Pythons Devastating the Everglades: Thank a Republican

When I saw the story yesterday about the Everglades crawling with pythons — and native wildlife being decimated as a result — I had no idea this could be anything political.  What could the Liberal-Conservative Democrat-Republican divide have to do with people’s pet pythons escaping — or being released — into the wild?

Believe it or not, it IS a political issue.  Pythons were first discovered in the Everglades around 1980.  By 2000 the problem had become serious.  And now there are practically no raccoons, foxes, marsh rabbits, opossums or white-tailed deer left in the Everglades.

It’s a day late and a dollar short, but the Obama Administration is working on a rule making it illegal to move or import Burmese pythons across state lines.  It’s a start anyway.

And House Republicans are denouncing this new intrusive “job-killing” regulation.  Apparently the python business is an integral part of America’s economy, and any attempt to regulate it would send the unemployment rate skyrocketing into the triple digits.

The House Oversight and Government Reform Committee has referred to this new regulation as “a solution in search of a problem.”  And the committee brought in a python breeder to testify on the importance of this industry and the economic devastation that this new regulation would cause.

[sigh]

If somebody found a cure for cancer, Republicans would be against it.