American's love winners, and we love lists: Dave Letterman has made himself famous with his "Top Ten" of everything from why he loves New York to ways to know your spouse is having an affair.Maybe he'd like to take a shot at "Ten Reasons Why the new Cap & Trade bill is the worse legislation ever conceived in Washington". Now there's a winning distinction of which Congress can be proud.
As much as I like to think I'm well informed, I admit the details of this bill escaped me until I received a press release from Congressman Charlie Dent's office saying it had passed the house by a very narrow margin, 219 Ayes, 212 Noes. Forty-four Democrats had the courage to vote against it. Eight Republicans sold their soul for God-knows-what reason and voted for it. The list of who's who can be found here.
Not only did the closeness of the vote catch my attention, but the statistics contained within Dent's press statement stunned me. The Penna. Public Utilities Commission, a group not known for often taking the side of the taxpayer, said the cost of "Cap & Trade" would be "staggering". They went on to predict that Penna. could lose 66,000 jobs if the bill passes the Senate.
In the past two weeks since the House vote, Dent has been out raising the alarm about how much damage this bill can do to our economy. On Lehigh Valley Rambling's, Bernie O'Hare has a comprehensive report of Dent's appearance this week at a Nazareth town meeting where Dent laid out the case for putting a stop to this impending disaster.
Today, on my internet radio show, Congressman Dent, Fox News commentator Andrea Tantaros, and Republican activist Charles Snelling continued to drive home the point with dire warnings about jobs fleeing overseas, government controls, international shifts of wealth, and exhortations to flood your Senator's offices with emails and phone calls telling them you'll never vote for them again if they support Cap & Trade. Here's some motivation: If this legislation passes, the low-end estimate is that it will cost $3000 per family per year in increased costs.
I came away from the show with a renewed commitment to do everything I can to continue this fight. Earlier tonight, I wrote to both Senators Specter and Casey. As I went to post links to their contact pages, I found Sen. Specter's site was down, so it looks like a lot of other Americans are doing the same thing. Word inside the beltway is that the President and Harry Reid do NOT have the 60 votes they need. Do your part...keep up the pressure.
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20 comments:
As much as I like to think I'm well informed, I admit the details of this bill escaped me
Welcome to the party Pam.
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Next to the crooked little Stimulus bill, Cap and Trade should have been on the top of the fight list for EVERY Republican.
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I have watched how the Democrats have engineered this and it was a marvel to behold. They did a great job, the Republicans (once again) were a sleep at the wheel.
Looking,
I'm ashamed that I let this bill get as far as it did without realizing how damaging it is to the country.
Considering how much I read and all the "sources" I talk to, If I was in the dark, it's easy to understand how the Democrats pushed this past most Americans.
This is a perfect example of how the MSM can and does affect policy. When I went to do research on this bill, only the WSJ had written about it extensively and laid out the case against it.
We can still stop it if we work hard on the Senate.
Democrats OWN this.
Democrats deserve to pass this.
Democrats deserve to PAY the consequences of this. (Dems will not end up paying any taxes actually - they will all get cabinet appointments and be exempted!)
Democratic business owners should love this. Especially, Democratic SMALL BUSINESS OWNERS. I bet they are over-joyed with their Obama vote NOW!
(I hope Democrats dig the VAT TAX, too!)
And, perhaps most important of all, Democrats planning to sell their old house anytime soon!
The Greatest SCAM of ALL TIME! Cap and Tax. Step right up for the greatest clown shown on Earth!
Let Democrats do this.
Let Democrats financial destroy the United States once and for all.
Let the PEOPLE see WHO WANTED THIS AHEAD OF TIME --- prevent predictable lying later
It will be funny to watch Democrats justify "FAIRNESS" while watching all manufacturing bolt to places like China or India that WILL NOT BE PLAYING BY THE SAME RULES.
It will be hysterical to WATCH THE UNIONS FREAK OUT! (Sorry guys, you get what you campaign-contribution for!!!)
It will be funny to listen to KUM-BY-YAH and WE ARE THE WORLD crowd and see them thump their chests so proudly after the USA is GREEN...
while they are standing in line at the government welfare office!!!
Carbon dioxide is NOT a pollutant. Ask the plants.
BTW - how much of a carbon footprint does Al Gore leave flying all over the world (that is actually cooling, data shows)
HOW MUCH CARBON FOOTPRINTING FOR MICHELLE OBAMA AND HER DAUGHTERS TO FLY AROUND FOR FRENCH SHOPPING TRIPS???
BTW - EXACTLY HOW MUCH WAS THAT RUSSIAN PURSE, Mrs. Obama?. The manufacturer says $ 5,000 but the media say ONLY $ 1,000. I wonder WHO is right???
Probably matches the $ 500 sneakers. :)
I am very glad, however, that Obammy's grammy was able to make the trip on the US taxpayer dime this time.
Family values, how nice.
Is Obama's brother still in a shack in Kenya?
Don't we have a cushy Federal government job with sweet benefits to give him or something?
I thought 0-bama was a savior.
Maybe he is too busy "SAVING" jobs - or apologizing for America.
One or the other.
Ironpigpen...
All great points, but I wish you'd tell us how you really feel.
Keep up the passion, and while you're doing that, Tell ALL YOUR FRIENDS to call their Senators.
Democrats OWN this.
Democrats hate to admit to failure.
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If a program goes awry, the usual analysis by Democrats will be (in descending order of importance):
1) There wasn't enough funding for the program to work correctly in the first place.
2) There wasn't enough funding for the program to work correctly in the first place.
3) There wasn't enough funding for the program to work correctly in the first place.
4) There wasn't enough funding for the program to work correctly in the first place.
5) There wasn't enough funding for the program to work correctly in the first place.
6) They inherited the problem from George Bush.
7) The Congressional Budget office lied to Nancy Pelosi.
8) Edward Markie (D-MA) didn't have enough panels packed with weeping female environmentalists going about saving the polar bear during House hearings.
9) Newt Gingrich called the Democrat Cap and Trade bill "nutty".
10) Rush Limbaugh wanted Barack Obama to fail.
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In light of the above, it would be better to wake up the American people and try to stop this bill.
Dear Pam:
I am a supporter of Cap and Trade and have monitored its other forms in Europe and here.
There are costs that must be born by our society for the damage that is being done to the environment and climate. While Congressman Dent and the Fox representative might have their information, I would like to point to this article at the New York Times, which includes a link to a Government Budget Office document written on June 19 discussing the potential costs and benefits.
http://greeninc.blogs.nytimes.com/2009/06/24/how-much-cap-and-trade-bill-would-cost-families/
(Yes, some conservatives might recoil at my using a NY Times citation. However the CBO link is authorative.)
The report seems to draw a different conclusion than what you report here. I am not an environmental economics expert by no means. However, clearly we have an example of politics vs. analysis. I'm sure both sides can bring up statistics to support their position.
I for one believe that the industrial nations, including us, need to take action.
Best regards,
Michael
While Congressman Dent and the Fox representative might have their information,
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200 million years ago, where we both now sit large, big, smelly reptiles longued around in a semi-tropical environment. Not a snowflake or SUV to be found.
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The usual response to skeptics is "Exxon funded". The data gets ignored.
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NY Times, Playboy, Oprah magazine, quote who you like. The fantasy is to return Earth to what it looked like in 10,000 BC.
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This is bad environmental policy coupled with worse economics. Have any doubts? Seems Henry Waxman decided to give his buddies carbon exemptions. Only the little people are forced to play.
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By the way, not too long ago the Wall Street Journal looked into European cap and trade. Seems the Europeans talk a better game than they play. Anything that threatens the welfare state, well, their enthusiasm cools off faster than how quickly the Earth now heats up.
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Any wonder why Obama came away with zip from the G8 (outside of a photo of him checking out a little somethin' somethin')?
Pam,
The costs and impacts are important. But the GOP failed the public yet again.
Man-made global warming is a myth.
Even the UN IPCC has admitted that their global warming models have been "flawed". They have also admitted that the earth has been cooling since 1999 and that it will continue to do so for another 20 or 30 years. However, the dreaded global warming will then continue.
Also, hundreds and thousands of scientists have been speaking out against the myth of man-made global warming. So much for the much vaunted "consensus".
The liberals are the ones who have COMPLETELY rejected science for a higher goal - control of society for their goals.
When will Republican leaders ridicule these unscientific advocates instead of pandering to them? When will we ridicule them for rejecting or ingoring science?
Oh, yeah, we want to be nice people and not risk anything for what are provable truths.
Because they might declare that we are mean and call us names.
And we wonder why we struggle as a party? Stop following the agenda established by Leftist extremists and educate the public about the facts and the science!
But that would take effort. Instead, GOP 'leaders' watch polls and pander.
Being the bottom line kind of guy I am.. It's another tax. For good or bad. It is an additional tax, plain and simple. Similar to Social Security, will the monies actually go to where they are targeted? Or will it be like the tobacco settlement monies? If not, all fine and dandy. But alas history teaches it may not be so.
Second point is.. it's sounds quite noble to say rebates for energy green efficient alternatives. But one has to question, if there's a way to be more cost efficient 'green' way of heating my home I won't need the rebate from my local contractor. The guy who will most certainly benefit from this.
The same thing can be accomplished with surcharge reductions from 'green' suppliers. But then that wouldn't bring in additional revenue would it? So rather then raise the bridge, lower the water.
Locally, the greatest impact will be felt when we receive our future electric bills. PPL has 6 coal fired generators and seven more gas/oil . The very ones most affected by the 'carbon credits'.
While the 'nice guy' part of me appreciates Michael Donovan's usual civility, I wonder how much of the bill he's actually read? I found the bill (900+ pages, ugh) and could only get myself to read the sections on residences & lighting. I consider myself now "Informed" and can say I'm completely agin' it. What we're doing is changing the basic construction of our culture & economic systems. We're no longer expecting people to be motivated by how I can make a living by selling a product/service that is better & cheaper than everyone else. Instead, we're becoming a society that is motivated by how I can get some tax dollars from a govt grant or govt program. That's what I read in the residential & lighting sections of the bill. And, frankly, I'm sorry but while capitalism has some flaws, I'll choose that over obeisance to a growing govt any day. I'm convinced this is bad policy, rooted in what I think is misguided political values.
Bud Daneker
"... jobs fleeing overseas, government controls, international shifts of wealth ..." ? What about possible showers of boiling-hot asteroids or infestations of locusts ? Are you shocked, SHOCKED that preventing a catastrophic rise in the Earth's temperature that will precipitate massive agricultural failures, huge migrations of hungry/thirsty refugees, innundation of low-lying coastal cities and spread of tropical diseases to temperate areas -- will cost MONEY ? The wrenching halt to our addiction to oil and coal will necessarily be painful and costly. But it will also create new industries and new jobs, prevent the extinction of thousands of endangered species, and preserve a liveable world for our grandchildren. Sorry if you're worried about job dislocations and wealth shifts -- but most of us are more worried about the survival of our species and those we share our planet with. Hysterical sky-is-falling rants -- or Luddite denials of the fact of global warming -- will not persuade us that you make sense. They just make you sound -- well, nuts.
"most of us are more worried about the survival of our species and those we share our planet with"
Really, Don? "MOST of us?"
Wouldn't this whole debate look a little different if "MOST of us" were in your corner? I got past the fears you describe in 7th grade when we saw the film, Future Shock, & I took the time to check out the claims being made.
Don Miles: Hysterical sky-is-falling rants -- or Luddite denials of the fact of global warming -- will not persuade us that you make sense. They just make you sound -- well, nuts.
You described the global warming caused by mankind crowd to a T.
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Global warming caused by mankind assumes the Earth's climate remains static. History shows that is not the case.
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For a while the global warming crowd could get away with their hysteria because early on only lesser known, less well financed scientist were making the counter argument. Liberals love "credible" and now "credible" scientist are making the anti-global warming caused by mankind argument.
Some think there is global warming, they just hate science being twisted to suit a political agenda. Others because they think it's not happening as claimed.
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I find it doubtful gas retains heat well. If that is so, why did a testing agency find gas filled windows not as effective as triple pane windows in preventing heat loss? I am not sure there is any natural that acts as a one way gate, letting light and heat in and not allowing it out.
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Find a real issue. Collect for Unicef, help an old lady cross the street, learn to play the clarinet, march for world peace, go grill a steak. Do something other than spending your time indulging in hysteria.
I am not sure there is any natural that acts as a one way gate, letting light and heat in and not allowing it out.
Ooops, should be:
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I am not sure there is any natural uncompressed gas that acts as a one way gate, letting light and heat in and not allowing it out.
"There are costs that must be born by our society for the damage that is being done to the environment and climate."
Michael, thank you again for your Marxist language, You are consistent.
anyone remember all the global freezing hysteria of the 70's? The Newsweek cover stories, warning us the plant would freeze in our children's lifetime if we didn't do something to stop our (read "American only") negative impact on the earth?
The hubris is exceeded only by the sheer stupidity of the "man is bad" crowd.
even Al Gore doesn't say "global warming" anymore, in the face of all the credible scienctific evidence to the contrary. Rather, it is now "climate change," which sounds a lot like "jobs created or saved."
The utter lack of logic, fueled by peure emotion, would be funny if the consequnces of all that zealotry wasn't so tragic for our country and our cultue.
I read the remarks to my remarks with amusement.
Enough said.
Best regards,
Michael Donovan
Michael....no doubt we are all amused you are "amused." It doesn't take away from the accuracy of the observation.
I know it shocks you, but some people, most people...prefer to take a position...rather than endlessly listen, "open their minds," and go along to get along.
Some of us are old enough to have heard much of what passes for discourse before.
The faces change, but the rhetoric is depressingly the same failed solutions offered in days gone by.
Between cap and trade and healthcare, the US is being dragged kicking and screaming into the 21st Century and up the standards of the rest of the world, and more (sad to say) advanced countries. It's painful but necessary. It reminds me of Helen Keller screaming and throwing herself around the yard until Annie Sullivan got through to her. Eventually Helen understood and thrived. W A T E R.
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