issues

The 111th Congress drafted legislation, which would have imposed a massive tax increase on every American family and business. But you wouldn’t have filed this with the IRS, it would have been hidden in the price of everything you bought and it would have been the most expensive tax placed on the American people since the income tax was imposed nearly 100 years ago (1913).

The 1400-page Waxman-Markey “Cap and Trade” National Energy Tax legislation would have imposed a massive energy tax on nearly every kilowatt of energy produced in America and these taxes would have been passed on to every consumer of electricity. It did so through taxing carbon emissions (85% of American energy production is carbon based). These taxes would have been imposed through a carbon emission cap placed on factories and energy producing companies; and it would have required that these businesses buy carbon emission permits if they wanted to exceed the emissions caps. It was estimated that it would have increased living costs for the average American family by between $1500 and $3500 a year. Every time you turned on a light switch, filled up your gas tank, turned on your television or even bought a loaf of bread, you would have paid a hidden “Cap and Trade” National Energy Tax. The extra costs of meeting the government’s mandates would simply be passed on to consumers – i.e. every American.

It was estimated that the Waxman-Markey “Cap and Trade” National Energy Tax bill (H.R. 2454) would have cost the U.S. economy two and a half million jobs and possibly drain as much as $9 Trillion dollars out of our economy.

Early backers of the “Cap and Trade” National Energy Tax plan were top officials at now defunct Enron. And who can forget the devastation that was brought on by the collapse of Enron. Enron officials saw the advantage of making money as the “middle man” and that is what would likely have happened under “Cap and Trade”, with the average American consumer picking up the tab. The middleman would make his money off of consumers and add virtually nothing to the process except higher costs.

While we were able to keep this bill from getting to President Obama’s desk, there are still many in the Congress who wants to enact a carbon emissions scheme. While we have been able to block their direct tax plan, the Administration is seeking to advance these initiatives through expensive regulatory schemes. Rep. Posey has voted to stop those plans and continues to work with like-minded colleagues in the Congress to stop the Administration’s costly regulations.

It is important to remember what the Cap and Trade Carbon Emissions National Energy Tax Plan is about.

1. Politicians in Washington pushing this plan know full well that “Cap and Trade” is really an elaborate plan to bring more money into the Federal government -- taking hundreds of billions of additional dollars out of the weekly paychecks of millions of families in order to create and fund lavish new unaffordable government programs. (Also, H.R. 2454 would have taken tens of billions of your tax dollars and put them in the coffers of politicians favored companies who get special carbon breaks in H.R. 2454.)

2. The net effect of this plan would be a negligible effect on the global environment since carbon emissions from the U.S. competitors in China, India and the rest of the developing world are exempt from these caps and far surpass those of the United States. In fact, carbon emissions in the U.S. have declined while those in China have continued to grow rapidly. China is the world’s #1 carbon emitter. Furthermore, “Cap and Trade” would put products made in the U.S. at a competitive disadvantage, the end result of which would be to move more American jobs to China and India where there are no costly emissions caps. Its no wonder China has essentially endorsed cap and trade carbon regulations.

Supporters admit “Cap and Trade” will be costly:

Senior Congressman John Dingell (D-MI) said during an Energy and Commerce Committee Hearing that “Nobody, nobody in this country realizes that cap-and-trade is a tax and it’s a great big one.” April 24, 2009 YouTube Video Link

Senator Ben Cardin (D-MD) called cap-and-trade “the most significant revenue-generating proposal of our time”– Wash. Post – April 3, 2009

Then Senator Obama explained the impact of “Cap and Trade” to the San Francisco Chronicle in January of 2008: “When I was asked earlier about the issue of coal…under my plan of a cap and trade system, electricity rates would necessarily skyrocket…even regardless of what I say about whether coal is good or bad, because I’m capping greenhouse gasses, coal power plants, natural gas…you name it…whatever the plants were, whatever the industry was, they would have to retro-fit their operations. “That will cost money…they will pass that money on to the consumers.”