Is This Cap And Trade’s Death Knell?
Though I don’t know this for certain, I think Declan McCullagh’s article might be the death knell of Cap And Trade. Here’s why I think that:
The Obama administration has privately concluded that a cap and trade law would cost American taxpayers up to $200 billion a year, the equivalent of hiking personal income taxes by about 15 percent.
A previously unreleased analysis prepared by the U.S. Department of Treasury says the total in new taxes would be between $100 billion to $200 billion a year. At the upper end of the administration’s estimate, the cost per American household would be an extra $1,761 a year.
There are a few reasons why this news hurts President Obama’s attempt to ’save the planet’, the biggest reason of which is that a regressive tax increases of this proportion don’t sell well anytime but they especially don’t play well during a recession.
Cap and Trade is already weighing Democrats down because it’s unpopular everywhere except in hardcore lefty territory. People in the south, the midwest and in the Rust Belt understand that it’s a huge tax increase on their gas prices and on their electric bills.
People have been reminded that President Obama said that coal-fired power plants would be taxed out of existence. Bloggers are reminding people of John Dingell’s statement that Cap and Trade “is a tax and a great big one, too” and that that then-Sen. Obama said that electricity prices “would necessarily skyrocket” under his plan.
This shouldn’t be looked at in a vacuum, either. This morning, Sen. Baucus introduced his health care reform bill, which contained a massive tax increase in the form of mandating coverage for those who’ve refused to buy insurance. That could range in cost from $8,000 for single people to $21,000 for families. Couple those numbers with the $1,800 from this bill and people’s eyes are rolling back into their sockets.
Let’s be blunt about this: Since President Obama’s inauguration, spending has gone beserk, proposed tax increases have been even more insane and that’s just with the frst portion of President Obama’s agenda. We’re still in the early stages of the Obama agenda and we’re already rolling up massive amounts of debt.
That’s before we talk about the state of the economy and the lack of job creation or even a hint of the economy showing signs of showing signs.
The bottom line is this: These memos might well have sounded the death knell for Cap And Trade. Good riddance.
Technorati Tags: Energy, Cap And Trade, Tax Increase, Coal Power Plants, Rust Belt, Heating Bills, John Dingell, President Obama, Bankruptcies, Max Baucus, Health Care, Reforms, Excise Tax, Stimulus, Deficits, Spending, Democrats
Cross-posted at LetFreedomRingBlog
September 17th, 2009 at 9:18 am
Y’all know that it’s the only way to “punish the rich”. Of course, “rich” is defined as anyone with a net worth of a dollar ninety-seven, so it pretty much means that all the po’ folk dumb enough to vote for the snake-oil salesman with absolutely no experience and less ethical standard than Tricky Dicky will be paying through the schnozz, too.
Only as it should be if it happens. Hopefully, it won’t.