Senate Dem Blasts Obama Budget

In a classic case of “vote your district,” Democratic Senator Jay Rockefeller of West Virginia expressed strong objections to President Barack Obama’s fiscal year 2011 budget in today’s Senate Finance Committee hearing.

Rockefeller was very unhappy with the proposed incentives for renewable energy and what he saw as disincentives for coal power, which currently provides approximately 85% of domestic energy usage. “Thank heavens this is the president’s budget, and that its sustained power is maybe a week or two. We write the legislation.” He said that he wants to support the administration, but that this budget would make doing that an uphill task in his home state of West Virginia.