See below for more details.
Pax Plena (3/9/10): The Obama Administration has certainly made some questionable policy choices over its year and a quarter in office. But rumblings about the President’s new Interagency Ocean Policy Task Force, and its plans to potentially ban fishing on our Nation’s public waterways absolutely takes the cake.
According to ESPN:
Politically, the move makes even less sense. In fact, it’s almost as if the President is bent on alienating every slumbering interest group that has yet to oppose him. The monstrosity we are calling health care reform, if rammed through the Senate, would effectively isolate 53% of the American people. Banning fishing on public waterways would not affect nearly so many people, but it might well generate nearly the same level of widespread opposition.
The real political problem is it creates a needless headache for a President that does not need needless headaches. What better way to reinforce the image of Obama as a big-government tyrant, than to…well, act like a big-government tyrant? If it walks like a duck, etc, etc…
More to the point, banning fishing is just bad policy. As the article notes, the science on the scope of overfishing on our public waterways is murky at best. This makes any ban little more than an ill-conceived exercise in conjecture - guesswork with the potential to affect millions of jobs dependent upon the recreational fishing industry.
Apparently, nothing says 'let's create jobs' quite like putting an entire industry out of work.
According to ESPN:
The Obama administration will accept no more public input for a federal strategy that could prohibit U.S. citizens from fishing the nation's oceans, coastal areas, Great Lakes, and even inland waters.
[Link]To be clear, neither ESPN nor the White House has specified what exactly the new federal strategy is. The news of the day is that the comment period closed, meaning that the public no longer has the opportunity to weigh-in on the task force's recommendations.
The problem, of course, is that the Administration has given no hint as to how wide the restrictions on fishing are that it is considering. But given the threat of a nuclear Iran, skyrocketing unemployment, and a deficit that seems to expand faster than Joe Biden’s ego, should the pressing issue of this Administration really be to ban/limit recreational fishing?
Politically, the move makes even less sense. In fact, it’s almost as if the President is bent on alienating every slumbering interest group that has yet to oppose him. The monstrosity we are calling health care reform, if rammed through the Senate, would effectively isolate 53% of the American people. Banning fishing on public waterways would not affect nearly so many people, but it might well generate nearly the same level of widespread opposition.
The real political problem is it creates a needless headache for a President that does not need needless headaches. What better way to reinforce the image of Obama as a big-government tyrant, than to…well, act like a big-government tyrant? If it walks like a duck, etc, etc…
More to the point, banning fishing is just bad policy. As the article notes, the science on the scope of overfishing on our public waterways is murky at best. This makes any ban little more than an ill-conceived exercise in conjecture - guesswork with the potential to affect millions of jobs dependent upon the recreational fishing industry.
Apparently, nothing says 'let's create jobs' quite like putting an entire industry out of work.
The Conservative Blog Network
0 comments:
Post a Comment