Culturally illiterate I may be, but I grew up listening to Michael Jackson, whose brilliant career and tragic life ended with an apparently preventable death. In life, Jackson was hyped to the max, and I don't doubt the same thing will happen in death.
Considering the monstrous cap and trade scheme that is poised to be put over on a largely uninformed public, I share Glenn Reynolds' concern that the hype over Jackson's death will crowd this much more pressing concern out of the news.
Sure, a preventable death is a tragedy, but it's too late to prevent that. It is not too late to prevent cap and trade, which is more far-reaching than any single tragedy.
Not since a misguided piece of legislation imposed tariffs that turned a recession into a depression has there been a piece of legislation as bad as Waxman-Markey.
Its centerpiece is a "cap and trade" provision that has been rightfully derided as "cap and tax." It is in fact a tax on energy everywhere it is consumed on everything it is used to make or provide.
It is the largest tax increase in American history -- a tax on all Americans -- even the 95% that President Obama pledged would never see a tax increase.
[...]
As we've said before, capping emissions is capping economic growth. An analysis of Waxman-Markey by the Heritage Foundation projects that by 2035 it would reduce aggregate gross domestic product by $7.4 trillion. In an average year, 844,000 jobs would be destroyed, with peak years seeing unemployment rise by almost 2 million (see charts below).
Consumers would pay through the nose as electricity rates would necessarily skyrocket, as President Obama once put it, by 90% adjusted for inflation. Inflation-adjusted gasoline prices would rise 74%, residential natural gas prices by 55% and the average family's annual energy bill by $1,500.
Read it all. I sincerely hope that it is not too late to prevent what would be a tragedy for the economy.
Awful. Truly awful. Long term, this is going to make the bailout fiasco look like child's play.
I'll say this for the bailout scheme. At least there were some well meaning people who thought it would aid the country's economic recovery.
The goal here is to deliberately harm the economy. And for what? To advance an unproven theory that deliberately harming the economy might lower the planet's temperatures by a smidgen?
No wonder they'd rather hype Michael Jackson's death.
posted by Eric on 06.26.09 at 08:34 AM
Comments
Perhaps there is some benifit to be seen here. I am presently in northern Europe where gasoline is US$ 7.20/gal.
Income tax at about 50% plus VAT of 22 % results in the cost of living in North America appear very low. Perhaps this is part of the reason for so much global resentment (of USA), we appear to be getting a free ride when compared to them.
Hugh · June 26, 2009 12:47 PM
While I think some people really do want to "save the earth", cap and trade is an attempt to assert statist control in green drag. I know we state this again and again but we must not stop fighting.
Paolo Thompson · June 27, 2009 1:03 AM
Getting screwed less by the government is a free ride? An interesting notion. It all goes back to fundamental ideas:
Europe: the Government Owns The People
America: the People Own the Government
The Anti-Idiotarian Rottweiler
Don?t bang your head!
Perhaps there is some benifit to be seen here. I am presently in northern Europe where gasoline is US$ 7.20/gal.
Income tax at about 50% plus VAT of 22 % results in the cost of living in North America appear very low. Perhaps this is part of the reason for so much global resentment (of USA), we appear to be getting a free ride when compared to them.