OBAMA'S GLOBAL WARMING STRADDLE

Cap and trade will be a huge tax on the productive sectors of the economy.

The "cap" is a government-imposed limit on total emissions; companies then buy permits from the government to emit pollutants up to the amount of the cap, and can then trade these permits with each other. The process of issuing and pricing the permits will be an invitation to astonishing amounts of lobbying and favor-seeking. Cap and trade, in the words of MIT's Richard Lindzen, will be a bureaucrat's dream.

According to a recently released study by the George C. Marshall Institute:

• The cost of cap and trade to the overall economy -- depending on the size and scope of the legislation -- is up to a 3 percent drop in GDP in 2015 below what it would otherwise be.
• Americans would see their electricity prices jumping up to 15 percent, natural gas prices up to 50 percent and gasoline prices up to 145 percent.

The Senate failed to pass cap-and- trade legislation in 2007 -- the Lieberman-Warner bill -- which the Marshall Institute estimates would have cost each American household $1,100 in 2008, rising to $1,437 by 2015, and $2,979 in 2050.

Obama's plan is far more ambitious, and would be a far greater burden to American taxpayers; the administration projects that the tax would raise some $650 billion for federal coffers between 2012 and 2019.

The other reason for not hurrying up with a carbon tax may well be that the science underlying climate-change alarmism has taken a beating, says the Standard.

"It's been a catastrophic year for global warming activists ... all of a sudden, the observations are very inconvenient."

says Christopher Horner of the Competitive Enterprise Institute.

[I.e., the planet is cooling - but don't expect that little factoid to put any meaningful dent in the propaganda blitzkrieg that's coming - there's simply too much money on the line not to fight for it - and you should fight back: it's your money.]

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CARBON TAX HITS ALL AMERICANS

The President's budget aims to raise $646 billion through a cap-and-trade tax on energy. Last year, Peter Orszag, who was then Director of the Congressional Budget Office and is now President Obama's Director for the Office of Management and Budget, testified before the House Ways and Means Committee on a similar proposal:

• Speaking about a cap-and-trade proposal to cut carbon emissions by 15 percent, he said it would cost the average household about $1,300 a year through higher energy costs; he also noted that working class families would be hardest hit.
• President Obama's current proposal aims to cut carbon emissions by more than three times that of last year's proposal -- 83 percent.
• John Feehery, writing in The Hill's Pundits Blog last week, noted that using Director Orszag's analysis, this would mean that the average family will pay close to $4,000 a year, or $333 a month.

The White House seems to acknowledge that the costs of this tax will impact low-income families hardest and suggests a $500-a-year subsidy. But, that doesn't even cover two-months cost for the average family.

And, it doesn't take into account the increased costs for everything from groceries to school supplies that a carbon tax will also impose on everyone...

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image toon - engry - Oby plays 3-card cap & trade