Most readers here probably know the Cap and Trade bill that passed the House (HR 2454) is effectively an energy tax and will cost jobs. FactCheck.org estimates losses from 600,000 to 2.4 million jobs from the bill.
What’s even worse than the bill were the amendments that Democrats voted against in committee.
Republicans proposed some “safety guard” amendments to limit the economic damage from Cap and Trade. And Democrats, while claiming that Cap and Trade would actually help the economy, defeated all of them:
· one to suspend the program if gas hit $5 a gallon; (defeated 31 nay – 24 yea)
· one to suspend the program if electricity prices doubled over 2009; (defeated 30 nay – 19 year, ballot here)
· and one to suspend the program if unemployment rates hit 15%. (defeated 34 nay – 21 yea)
Voting for these amendments would have been an excellent show of confidence that Cap and Trade is really the economic growth engine that proponents assure us. Likewise, voting against such reasonable economic safety guards sends a clear message that they know Cap and Trade will come at a high price.
I saw this originally reported in the Wall Street Journal, but it didn’t cite the source or the specific congressmen.
Votes that are made on the house floor are pretty public and easy to hold your congressmen accountable for. But these votes in committee are more difficult to track down. Thankfully, this stuff actually gets tracked, but it’s really buried. I finally found a list of the Cap and Trade (HR 2454) amendments in Energy and Commerce Committee courtesy of some GOP live blogging: http://www.gop.gov/live/09/05/19/live-blogging-the-700. You can skim through the transcript to see how bad it really was and who voted for what.
My Representative, Jay Inslee (D, WA-1), claims that Cap and Trade will actually create new jobs. Yet the ballot sheets show he voted against all of these safety guards. So Inslee explicitly voted to keep Cap and Trade even if it drives unemployment past 15%, yet has the audacity to claim Cap and Trade will create jobs.
Thankfully, Inslee finally has a serious challenger, James Watkins.
Moe Lane
PG DeFreese
Victoria Coates
Daniel Horowitz
Dan Spencer
You don't understand what they mean by "economic engine"
Next93 (Diary) Monday, June 28th at 12:37AM EST (link)Cap and trade will enrich certain people beyond normal dreams a avarice. This new class of Robber Barons (much more aptly named than the robber barons of the 19th century) will be the traders, the “entrepreneurs” who’ve positioned themselves to create wealth on the carbon exchange, without the bourgeois necessity of creating value – they’re the alchemists of the 21st century, who will spin pure gold from government regulation and a few million middle-class jobs, and do it without risking a single penny of thier own. And of course, a portion of that gold can be expected to find its way into the pockets of the politicians who made it all possible.
Every one of the measures you’ve mentioned here would harm these new robber barons and thier friends; the threat of an eventual freeze on the market would put a chill on the value of shares on the exchange. Sure, they could save the economy of those of us still wrapped up in the quaint notion of a free economy, but it would do so by reducing Al Gore’s ROI by an annualized 9.3%, and that Simply. Won’t. Do.
Obama was The One in 2008.
He’ll be a BIGGER one in 2012.
I'm gonna go clean my guns! nt
Achance (Diary) Monday, June 28th at 12:53AM EST (link)In Vino Veritas