policy prescriptions, i guess for things that are not being asked from congress but things that are actually being done. do you understand what happened politically to make it go ahead to change and make it go ahead today? well, what we noticed, congress as you point out has a hard time naming the veteran s bridge between illinois and missouri, what the president did today was something he has been talking about since the early days of the the campaign when we all started with him, january or february of 2007. now, there is a lot of different things that have been happening here and there, the auto bailout, the fiscal, the financial industry bailout. two wars, there have been just a lot of things going on. if we re going to get something aggressive done, the president knew he had to act, and that is why he did it. in terms of the relationship between the scientific consensus and the political consensus, the president today ridiculing the
greater houston area college district. also the justice department was able to block texas republicans voter i.d. plan. rick perry signed this law when he was trying to make a splash running for president. the justice department said the texas voter i.d. law would be a disaster in terms of racial discrimination in texas elections. since hispanic registered voters are more than twice as likely as non-hispanic registered voters to lack the i.d. that would be required to vote in texas under the new law. so texas plans like that. new laws to block hispanics from voting at more than double the rate of non-hispanics or killing 80% of the polling places and setting up new ones where white people get ten times the service as non white people. plans like these from the last few years in texas, they were blocked from ever coming into effect. even though texas wanted to do them, they were blocked from coming into effect because the justice department could block them. because of the voting right
we don t have time for a meeting of the flat earth society. the question now is whether we will have the courage to act before it s too late. and how we answer will have a profound impact on the world that we leave behind not just to you, but to your children and to your grandchildren. as a president, as a father, and as an american, i m here to say we need to act. when he says there, over the engine noise, we need to act, i think what he really means is he plans to act. what the president announced in this speech today were a series of concrete actions that he, alone, is taking on this issue without congress. things like limiting the amount of carbon pollution emitted by new and existing power plants. taking federal action to increase fuel standards in new cars.
why stop just with voter i.d., he says? he predicted an omnibus voting bill would surface in the senate next week that could go beyond voter i.d. to include issues such as reducing early voting, eliminating sunday voting and barring same-day voter registration. they might not have been able to get away with racially discriminatory policies like that before today, but as of 10:00 a.m. today, go for it. the flood gates are open. the flood gates are open. anything these states with a history of racial discrimination could not get away with before, because they were covered under the voting rights act, and the justice department blocked them, now they can go ahead. and they are. day one, they re already rushing forward and there s nothing to stop them. unless congress fixes it. what are the odds of congress fixing it? no, really. what are the odds? the voting rights act that broke the segregationist lock on the ballot box rose from the courage shown on a selma bridge one sunday afternoon
spoke about climate change and other matters at the brandenburg gate in berlin last week, his aides started leaking to the press back in this country that something big was coming on that issue back home. we were told to expect a high-profile presidential address on this issue. over the weekend the white house announced in an elaborately produced video that address was coming not just soon, it was coming this week. then today was the day with the wedgie bunting and airplanes flying overhead, president obama took on the issue of climate change in a way he has not done this aggressively in at least this much granular policy detail up until this point. the question is not whether we need to act. the overwhelming judgment of science, of chemistry and physics and millions of measurements has put all that to rest. i don t have much patience for anyone who denies that this challenge is real.