Cap and Tax

The House passed a “Cap and Trade” bill on Friday. The Wall Street Journal calls it the largest tax ever. Obama claims it will only cost the average tax payer the price of a postage stamp a day, yet it will fight global warming and create millions of new “green” jobs. Obama is lying through his teeth. The point of cap and trade (besides granting Democrats even more control of your lives) is to artificially make energy derived from coal or gasoline so expensive that using alternative energy sources becomes more economical. Increasing the taxes by pennies a day isn’t enough to force the average consumer to change. In the beginning, the Heritage Foundation estimates that the bill (should it pass the Senate) would cost the average family of four $1,870 a year. In 2035 it will cost the average middle class family nearly $7,000 a year.

Obama may give you some of the money back through tax credits for living your life in leftist approved ways – for example, by driving an Obama approved car and living in an Obama approved house. One provision of the bill stipulates that in order to sell your house, it must first be inspected by a government bureaucrat. If your house doesn’t have energy efficient windows and appliances you can’t sell your house. I’ll guess that means we’ll all be living in Obama approved housing before too long.

Obama claims this will create (or save?) lots of “green” jobs. Of course it will. It’s not hard to create a job. You could take a billion in tax dollars and pay 20,000 people $50k a year to dig ditches and then fill them in again. You just created 20,000 jobs, but you destroyed many more than that because of the billion dollars you took out of the private sector.

Cap and trade will dramatically increase your heating bill, your electric bill, and your transportation costs. Every product you buy will become more expensive because the energy used to create it and ship it to you will be more expensive. The green industry will make out like bandits, but your quality of life will decline dramatically. Forget that vacation or college savings account – your extra money is going to cap and trade.

House Republicans tried to submit amendments that would suspend the program if gas hit $5 a gallon, or if electricity prices rose 15% or if unemployment hit 15%. The Democrats defeated them all. Here's John Boehner on this disastrous legislation:

“Americans need real solutions to create jobs, lower energy prices, and clean up the environment, but Speaker Pelosi’s national energy tax is a recipe for driving up prices for middle-class families and small businesses and shipping more American jobs overseas. The President repeated his claim that this bill will create jobs, but independent analysts suggest it’s a job killer, while one of his prominent supporters, Warren Buffett, calls it a huge, regressive tax.

“Republicans believe there is a better route to more jobs, reliable energy, and a cleaner, healthier environment. Our all-of-the-above plan will increase American energy production in an environmentally-safe way, encourage the use of alternatives such as nuclear and clean-coal energy, and promote new technologies and efficiencies. Unfortunately, Democrats in Congress and the Administration have chosen to go it alone with their costly, jobs-killing national energy tax scheme. Middle-class families and small businesses struggling during this recession won’t support it. It’s time for Democrats to work with Republicans on real solutions to create jobs and pave the way for a cleaner, more reliable energy future.”