Political Lipskip

Economic Disaster: Energy Tax Bill Passes House Today

Congratulations Americans. Your representatives passed the Waxman-Markey bill today by a slim margin of victory. 219-212. If this abomination passes the Senate it will go to our President for signing which will amount to higher energy prices for all. The Wall Street Journal has said this will be the biggest tax increase in American history.

This bill has the stink of shit all over it. Corruption is rife with the players who stand to benefit. Shrieker of the House Pelosi and Congressman Markey stand to gain from investments they have made, not to mention the millions that former VP Gore could make with his venture capital firm that is invested in a software company that makes a program to help companies track their carbon footprint. AIG, Goldman Sachs and General Electric all stand to make a fortune from cap and trade.

AIG and GS helped hatch this convoluted scheme in the 90’s with…wait for it…Enron. They will buy and sell the carbon permits. They will create all kinds of derivatives to trade. General Electric stands to benefit greatly. They’ve set up a whole division to trade the carbon credits. They already have a name for it: General Electric Greenhouse Emission Services. Gee, wonder why GE’s media properties (NBC, MSNBC, CNBC) are such huge proponents of the green movement. Why, it’s because they stand to make millions if not billions of dollars. Incredulous isn’t it? You pay more so the financial institutions can get richer.

From the New York Times (Yes that NYT):

“Their plan unleashed a lobbying free-for-all that led politicians to dole out favors to various industries, undermining the environmental goals. Four years later, it is becoming clear that system has so far produced little noticeable benefit to the climate, but generated a multi-billion dollar windfall for some of the continent’s biggest polluters.”

The bill was 1200 pages. 300 pages of amendments were added at dawn today. Nobody had time to read it. The vote was rushed to the floor. The vote was completely buried late today. Why? Because Americans see this for the bullshit it really is. Shrieker Pelosi actually failed to get the votes cobbled together. Our Dear Leader had to make calls personally to cajole/threaten/plead with members to vote yes on his cap and tax bill.

This is a tax that effects everyone. Your home energy bills will go up. The Administration, who I do not believe. says it will be $170 a year. Other more reasonable sources says it could be upwards of a $1,000. And don’t think it stops there comrades. Do you not think that businesses with higher energy costs will not pass that cost on to you, the consumer? Everything you buy will cost more. And what do companies do when their costs go up? Yes, that’s right, they lay people off. And do you not think American companies won’t relocate outside of the U.S. to countries that are not imposing cap and trade?

Think I’m kidding? Europe has already tried and failed at this game. Cap and trade is a failure in Spain where it has resulted in 18 percent unemployment. For every “green” job created, 2.2 jobs are destroyed. Australia is abandoning their carbon tax proposals. Kimberley Strassel reports in the Wall Street Journal that:

New Zealand last year elected a new government, which immediately suspended the country’s weeks-old cap-and-trade program.?? Dr. Kiminori Itoh, a Japanese environmental physical chemist who contributed to a U.N. climate report, dubs man-made warming “the worst scientific scandal in history.” Norway’s Ivar Giaever, Nobel Prize winner for physics, decries it as the “new religion.” In April, the Polish Academy of Sciences published a document challenging man-made global warming. In the Czech Republic, where President Vaclav Klaus remains a leading skeptic, today only 11% of the population believes humans play a role.

And here we are rushing headfirst into more socialist ideals. See elections do have consequences.

We have let a bunch of idiots decide how we are going to live our lives. They have no clue what it is they have voted for. The brilliant Ohio Democrat Dennis Kucinich was seen on CSPAN saying that we “can have a carbon free world.” Really? Are we going to be required to exhale something else? Are the plants going to figure out how to use silicon to grow?

Understand that hundreds of scientists are debunking this myth that this bill is predicated on. Not only that but estimates suggest that up to 2.2 millions jobs a year will be destroyed. I don’t know if this is accurate as it surely comes from the side that doesn’t want cap and trade, but it is a fact that higher taxes and higher prices lead to fewer jobs. All the while we are in the worst financial shape since the depression.

Look I get that being green is cool. University kids have something to rally around and be mad at the man over. But the science is dubious at best. Are there things we can do to conserve energy? Sure. But why does it have to come at the expense of government intrusion into our lives.

Ben Lieberman, Senior Policy Analyst for Energy and Environment in the Thomas A. Roe Institute for Economic Policy Studies at The Heritage Foundation had this to say about cap and trade:

…this is the most convoluted attempt at economic central planning this nation has ever attempted–the bottom line is that cap and trade works by raising the cost of energy high enough so that individuals and businesses are forced to use less of it.

Read what he says abut the costs to your family here. It’s important! Call your Senators and tell them not to vote for this crap. I called my representative yesterday. You can bet I’ll be making the calls and writing emails to voice my concerns next week.

If you like big government then congratulations you have the right people controlling your life. But if you want the government to calm the eff down and reduce their intrusion you best start speaking out. Now.