Cap and Tax next? Pelosi: 2 pillars down one to go on Obama’s blueprint

Remember back during the campaign Obama kept referring to three areas of change, health care, education and energy. Well he got two so far and Nancy is now eyeing the third. 

The Hill: House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (Calif.) said the Democrats are one bill away from completing President Barack Obama’s “blueprint for American prosperity.”

“We have passed two of the three pillars in the historic healthcare and education reform and are working towards a clean energy and climate agenda in Congress,” Pelosi said in her remarks to the California Democratic Party state convention in Los Angeles on Saturday. “And essential to prosperity for middle-income Americans is reining in Wall Street.”  

Passing Cap and Tax now will be the nail in America’s coffin and mostly likely the straw that will break the taxpayer’s backs. Since Cap and Tax already passed in the House, will Democrats use reconciliation to ram the House version through the Senate?

Now would be a good time to start reading the fine print on the Cap and Tax legislation to see what nasty surprises are buried inside.


UPDATE: PDF to HR 2454


In case you are having difficulty with the link to the Cap and Tax legislation, here is the link to the PDF version of HR 2454.

Via: Memeorandum

Via: The Hill

Jim Imhofe declares Cap and Trade dead

From The Wall Street Journal: 

So declares Oklahoma Sen. Jim Inhofe, taking a few minutes away from a Thanksgiving retreat with his family. "Ninety-five percent of the nails were in the coffin prior to this week. Now they are all in."

If any politician might be qualified to offer last rites, it would be Mr. Inhofe. The top Republican on the Environment and Public Works Committee has spent the past decade in the thick of Washington's climate fight. He's seen the back of three cap-and-trade bills, rode herd on an overweening Environmental Protection Agency, and steadfastly insisted that global researchers were "cooking" the science behind man-made global warming.

This week he's looking prescient. The more than 3,000 emails and documents from the University of East Anglia's Climate Research Unit (CRU) that have found their way to the Internet have blown the lid off the "science" of manmade global warming. CRU is a nerve center for many of those researchers who have authored the United Nations' global warming reports and fueled the political movement to regulate carbon.

Their correspondence show a claque of scientists massaging data to make it fit their theories, squelching scientists who disagreed, punishing academic journals that didn't toe the apocalyptic line, and hiding their work from public view. "It's no use pretending that this isn't a major blow," glumly wrote George Monbiot, a U.K. writer who has been among the fiercest warming alarmists. The documents "could scarcely be more damaging." And that's from a believer.

Well Amen to that! I was never a believer in man-made Global Warming. The whole idea of carbon playing the main role in rising planetary temperatures seemed absurd to me from the get go.  Whoever hacked those emails, did the free world one great huge favor as so many governments were willing to grab power in the name of “saving the planet”.

Despite the overwhelming evidence that man-made global warming scientist were cooking the books, expect many Democrats (and a few RINOs) to still keep pushing it. Why? Simple, billions if not trillions in wealth transfers are at stake. Don’t expect those who stood to gain to just give up. I would look for GE to push is fraud science to the bitter end.

Something interesting to note here. At Thanksgiving dinner, I brought up the hacked emails to my liberal friends and extended family. None, not even one, had heard of it. When I showed them the stories online, many  were bitter and angry at the cover up, only one held hope there might be a reasonable explanation. Given these reactions, I think it would be best for the left to come clean and not try to hide these findings. 

For many on the left, climate change/ global warming was almost a religion. Finding out about the blatant lies and exaggerations is almost like finding out Christianity was just a fairy tale. It is devastating and many on the left will be beyond bitter.

Via: Memeorandum

Via: The Wall Street Journal

Palin attacks Cap and Trade

So much for Sarah Palin being a politically dead quitter. Sarah Palin launched her first attack against Obama’s dreadful policies yesterday in her Washington Post Op-ed The Cap and Tax Dead End (read the whole thing in previous post).

Palin’s whose main forte is energy independence uses common sense to point out some of the harmful and illogical aspects of Cap and Trade.

FTA:

Job losses are so certain under this new cap-and-tax plan that it includes a provision accommodating newly unemployed workers from the resulting dried-up energy sector, to the tune of $4.2 billion over eight years. So much for creating jobs.

Palin is correct. Why at a time of mounting job losses must we add to it to achieve energy independence? This is to say nothing of the fact that the $4.2 billion would have to be BORROWED money.

FTA:

The Americans hit hardest will be those already struggling to make ends meet. As the president eloquently puts it, their electricity bills will "necessarily skyrocket." So much for not raising taxes on anyone making less than $250,000 a year.

Right again, Sarah. Obama had promised that those making less than $250k would not be taxed. Drastically raising their energy costs is every bit as bad as raising their taxes. Actually it is worse, because when you raise energy costs you raise the price of everything else. Food goes up, transportation goes up, and anything that uses energy goes up. In other words, the cost of everything goes up.

FTA:

… We are ripe for economic growth and energy independence if we responsibly tap the resources that God created right underfoot on American soil. Just as important, we have more desire and ability to protect the environment than any foreign nation from which we purchase energy today.

Americans are more sensitive to the environment than other energy producing nations. If we rely on them for our energy are we really helping the planet or are we just kidding ourselves by thinking so long as we are not drilling here the planet will be saved?

Palin includes a little stem-winder to her main critic, the MSM.

FTA:

Unfortunately, many in the national media would rather focus on the personality-driven political gossip of the day than on the gravity of these challenges. So, at risk of disappointing the chattering class, let me make clear what is foremost on my mind and where my focus will be:

Some pro-Palin people think she should lay off the MSM, I for one am glad she doesn’t. The MSM needs to be called out. They had a major hand in selling America an inexperienced president with a strong socialist streak. Plus I am happy to see a Republican who is as hostile to the media as the media is to Republicans and conservatives.

What I wish Palin would have included in her Op-ed was to draw a parallel between the empty promises of jobs from the Stimulus and the equally empty promise of “green jobs” that are suppose to sprout from Cap and Trade. Such an act would greatly help in pointing out the wishful thinking behind all of Obama’s economic plans.

Sarah Palin's Washington Post Op-Ed.

The 'Cap And Tax' Dead End
By Sarah Palin

Tuesday, July 14, 2009

There is no shortage of threats to our economy. America's unemployment rate recently hit its highest mark in more than 25 years and is expected to continue climbing. Worries are widespread that even when the economy finally rebounds, the recovery won't bring jobs. Our nation's debt is unsustainable, and the federal government's reach into the private sector is unprecedented.

Unfortunately, many in the national media would rather focus on the personality-driven political gossip of the day than on the gravity of these challenges. So, at risk of disappointing the chattering class, let me make clear what is foremost on my mind and where my focus will be:

I am deeply concerned about President Obama's cap-and-trade energy plan, and I believe it is an enormous threat to our economy. It would undermine our recovery over the short term and would inflict permanent damage.

American prosperity has always been driven by the steady supply of abundant, affordable energy. Particularly in Alaska, we understand the inherent link between energy and prosperity, energy and opportunity, and energy and security. Consequently, many of us in this huge, energy-rich state recognize that the president's cap-and-trade energy tax would adversely affect every aspect of the U.S. economy.

There is no denying that as the world becomes more industrialized, we need to reform our energy policy and become less dependent on foreign energy sources. But the answer doesn't lie in making energy scarcer and more expensive! Those who understand the issue know we can meet our energy needs and environmental challenges without destroying America's economy.

Job losses are so certain under this new cap-and-tax plan that it includes a provision accommodating newly unemployed workers from the resulting dried-up energy sector, to the tune of $4.2 billion over eight years. So much for creating jobs.

In addition to immediately increasing unemployment in the energy sector, even more American jobs will be threatened by the rising cost of doing business under the cap-and-tax plan. For example, the cost of farming will certainly increase, driving down farm incomes while driving up grocery prices. The costs of manufacturing, warehousing and transportation will also increase.

The ironic beauty in this plan? Soon, even the most ardent liberal will understand supply-side economics.

The Americans hit hardest will be those already struggling to make ends meet. As the president eloquently puts it, their electricity bills will "necessarily skyrocket." So much for not raising taxes on anyone making less than $250,000 a year.

Even Warren Buffett, an ardent Obama supporter, admitted that under the cap-and-tax scheme, "poor people are going to pay a lot more for electricity."

We must move in a new direction. We are ripe for economic growth and energy independence if we responsibly tap the resources that God created right underfoot on American soil. Just as important, we have more desire and ability to protect the environment than any foreign nation from which we purchase energy today.

In Alaska, we are progressing on the largest private-sector energy project in history. Our 3,000-mile natural gas pipeline will transport hundreds of trillions of cubic feet of our clean natural gas to hungry markets across America. We can safely drill for U.S. oil offshore and in a tiny, 2,000-acre corner of the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge if ever given the go-ahead by Washington bureaucrats.

Of course, Alaska is not the sole source of American energy. Many states have abundant coal, whose technology is continuously making it into a cleaner energy source. Westerners literally sit on mountains of oil and gas, and every state can consider the possibility of nuclear energy.

We have an important choice to make. Do we want to control our energy supply and its environmental impact? Or, do we want to outsource it to China, Russia and Saudi Arabia? Make no mistake: President Obama's plan will result in the latter.

For so many reasons, we can't afford to kill responsible domestic energy production or clobber every American consumer with higher prices.

Can America produce more of its own energy through strategic investments that protect the environment, revive our economy and secure our nation?

Yes, we can. Just not with Barack Obama's energy cap-and-tax plan.

The writer, a Republican, is governor of Alaska.

Carol Browner, busted!

(h/t Hot Air)

Carol Browner, Obama’s Energy Czar seems to think it is unfair that we do not accept her only reading “vast portions” of the Cap and Trade bill rather than the entire thing. Too bad they did not have a copy of the bill to check and see exactly which portions she actually read. Something tells me Ms. Browner did get very far past the title page. God help us!