This was on the Investor’s Business Daily editorial page:
Not since a misguided piece of legislation imposed tariffs that turned a recession into a depression has there been a piece of legislation as bad as Waxman-Markey.
The 1,000-plus-page American Clean Energy and Security Act (H.R. 2454) is being rushed to a vote by House Speaker Nancy Pelosi before anyone can seriously object to this economic suicide pact.
It’s what Janet Napolitano, secretary of Homeland Security, might call a “man-caused disaster,” a phrase she coined to replace the politically incorrect “terrorist attack.” But no terrorist could ever dream of inflicting as much damage as this bill.
Its centerpiece is a “cap and trade” provision that has been rightfully derided as “cap and tax.” It is in fact a tax on energy everywhere it is consumed on everything it is used to make or provide.
Fair to assume that cap-and-trade doesn’t have the support of these guys. Even though the intro suffers a bit from some dramatic overstatement, they are right to oppose Waxman-Markey, because this legislation would inflict serious damage on our economy at a time when we can’t take any more financial chaos. A tax on energy affects everyone, and as IBD points out, this includes that fictitious 95% of Americans who weren’t supposed to see any increased taxes under the Obama administration. A tax of this kind directly and indirectly raises the price of everything we buy. It affects farmers and truckers and car companies and soccer moms, and all the rest of our fellow working stiffs. Eventually all this “hope and change” will end up costing the taxpayers a fortune, and there won’t be much payoff for our involuntary donations.
If you want to know if Waxman-Markey would have any significant impact on climate change relative to its cost, read more here.
Please don’t let this issue fade into the background with all the other distractions on the news right now. This is important to the country’s future and we need to let our legislators know that we oppose this bill.