Issue 27.09
Last week U.S. House of Representatives approved one of the most crushing tax increases to American consumers in history. Hidden behind the title of “Cap and Trade.” The purpose of this bill, according to an editorial in The Wall Street Journal, is to enact a “cap on [the] total amount of carbon that can be emitted nationally. Companies then buy or sell permits to emit CO2. The cap gets cranked down over time to reduce total carbon emissions.” Its fundamental purpose is to impose higher costs on electricity and gasoline so that American consumers use less.
The importance of maintaining a safe and clean environment is one of the few issues most Americans agree upon. The Democrats who have super-charged this bill through the House prey upon the uninformed and uneducated as they tout this bill as saving our natural resources. They understand that most Americans can’t afford or don’t want to pay any additional taxes. Thus, their leadership rushed this bill through the House, repeating the mantra that cap and trade legislation will cost the average American about the price of a single postage stamp per day—a small price to pay to clean up our air. They are liars and scoundrels.
This isn’t a new idea — it’s been tried elsewhere in the world but the effects have been the same: consumer prices rise and jobs are lost.
Fact: Members of Congress have repeatedly downplayed the true cost of cap and trade legislation. When the tougher restrictions outlined in this legislation become effective in 2020, it will dramatically increase the price of gas and electricity in America.
Fact: Regressive energy taxes like this one hurt senior citizens, the poor and the unemployed the most. Experts on energy policy that have followed this legislation have issued dire warnings about the dramatic loss of personal income that climate change schemes like this will have. The economic loss will be felt through the loss of manufacturing jobs and increased costs associated with utilities.
Fact: Cap and Trade sponsors, Congressmen Henry Waxman and Edward Markey and the leadership in the House want to pass this bill quickly. The longer the delay, the more consumers will learn about its devastating effects on our struggling economy. The President and his henchmen have vowed to pass this bill no matter how detrimental to the America people. They are so desperate in D.C., in fact, that they defeated amendments to this bill that would have suspended the law should gasoline surpass $5 per gallon or electric rates rise 10. It isn’t about protecting the environment – it’s a tax! And one of the largest tax increases ever imposed on Americans.