Dealing with health care, greenhouse gases and the deficit has fractured traditional political parties, leading to a rise of factions that is crippling Congress, U.S. Rep. Jo Ann Emerson said Friday.

In a speech to Cape Girardeau Area Chamber of Commerce members gathered for the monthly First Friday Coffee at the Show Me Center, Emerson lamented the infighting that has grown in the past year.

There are at least four identifiable factions among Democrats, said the Cape Girardeau Republican known for bucking her own party at times. And the GOP counts at least three groups, she said.

"The best description I could give you of what is happening in Washington is meltdown. Meltdown and chaos," Emerson said.

Emerson is seeking her seventh full term in Congress representing the 8th Congressional District. She faces a challenge within the Republican Party from conservative tea party activist and farmer Bob Parker of Texas County along with her best-funded Democratic challenger in former U.S. Army Maj. Tommy Sowers of Rolla. Libertarian Rick Vandeven of Chaffee, Mo., is also in the race, and it could grow if independent candidate Larry Bill of Jackson obtains enough signatures to make the November ballot.

Emerson's speech focused on health care and greenhouse gas emissions, an area where she has joined Democrats to block an attempt by the Environmental Protection Agency to regulate those emissions after finding they are dangerous air pollution. A resolution co-sponsored by Emerson and U.S. Rep. Ike Skelton, D-Lexington, to take away that regulatory power is gaining momentum, she said.

Emerson said a Senate attempt to delay the regulations for two years doesn't go far enough. Emerson voted against a bill, known as cap and trade, that passed the House last year. She argues that Missouri's dependence on coal would make it a big loser in a cap-and-trade system of trading credits for reducing emissions.

EPA action without final congressional approval of a cap-and-trade bill is an attempt to "do it through the back door," she said.

She doesn't disagree that pollution must be addressed, she said. "There is a lot we can do voluntarily, but imposing new taxes is not the answer."

On health care, Emerson said the widely publicized summit on health care between President Barack Obama and a bipartisan congressional delegation could have been more productive. "The problem was instead of bringing an empty piece of paper, they brought their bill," Emerson said of the Democratic leadership.

Emerson urged that the health care overhaul bill be cut into pieces, with those parts having wide support put up for passage quickly. "There are lots of ways to save money on health care, but shoving it down everybody's throat is not the way to do it."

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