Wasting Time With Alex

Think they are done screwing us? Think again..

As if the disastrous and horribly costly healthcare reform bill Obama and the donkey are pushing through, reform that will absolutely and indubitably lead to the need of both massive new taxes and heavy gate keeping of services, all of which amounts to us citizens receiving far less and having to pony up a lot more, wasn’t bad enough, these nut jobs are also pushing for another reform bill that will impose the largest tax ever in America’s history. As this WSJ article aptly calls it, the “Cap and Tax” bill is a disastrous piece of collectivist policy intended to net the already bloated and overreaching government even more of our money and freedoms.

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.

Note also that the CBO analysis is an average for the country as a whole. It doesn’t take into account the fact that certain regions and populations will be more severely hit than others—manufacturing states more than service states; coal producing states more than states that rely on hydro or natural gas. Low-income Americans, who devote more of their disposable income to energy, have more to lose than high-income families.

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.

This bill, which started at 946 pages has now grown to a whopping 1201 pages, likely all pork and more government graft added by the collectivists. Again, like the patronage bill they claimed was a stimulus, which had to be passed ASAP if we wanted to prevent the US economy from imploding overnight, the new finance regulatory bill, which also must be approved yesterday, and the healthcare bill which Obama wants done immediately, this bill is also too urgent to actually be read and understood.

But Democratic leaders in the House say they’ll push for a vote on the bill as early as Friday. They think they can pass it. This is an incredibly expensive undertaking. If anyone in Congress tells you that he has read and completely understands this bill, and can explain exactly how the system to reduce carbon emissions would work and what its effects would be, he’s lying.

We all know how well the patronage bill has worked out for us. Unemployment, which they promised us would not pass 8% is now rapidly approaching 10%, and with no end in sight of how much higher it will go. Some project a whopping 12%. Several of our elected leaders also tried to hide their culpability in allowing their fellow legislators to add ridiculous and horrible legislation by later claiming they never read the damned thing! I have also already commented on how well the new finance and regulatory changes are likely to work considering that the same crooks that gave us the foundations for this crisis are now rewriting the rules. And that healthcare bill? An absolute disaster in the making.

So why the need to push another bill, one that purports to straddle us all with the largest tax increase in US history, through with such urgency and speed that most legislators, let alone we the people, can have a good look at it? I mean, these are the guys that promised to be transparent and forthright with the public, and allow us all to have a good look what they are doing, right? This sure doesn’t look like any of that. I mean how much confidence should we the people have in the crooks running congress when even their MSM allies report on this disaster with the headline: Will Congress read bills before voting?. WTF? Seriously.

I seriously hope that this thing dies a horrible death. It deserves nothing more. Whether it is because democrats jumped ship because they fear for their cushy jobs come the next election cycle, or whether the no vote was cast because the politician knows this bill is a disgrace and criminal, don’t matter much to me. Kill it. And kill it pronto, please!

The bill’s sponsors are still trying to resolve questions over whether and how to impose sanctions on countries that do not limit emissions. That’s crucial. Those foreign countries would enjoy a cost advantage in manufacturing if their industries were free to pollute, while American industries picked up the tab for controlling emissions.

Oh, I know, we let Obama sweet talk em like he has the Iranian mullahs......