Posted by
Patrick Henry on Friday, April 24, 2009 2:58:12 PM
The House Energy Committee is currently holding "hearings" on the cap-and-trade
energy legislation proposed by Henry Waxman (D-California) and Edward Markey
(D-Massachusetts), and supported by President Barack Obama. The ringmaster
clown-in-chief is quintessestial junk scientist Al Gore. The proceedings are replete
with dire predictions about the end of the world as we know it, and propose as a
countermeasure the biggest tax hike in American history. Democrats whine that
for Republicans cutting taxes is the solution to everything. On the record, it seems
that Democrats' answer is raising them.
But the biggest mistake in the history of American governance can still be stopped,
and most Republicans think they have the votes to do it. Absent invocation of the
"fast track" parliamentary trick the Democrats are using to deny Republicans the
right to debate Obama's immednsely costly universal healthcare program, cap-and-
trade will draw universal GOP rejection and they will be joined by a significant
number of senate Democrats whose districts would be deeply damaged by the bill.
Why is this legislation so onerous? Let me count the ways.
1. Contrary to Democrat claims, cap-and-trade is a tax! It is a levy imposed by
government for a specific service. That's the disctionary definition of tax. Look
it up. Even the White House budget office admits it may cost two or three times
what they have estimated, and whatever it costs it will still be the biggest tax
increase since WWII -- and in the deepest recession since the Great Depression.
The inmates are definitely running the asylum.
2. This energy tax is now projected to cost every American household a minimum
of $3,900 annually. That will be a crushing blow to the elderly living on a fixed
income, to middle class families hard htt by job losses and to the poor. And Obama's
piddling $400 per person welfare hand-out won't even make a small dent in it. (Note
the old Democrat ploy: give something with one hand and take away eight times as
much with the other). Obama himself promised that under cap-and-trade the cost of
electricity would "skyrocket." Are you ready to see your electricity bill go from
$150 a month to $600? That's what we're all looking at if this lunacy becomes law.
3. The legislation creates enormous windows for corruption and abuse of power.
Under its provisions any American can sue any other American if they think they
are or may be a victim if the negative effects of global warming. Firms needing
more energy can petition the government through their legislators. Given the
current congressional record regarding the acceptance of bribes and payoffs, does
anyone seriously think that this will not become a congressional get-rich-quick
sheme?
4. It is not only your electric bill that will rise dramatically. By Obama's own
admission, businesses using energy (which is all of them) will have to retrofit to
accommodate less energy use, and they will then pass the costs along to the
customer. Guess who that is? Yep, the same poor schmucks that are paying the
big electrice bills -- you and me. And now we'll get to pay more for food,
clothing. office and school supplies as well. How is this going to help people
who already are struggling to pay their mortgages?
5. Cap-and-trade will cost millions of American jobs. When cap-and-trade
was tried in Europe, a Belgian cement plant. facing bankruptcy because of
the increased energy costs, simply closed its European operation and moved to
Morocco. Does anyone seriously believe the same won;t happen here, with
businesses fleeing to Mexico, India, South America and other places where
government is trying to make profitable enterprise work, rather than regulating it
under the table? Have any cement plants in your state? Kiss those jobs goodbye
if this moronic bill succeeds.
6. Cap-and-trade didn't even work in Europe. Carbon pollution actually became
worse, a fact that the Democrats don't want you to know. They claim that they'll
implement the plan smarter than the Europeans, making it as effective as the
acid rain reduction measures. Now they're really insulting our intelligence. First,
carbon pollution isn't acid rain. The technology that helped to control the latter
was already in the latter stages of development, whereas alternative energy research
is still in relative infancy, rasing the specter that this hideously expensive regulation
may be THE long-term solution, and that American households will bear the entire
cost of it.
In the throes of an economic quagmire such as the one gripping our nation, a solution
MUST be found that does not simply grind the American taxpayer into the ground/ If
this crop of legislators isn't up to it then they should all resign and make way for
creative problem solvers whose answer to every problem is NOT spend mega-billions and
soak the poord dumb taxpayers for it. I'm one taxpayer who's had just about enough!