Ask500

If you are going to be picky, yes, both houses of congress passed health care bills, but they are not compatible and can not be passed into law (edit: without Reconciliation) or signed by the President.

I've seen cap and trade work well with air pollution and there is no reason it wouldn't work for carbon reduction. There are three problems with the idea though.

1) Now that the most prominent Green scientist has proven to be a liar and thief, no one knows who to believe about man-made climate change/global warming.

2) If global warming is continuing and is getting worse, many doubt that a reduction in one country's output can solve the problem.

3) The sudden rise in energy prices following the temporary loss of 6% of the nation's oil cracking plants from Katrina was the catalyst for the downturn in the economy. Many are afraid of doing that again.

The Republicans listed by translate apparently felt that the problems I mentioned were not enough of a problem to cause them to vote against it.

The cap and trade bill, compared to the Obamacare bills, doesn't take over the control of all energy industry, uses acceptable accounting practices that allows for much more accurate cost estimates, and does address the worst of the abuses of the system. So I wouldn't reject cap and trade as a bad bill, though I would vote against it for two of the three reasons I outlined above.