On Monday, the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) issued a long-anticipated ruling that greenhouse gases threaten public health and the environment. Environmentalists have praised the decision, which will allow the agency to finally place limits on carbon emissions under the Clean Air Act if Congress fails to curb emissions. Not surprisingly, GOP Rep. John Shimkus -- a friend of the polluters if there ever was one -- isn't so thrilled about this development. The AP got him on record about the ruling this morning:

Shimkus noted that carbon dioxide is a natural result of breathing and asked, "Does EPA propose we stop breathing?"

This isn't the first time Shimkus has offered up this ridiculous argument. Back in May, the Republican said during congressional testimony that since humans breathe out carbon dioxide, it is "not a toxic emittant":

In March, he also attempted to argue that we shouldn't curb CO2 emissions because we'll be depriving the plants of "food":

Of course, no one is proposing that we rid the world of CO2 - an essential element of our ecosystem and very existence. The problem is that extreme amounts of the gas -- caused by the burning of fossil fuels -- are floating into the atmosphere, altering the planet's natural climate and putting us at risk of great environmental and economic destruction.

In short, the Obama administration doesn't want to regulate our breathing patterns. They want to regulate, at a minimal price to most Americans, how much pollution Shimkus' campaign contributors send out into the air and water.