An Environmental Tax on the American People

Senator James Inhofe (R-OK) published an Op-Ed in The Hill today titled, “Democrats’ Cap and Tax rush job: all economic pain, no climate gain,” which is quite informative. Inhofe opens the article by stating:

The Obama administration and the Democratic leadership are attempting to push through global warming cap-and-trade legislation as quickly as possible, and for good reason: The more the public learns about what is in the bill, the more likely they are to oppose it.

The Waxman-Markey bill is the latest incarnation of costly cap-and-trade legislation that will have a devastating impact on the economy, cost millions of American jobs, push jobs overseas and drastically increase the size and scope of the federal government. Or, as a recent Washington Post editorial put it, the bill “contains regulations on everything from light bulb standards to the specs on hot tubs, and it will reshape America’s economy in dozens of ways that many don’t realize …”

Yup. If we want higher energy prices and much higher gasoline prices to go along with all the rampant inflation this administration is already causing, this cap-and-trade foolishness is the way to go! That is, if you like all pain and no gain, it’s the way to go. After all, if even the liberal, big government loving Washington Post labeled this legislation as something that “contains regulations on everything from light bulb standards to the specs on hot tubs, and it will reshape America’s economy in dozens of ways that many don’t realize,” it must be really, really bad.

By the way, has anyone else noticed that we’ve had a couple of the coolest years on record back to back during this so-called “global warming” era? Reports are in from farmers around the country that crops are again a bit slow in growing because it has just not warmed up enough yet. (Here in Michigan, I can see that to be true and do not need second hand reports.) And, apparently we are not the only country in the world experiencing this.

If this cooling keeps up, what will we be capping and trading then, the losses from low crop revenue, maybe? That is, if cooling comes and our famers experience a loss in revenue, will this cap and trade foolishness then make up the difference to them? If not, can this be said to be a well-balanced and fair bill?

I mean, let’s face it now, if these political hacks want to pass an environmental control bill that would tax us all for something that’s simply a natural occurrence, there must certainly be and up-side to it when the reverse happens. If not, then it is simply a bill to punish and tax the American people simply because those presently in government can -- and want to.

And, for the rest of us, according to the article, the National Black Chamber of Commerce, CRA International found that Waxman-Markey will destroy 2.3 to 2.7 million jobs in each year of the policy through 2030, increase electricity rates by 45 percent, and impose a gas tax of nearly 60 cents. Of course, it would also cause many American jobs to move overseas, where government environmental regulations are much more lenient. But that’s expected and is already happening. China will accept the factories and be happy to sell us the products at a profit.