Thursday, June 25, 2009

The Cap and Trade Hoax

While everybody's been slobbering over the Mark Sanford affair and wringing their hands over Obamacare (myself included), Democrats have been busy using this cover to bring cap and trade, the uber tax for carbon emissions that will jack up the price of everything, up for a vote. House Speaker Nancy Pelosi is talking about a vote on Friday.

There are lots of deceptions about what cap and trade is and who is affected, but it's safe to say that basically everyone will be affected and you will be crushed if you live in most of the country. (see chart)



From the Wall Street Journal:

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.

The whole purpose of cap and trade is to force Americans to use less energy. I'll admit that some squeeze will cause some efficiency, but when you need the A/C in July or the heater in January, you will be willing to suffer only so much.

Glenn Beck said on his program this morning that the House will likely pass this monster and the Senate will sit on it until gas prices spike. At that point, the Senate will race to pass this bill to "get" those "greed corporations." Unfortunately for us, the only people who will be "got" are consumers who actually pay for everything.