Cap & Trade: The Hidden Tax

The time to take action is NOW! Congress is set to vote on this bill Friday/tomorrow (6-26-2009).

The House of Representatives is slated to vote on the Cap and Trade bill this Friday (6-26-2009) according to the Washington Post.

The House Rules Committee unveiled the latest version of the bill, which weighs in at 1,201 pages. It features new items such as $7.5 billion in "green bonds" for a new federal financing agency called the Clean Energy Deployment Administration, extra emission allowances for politically powerful rural electric cooperatives, greater flexibility for states that want to use free allowances for mass transit, and tweaks benefiting a range of companies, including algae-based biofuel producers and major petroleum refiners. (emphasis added)

This piece of legislation seems to be a top priority of the Obama administration - but will it help or hurt our flailing economy? How much would this hidden tax cost the average American household?

The New York Times and the Congressional Budget Office (CBO) have helpful information regarding the cost of such a bill.

Campaign for Liberty provides a break down of the facts:
You see, energy companies just pass the costs of these draconian regulations through to the consumer in the form of huge price increases.

As a result, you will pay higher gas prices, higher electric prices, and higher costs for goods.
Barack Obama has estimated the costs of this legislation to American taxpayers to be over 650 BILLION dollars over the next eight years, and that figure is no doubt just a fraction of the real cost.

But even that modest estimate amounts to hundreds of dollars a year in increased living expenses for every family -- and will more likely cost thousands a year.

And according to the Heritage Foundation, between 1.2 and 2.3 million jobs could be lost over the next ten-years due to the bill's stifling regulations.

This current economic crisis is no time for Congress to consider both raising prices on hard-working Americans AND costing them jobs.

That's why we must act now to send a message to Congress to reject this disastrous Cap-and-Tax Scheme....

Supporters of the legislation are of course trying to downplay the cost of this scheme to the American people.

But if the bill does not directly and massively increase energy costs to consumers, how would it possibly achieve its stated aims?

It is only through these massive cost increases -- mandated and enforced by the federal government -- that the dubious goal of reducing carbon emissions could possibly be reached....
(emphasis added)

The Partnership for America's Energy Security has provided some useful stats on the cost each state would absorb.

So what should we do? Call your congressperson and express your dismay at this bill. Let them know that it will cost them in the next election should this pass! Please join me in this fight to save our country from those who would turn us awry.

For Liberty,
Abby