The American Clean Energy and Security Act, better known as the Waxman-Markey bill, is being rushed through the house, with all the effort that Nanny Nancy Pelosi and ol’ Big Al Gore can muster.

Friday’s vote on the measure is expected to be close, but multiple sources on both sides of the aisle say they’re confident that the bill will pass — with some Republican votes — following a deal between House Energy and Commerce Committee Chairman Henry Waxman and Agriculture Committee Chairman Collin Peterson.

Despite the rosy scenario painted by the Dems and the heavily caveated CBO report, the Wall Street Journal is calling this bill the biggest potential tax increase evah!

The biggest doozy in the CBO analysis was its extraordinary decision to look only at the day-to-day costs of operating a trading program, rather than the wider consequences energy restriction would have on the economy. The CBO acknowledges this in a footnote: “The resource cost does not indicate the potential decrease in gross domestic product (GDP) that could result from the cap.”

The hit to GDP is the real threat in this bill. The whole point of cap and trade is to hike the price of electricity and gas so that Americans will use less. These higher prices will show up not just in electricity bills or at the gas station but in every manufactured good, from food to cars. Consumers will cut back on spending, which in turn will cut back on production, which results in fewer jobs created or higher unemployment. Some companies will instead move their operations overseas, with the same result.

When the Heritage Foundation did its analysis of Waxman-Markey, it broadly compared the economy with and without the carbon tax. Under this more comprehensive scenario, it found Waxman-Markey would cost the economy $161 billion in 2020, which is $1,870 for a family of four. As the bill’s restrictions kick in, that number rises to $6,800 for a family of four by 2035.

Even the collected wisdom of the Dem wits in Congress can buckle under the weight of reality, but only to a point.

“Yeah, yeah, we know the gun’s locked and loaded”, but they put it to our heads and pull the trigger anyway. Like the ol’ adage of the scorpion getting a ride across the pond on the back of the frog, stinging the frog to death dooming both to drown — they can’t help themselves, it’s their nature.

Even as Democrats have promised that this cap-and-trade legislation won’t pinch wallets, behind the scenes they’ve acknowledged the energy price tsunami that is coming. During the brief few days in which the bill was debated in the House Energy Committee, Republicans offered three amendments: one to suspend the program if gas hit $5 a gallon; one to suspend the program if electricity prices rose 10% over 2009; and one to suspend the program if unemployment rates hit 15%. Democrats defeated all of them.

The sad part is that they are getting any GOP support on this boondoggle of a tax, Tax TAX bill. Bend over and grit yo teeth suckers, cause it’s a comin’ and there ain’t gonna be any KY this time.

Better yet, if you live somewhere there’s a Blue Dog Democrat, call ‘em and tell ‘em that if they vote for this in 2010 they’re out — no ifs, ands or buts! Steppenwolf (John Kay, Jerry Edmonton, Nick St. Nicholas and Larry Byrom) wrote these next words as an anti-Vietnam-war screed, but they seem eerily appropriate in light of what’s going on in Washington today:

The spirit was freedom and justice
And it’s keepers seem generous and kind
It’s leaders were supposed to serve the country
But now they won’t pay it no mind
‘Cause the people grew fat and got lazy
And now their vote is a meaningless joke
They babble about law and order
But it’s all just an echo of what they’ve been told
Yeah, there’s a monster on the loose
It’s got our heads into a noose
And it just sits there watchin’

{…}

America where are you now?
Don’t you care about your sons and daughters?
Don’t you know we need you now
We can’t fight alone against the monster

It’s gettin’ less and less pretty out there folks. “America where are you now?” indeed.

This entry was posted on Thursday, June 25th, 2009 at 9:07 am and is filed under Global Warming B.S., Gramma Nancy Pelosi. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.  |   Print This Post  |   Email This Post

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