Waxman bought Rep. Kaptur’s cap and trade vote with $3.5 billion dollar money grab

Yes, that says billion.

The provision was included in Waxman’s 3:00 a.m. amendment.

When House Democratic leaders were rounding up votes Friday for the massive climate-change bill, they paid special attention to their colleagues from Ohio who remained stubbornly undecided.

They finally secured the vote of one Ohioan, veteran Democratic Rep. Marcy Kaptur of Toledo, the old-fashioned way. They gave her what she wanted – a new federal power authority, similar to Washington state’s Bonneville Power Administration, stocked with up to $3.5 billion in taxpayer money available for lending to renewable energy and economic development projects in Ohio and other Midwestern states.

Her spokesman says it’s not the only reason she voted for the bill.

In the end, Miss Kaptur, a member of the powerful House Appropriations Committee and the House Budget Committee, was among a minority of Midwestern and Southern Democrats to vote for the bill. “It was not the factor, but a factor, in her decision to vote for the bill,” Mr. Fought said.

Mmkay.