In February of this year, after Sen. Scott Brown’s (R-MA) victory put Obamacare on life support, health insurer Anthem Blue Cross announced a 39% rate hike for its individual market subscribers in California. Despite the fact that the President’s health care plan will only drive health insurance rates higher, the White House seized on this story to revive the government takeover of the health insurance industry. Two months later when the President’s financial regulation plan was stalled in the Senate, the Securities and Exchange Commission charged Goldman Sachs with fraud …
Senators Kerry and Lieberman have introduced their “compromise” climate change legislation that relies largely on a “cap and trade” scheme to reduce carbon emissions. Even assuming there was a need for carbon limits, the Kerry-Lieberman bill gets the mechanism all wrong, apparently because the Senators either don’t understand or don’t trust markets. Kerry and Lieberman propose that the government manage a carbon market because controlling pollution is really important. This will work about as well as the government running grocery stores because everyone needs food. The insight underlying the use …
Maybe John Kerry and President Obama and proponents of a cap and trade system to reduce greenhouse gas emissions still have time to change message. “I don’t know what ‘cap and trade’ means. I don’t think the average American does,’ Kerry said recently. And he’s right. According to a new poll released from the Pew Research Center, “just 23% of Americans are aware that legislation often referred to as “cap and trade” concerns energy and environmental policy.” The other choices were banking reform, health care and unemployment. To be fair, …
Thanks to the relentless work of Christopher Horner at the Competitive Enterprise Institute, U.S. Department of Treasury admitted cap and trade would be a tax that could generate revenue between $100 billion to $200 billion a year. Horner obtained the information from the Treasury by using the Freedom of Information Act. Horner says, These are candid, internal discussions of what they are telling each other and what they won’t tell you. The words cap and trade were chosen for a reason, and that is to avoid a vote on tax. …
Senate Environment and Public Works Committee Chairman Barbara Boxer (D-CA) has abandoned her plans to draft and mark-up a comprehensive national energy tax modeled after the House-passed Waxman-Markey bill before Congress’s August recess. According to Reuters, Boxer promised, “we’ll do it as soon as we get back” from our month-long vacation. This should not come as surprise, as problems with the bill were beginning to mount. Senators Debbie Stabenow (D-MI) and Sherrod Brown (D-OH) have engaged in a very public debate over “carbon tariffs” with Senator John Kerry (D-MA) and …
The House Ways and Means Committee, the chief tax committee that has jurisdiction over all taxes and revenue-generating programs (social security, medicare, unemployment) is saying “no thanks” to dealing with potentially one of the largest taxes in history, the cap and trade energy tax. From CongressDailyAM: “House Ways and Means Committee Democrats are likely to punt on their opportunity to help shape climate-change legislation, given a tiny window for action, zero agreement among panel members and a desire to focus instead on health care.
The Waxman-Markey Global Warming Tax would have a devastating effect on our economy. But don’t just take our word for it. This week we’ll be sharing the opinions of other organizations who agree that Waxman-Markey will cause massive unemployment and drive energy prices up for all Americans. Today: Washington Post writer Steve Pearlstein Waxman and Markey are wily and experienced politicians, so it is a fair assumption that the bill their committee passed last night in a 33-25 vote is pretty close to what the U.S. political system is now …
KILLS MORE JOBS AND KILLS THE ECONOMY Cap and Tax Top Ten List Cap and Trade Is a Massive Energy Tax It Will Not Make a Substantive Impact on the Environment It Will Kill Jobs It Will Cause Electricity Bills and Gas Prices to Sharply Increase It Will Outsource Manufacturing Jobs and Hurt Free Trade It Will Make You Choose Between Energy, Groceries, Clothing, and Haircuts It Will Be Highly Susceptible to Fraud and Corruption It Will Hurt Senior Citizens, the Poor, and the Unemployed the Worst It Will Cost …
Today voters in California will go to the polls to decide the fate of six ballot propositions, four of which would raise taxes on Californians. Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger has pushed heavily for all six ballot measures which are designed to close the state’s $15 billion budget shortfall. But even though Schwarzenegger’s legacy depends on the passage of these initiatives, he will not be in California tonight to see the results. The Los Angeles Times reports: “His absence in the face of widely forecast defeat drew mockery from his foes.” Instead …
A national energy tax, which masks as a cap-and-trade program, could produce a substantial public backlash. According to a recent CNN poll, a majority of Americans already believe that such a job-killing energy tax that produces little or no environmental gain is not a good idea. This is not the first time our nation’s policymakers have toyed with an unpopular energy tax, though. Rewind to 1993. With a large majority and emboldened by the election of President Bill Clinton, House Democrats advocated and passed (barely) a national energy tax known …
