CAP AND SPEND

As the Senate opens debate on its mammoth carbon regulation program this week, the phrase of the hour is "cap and trade." This sounds innocuous enough, however, anyone who looks at the legislative details will quickly see that a better description is cap and spend. This is easily the largest income redistribution scheme since the income tax, says the Wall Street Journal. For example:

• Some $802 billion would go for "relief" for low-income taxpayers, to offset the higher cost of lighting homes or driving cars.
• There's also $190 billion to fund training for "green-collar jobs," which are supposed to replace the jobs that will be lost in carbon-emitting industries.
• Some $342 billion would be spent on international aid, $171 billion for mass transit, and untold billions for 'alternative energy'
• The revenue handouts reach an astonishing total of more than $6.7 trillion.
• Even the cap-and-trade friendly Environmental Protection Agency estimates that the bill would reduce GDP between $1 trillion and $2.8 trillion..

All of this helps explain why so many in Congress are so enamored of "doing something" about global warming. They would lay claim to a vast new chunk of the private economy and enhance their own political power, says the Journal.

READ MORE

Senate Bill 2191: "America's Climate Security Act"

President Bush: president@whitehouse.gov

Barbara Boxer: http://boxer.senate.gov/contact/email/policy.cfm?CFID=9716973&CFTOKEN=89336911

Dianne Feinstein:
http://feinstein.senate.gov/public/index.cfm?FuseAction=ContactUs.EmailMe

YOUR Senator: http://www.senate.gov/general/contact_information/senators_cfm.cfm

.