Emanuel Cleaver: “I think that the whole energy issue is quite convoluted because we are never able to address the issues that we want the…”

“I think that the whole energy issue is quite convoluted because we are never able to address the issues that we want the American public to benefit from because there are always little tricks. For example, LIHEAP was placed in the energy bill last year, which is money for low-income individuals to get assistance in their heating costs, and so that is placed in there. So that, if you vote against it, it means that you are against poor people, and of course I voted against it because at some point I came to the conclusion that I had to be faithful to who I am. I am not voting for any of those things anymore, where they do what we call the ``got you'' legislation, and I am not voting for that anymore because the American public ends up suffering every time we do that. But the question that I think is going to be raised here is will Congress make the decision to allow legislation to surface that would require that they give up gas guzzlers when they use government money to do the lease. Now, this is not private vehicles, but what the public may not know is many Members of Congress legitimately will lease automobiles. They can only lease them for 2 years because we are only here for 2 years, and then we must go up for reelection. So we are saying that when the lease expires, if you really believe in energy efficiency, then let us make sure that the public can see us as ones who are embracing what we are preaching.…”