California Conservative

Thursday night, the Senate essentially killed President Obama’s attempt to push cap and trade through via reconciliation. As a result, millions of taxpayers are rejoicing. Had it passed, cap and tax would’ve affected anyone who heated their home, ran an air conditioner, filled their gas tank or bought groceries.

Please pass Al Gore a Valium, and better make it a double, because his cap-and-trade dreams just took a dive in the U.S. Senate. In a vote late Wednesday, no fewer than 26 Democrats joined all 41 Republicans to insist that any new cap and tax on carbon energy would require at least 60 votes.

Tennessee Republican Lamar Alexander called it “the biggest vote of the year” so far, and he’s right. This means Majority Leader Harry Reid can’t jam cap and tax through as part of this year’s budget resolution with a bare majority of 50 Senators. More broadly, it’s a signal that California and East Coast Democrats won’t be able to sock it to coal and manufacturing-heavy Midwestern states without a fight. Senators voting in favor of the 60-vote rule included liberals from Wisconsin, Michigan and West Virginia. Now look for Team Obama to attempt to impose cap and tax the non-democratic way, via regulation that hits business and local governments with such heavy costs that they beg Congress for a less-harmful version.

Though the press corps has barely noticed, this means that two of President Obama’s most economically destructive priorities have taken major hits in the last two weeks. The cap-and-tax collapse follows Pennsylvania Republican Arlen Specter’s decision to oppose Big Labor’s attempt to eliminate secret ballots in union organizing elections. If Mr. Specter holds firm, and as swing state Democrats also look for cover, Republicans will be able to prevail on a filibuster.

I couldn’t be happier. Cap and Tax would’ve hit everyone hard. It would’ve deepened the recession we’re currently in. It would’ve hurt trucking companies. It would’ve shot up prices we paid for groceries. It would’ve affected families’ home heating bills.

Now that this radical policy has been laid to rest, it’s time to talk about Cap and Tax from a truth-in-advertising perspective: It’s the Obama administration’s attempt to unilaterally subject the United States to the Kyoto Treaty’s restrictions without ratifying the Treaty. It’s the Obama administration’s attempt to put us at a competitive disadvantage through artificially high energy prices.

It’s also verification that President Obama plans to pursue the environmental agenda he campaigned on. Let’s remember that he said he didn’t have a problem with $4 a gallon gasoline per se; he just hoped it hadn’t reached that price quite that fast. Let’s remember that then-Candidate Obama said that, under his Cap and Trade proposal, “energy prices will necessarily skyrocket.”

Does that sound like the type of energy policy America can believe in? Doesn’t it sound more like the type of energy America should reject?

Technorati Tags: Energy, Cap And Trade, Inflation, Trucking, Groceries, Gas Prices, Utilities, President Obama, Senate, Kyoto Treaty

Cross-posted at LetFreedomRingBlog

This entry was posted on Saturday, April 4th, 2009 at 4:22 am and is filed under Author: Gary Gross, Economy, Energy, Obama, Special Interests, Taxes. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can skip to the end and leave a response. Pinging is currently not allowed.