Rick Boucher Sells Out the Southwest Virginia Middle Class

Rick Boucher Sells Out the Southwest Virginia Middle Class
Boucher’s Coal-Dependent District Braces for Job Losses, Tighter Budgets…
…As Congressman Boasts of “Professional Opportunity” in Shaping Energy Tax

Washington – Rep. Rick Boucher’s lead role in shepherding Obama’s national energy tax through the U.S. House scored him major points with national Democrat leadership:

“…a White House spokeswoman called The Roanoke Times to set up an interview with a Cabinet member, U.S. Secretary of Transportation Ray LaHood. LaHood quickly gave praise to U.S. Rep. Rick Boucher, D-Abingdon, whose 9th Congressional District is coal-rich with much at stake with the legislation.” (Mason Adams, “White House lauds Boucher,” Roanoke Times, 5/23/09)

After Friday’s House passage of the national energy tax, Boucher was beaming with self-importance:

“‘For a member of Congress to have the opportunity to have a fundamental role in shaping legislation such as this is just a form of professional opportunity,’ Boucher said…” (Michael Sluss, “Boucher pleased with climate bill,” Roanoke Times, 6/27/09)

Boucher has chosen to boost his professional prestige at the expense of Southwest Virginia middle-class families. In a district that gave Obama just 40% of the vote in 2008 (see Obama’s antipathy toward the very existence of the coal industry), that’s not just callous – it’s politically risky:

“It also emphasizes just how much the congressman from Abingdon has stuck his neck out for President Obama. Boucher endorsed Obama last January — well before he had secured the Democratic primary — and he stuck to that endorsement even when his congressional district swung heavily for Hillary Clinton a month later during Virginia’s primary. Boucher’s work on the cap-and-trade legislation is politically risky as well — his district is home to 5,000 coal workers in an industry that hasn’t entirely warmed to the bill yet.” (Mason Adams, “White House lauds Boucher,” Roanoke Times, 5/23/09)

“Rick Boucher sold out Southwest Virginia’s middle-class in order to get ahead in Washington,” said Ken Spain, NRCC Communications Director. “The few paltry concessions he may have eked out do not compensate for the coal jobs that will nevertheless be lost or the higher utility bills that will further strain every working family’s budget as a result of the Obama-Pelosi-Boucher national energy tax.”

NOTE: A Heritage Foundation analysis projected that Boucher’s national energy tax will cost his district 5,483 jobs in the first year of its implementation, a figure higher than all but three districts in the country.