This new environmental bill, called the ‘Waxman-Markey’ bill, really sounds wonderful, for a moment. However, then you realize it doesn’t do what is necessary to help the environment. Instead of *PREVENTING* polluting companies from, well..polluting, it proposes auctioning off ‘carbon permits’, which allow companies to pollute more than what is allowed. So, if your company makes a huge amount of money, you can pay a fee, and go on polluting. They call this idea ‘cap-and-trade’, and it is ridiculous. The concept is, there’s a cap, but if you have one of these permits, you can go over the cap. Of course, the Obama administration would be making money by selling these permits at auction, the going rate expected to be at least $60 Billion by the year 2012, if the bill passes, of course.
When did Barack Obama decide that stopping carbon emissions was negotiable? He has gone public, praising the bill, and claiming it is a vital step to creating jobs across America. Wow, sure sounds like he’s talking about the wrong bill. Does he have cue cards, or something?
Now, here is the important part.. *NO ONE* knows how much this thing will cost the taxpayers. Well, at least no one that is willing to tell us, and that generally means it will cost a lot of money. Kind of like those commercials on television, where they tell you to call for a brochure. You hear that, and you just know you’re going to get screwed on the price. Douglas Elmendorf, from the Congressional Budget Office, testified in the Senate that the costs of the cap-and-trade program would be ‘passed along’ to consumers. Loosely translated, that means we’re going to be getting screwed, and in addition, the bill favors big businesses, which is something Barack Obama claimed he wouldn’t do, when he was only campaigning to be President. I guess in his mind now that he’s President, he doesn’t have to honor his word. All he has to do is smile and wave, and say ‘yes we can’ all day long, and people will believe.
The Congressional Budget Office has made some estimates of the bill’s cap-and-trade system, and has concluded that the intended cap called for in the bill, a reduction of carbon emissions of 15 percent by 2020, could cost the average family $1,600 per year, with a huge burden on low-income households. So, President Barack Obama, who vowed to tax the rich, is going to screw the middle-class, and the poor, and it’s now been proven. The estimated reason for this high cost on the taxpayer is because it is generally more difficult to cut back on ‘necessity’ energy bills, such as heating in the winter, cooling in the summer, stuff like that. However, the costs of the bill could differ from the CBO’s estimates considerably. They could be lower. With the carbon permit auctions, the government is likely to get revenue it will spend on government projects. But, the costs could also be even higher. Afterall, the bill doesn’t just propose cuts to carbon emissions. There are ‘greenhouse gases’ like methane, and other pollutants to reign in. That could send the $1,600 a year estimate skyrocketing upward. So, if you’re feeling the financial crunch now, in 2020, you’re poor, or homeless. These are all facts I’m quite sure Barack Obama is aware of, and yet he praises this bill. Oh, let’s not forget the ‘millions of new jobs’ he thinks it will create. Didn’t he already promise a lot of new jobs? He seems to say every bill that’s on the table is going to generate tons of new jobs. It’s getting to be a bit of a broken record.
It’s not just taxpayers that should be in a state of panic over this. Environmental activists are pissed. Rightly so. Not only is the Obama administration proposing auctions to polluters that will allow them to exceed the cap on carbon emissions (and likely any other pollutants), but there is also talk the government will be giving away some of the permits. Not only does that potentially destabilize the environment, it also cuts back on the chance of auction revenue that might benefit taxpayers.
Why is it, every time governments get together to discuss pollution, one or more of them ends up trying to find a way to make money from it, and keep contributing to it? Mr. Obama, we need clean air. Your children need clean air. If they have children, they’ll want clean air, too. Why are you in favor of a bill that will make clean air harder to achieve? Why do you favor a plan that lets polluters continue business as usual? A cap should be a cap. If it isn’t, what’s the point?
