Cap & Tax - August 2009

When candidate Barack Obama was asked last summer his opinion of the then $ 4.00 per gallon gasoline, he responded by saying he was surprised it had risen to that level as quickly as it had. Obama never said he was concerned about its price or its impact on the American consumer. He seemed content that the American public was capable of adjusting to that price and changing their lifestyles to limit use of their automobiles and leisure travel on airplanes.

Well, you can get ready for gasoline costing that much or more in the months to come if the Obama regime’s Cap & Tax scheme is passed by the Senate this fall, is aligned with the House bill which already passed by only 7 votes, and is signed by a President who believes he is the person the world has been waiting for to lead the United States in a new direction to combat carbon pollution and global warming.
Of course Obama and his misguided political friends still think man is to blame for current climate trends rather than Mother Nature. Then again, maybe Obama is also capable of eliminating volcanoes, forest fires, sun spots and cow farts since they are among the leading sources of carbon in our atmosphere. But first he has to get the global climate to start warming again since it has actually been cooling for the past few years!

Too bad Obama wants to move one direction on global carbon control efforts while the world is already moving away from such Cap & Trade programs. In recent months countries like New Zealand - known for its strong environmental laws - and its neighbor Australia have scrapped their efforts while France and Great Britain and other European countries are rethinking their plans due to the fact that carbon emissions have not been reduced by their cap schemes and they are now dealing with the unexpected consequences of skyrocketing energy prices and lost jobs as businesses have moved manufacturing to countries with no carbon limits. And of course Obama failed miserably at the recent G8 Summit to get his fellow world leaders to agree on anything let alone carbon control issues.

I am not against the market realities of rising prices from high demand and limited supplies changing people’s consumption behavior. But I am very much against Uncle Sam forcing such a market reaction by playing God and saying we can only use a certain amount of oil, coal, or gas or be penalized or taxed to limit our use. Obama wants to force us to use alternate energy solutions now before they are perfected. He wants to make them economically feasible only by pricing traditional sources so high with his new cap taxes that we will want to use those other sources regardless of the overall impact on our economy of higher prices for all goods and services which have energy costs built into them.

As for the actual Cap & Tax bill passed by United States House of Representatives, it will not even accomplish what Obama wants to do – if he is really concerned about carbon emissions and not just getting the hundreds of billions of dollars of expected government fee collections - since the bill only starts to require notable emission drops many decades from now. But it sure will cost jobs and the American economy well before then. It is expected that hundreds of manufacturers based in the United States will move production and jobs to Asian countries which will not have similar carbon cap restrictions.

Worse is the need for more than 30 new and existing government agencies to help regulate the Cap & Tax process and the tens of thousands of newly hired bureaucrats to do so. And who do you think will be paying for all of that? Obama’s program will also crush the existing home market as one of the little publicized provisions included in the 300 pages of amendments to the House bill will require you to get an energy audit of your home before selling it so the buyer knows the energy efficiency of your house. And then local bureaucrats will be required to make sure the necessary changes to the existing home are made to bring it up to energy saving codes.

All in all, Obama’s Cap & Tax plan is nothing more than a new government money grab to address an alleged environmental issue which has already been debunked as phony science.