It’s official. Senators John Kerry and Joe Lieberman have signaled the end of their political careers. The two have introduced what they’ve titled the “American Power Act.†Yep, it’s a global warming bill – Cap-n-Trade, Cap-n-Tax, etc. The premise for this bill is that the industrial emissions of Carbon Dioxide (CO2) are causing global temperatures to rise and to prevent global catastrophe the industrialized world must reduce its emissions of CO2.
A pork and power bill based on global warming propaganda has been a priority for the Obama administration. Given that it has already been established, absolutely, that predictions of catastrophic man-made global warming are a scam, you might question the two senators’ sanity for introducing one. But new benefits to Israel have recently been negotiated, which might be all it takes to make Joe Lieberman happy. And it’s very easy to imagine a chat between John Kerry and Al Gore that ends with Al Gore saying, “Yah, but the money is good.â€Â
Kerry’s term isn’t over until 2014, when he will be 71 years old, so retirement isn’t an unreasonable choice anyway. Lieberman is about the same age with his current term ending two years earlier.
Investor’s Business Daily describes the bill as “cap-and-trade meets pork-barrel spending.†It’s about regulations, restrictions and research. The bill creates some 60 new agencies and projects to eat up our tax dollars and buy support.
According to a leaked draft summary, there is “$7 billion annually to improve our transportation infrastructure and efficiency” to be paid for by a gas tax that is not called a tax but a “linked fee.” There is “$2 billion per year for researching and developing effective carbon capture and sequestration methods and devices.” There is even “a new multibillion-dollar revenue stream for agriculture through a domestic offset program.” Tilling the soil releases carbon dioxide, don’t you know?
Ironically, the draft summary acknowledges the bill will cause energy prices to necessarily skyrocket by promising to “provide assistance to those Americans who may be disproportionately affected by potential increases in energy prices.”
The proposed legislation mandates reductions in greenhouse gas emissions from fossil fuels via a cap-and-trade system for power plants and, eventually, factories  with strict curbs on the types of trading that could be done. It would require oil companies, for example, to obtain emission permits at a set price not determined by the trading market.
“This bill is a compilation of just about every bad idea that has emerged in the energy debate,” said Patrick Creighton, spokesman for the Institute for Energy Research, a free-market think tank. “Two things are certain if this bill becomes law: Energy prices will skyrocket, and jobs will be shipped overseas.”
I don’t think anyone today can reasonably claim that America’s political system is working. From hiring ACORN with public money in violation of campaign finance law, to destroying the nation’s health care to increase kick-backs, to destroying the economy to steal money based on energy use; it simply doesn’t matter any more how obvious the scam or how completely corruption is exposed. The American Political Class count themselves as the modern “untouchables.†They’ll do it anyway, mock the American public and laugh in the face of protests while they do.
