Why the Dems' "Cap-and-Trade" Energy Tax Will Cost Each American Family Up to $3,100 Per Year

MONDAY, NOV 23, 2009

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TUESDAY, NOV 24, 2009

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WEDNESDAY, NOV 25, 2009

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THURSDAY, NOV 26, 2009

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FRIDAY, NOV 27, 2009

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Leader Alert

Why the Dems' "Cap-and-Trade" Energy Tax Will Cost Each American Family Up to $3,100 Per Year
Democrats' Misleading Claims on "Cap-and-Trade" Don't Square With the Facts

Washington, Apr 2 - Families and small businesses are struggling to get by, but the Democrats’ budget would raise taxes on every American who drives a car, flips on a light switch, or buys a product manufactured in the United States. In fact it would cost every family as much as $3,100 a year in additional energy costs through their “cap-and-trade” energy tax, and will drive millions of good-paying American jobs overseas. Notably, the Democrats’ budget provides no relief to families and consumers who would be hit hard with the higher taxes.

How do Republicans arrive at the $3,100 dollar figure? It’s pretty simple. We took MIT’s own estimate of a key “cap-and-trade” bill from the 110th Congress (S. 309) cosponsored by then-Senator Obama that said S. 309 would generate $366 billion in revenues in 2015. S. 309’s emissions targets track the emissions targets outlined in Obama’s budget, which the Congressional Research Service has confirmed. We took MIT’s own number – $366 billion – and divided that by the number of U.S. households (we assumed 300 million people and an average household size of 2.56 people…which is 117 million households). Using this formula, you get roughly $3,000 per household ($3,128 using current Census figures, a little less if you use projected Census figures from 2015). Now, this doesn’t even account for costs resulting from higher prices for food and all other products that will cost more to produce under their program.

Moreover, the Obama budget dramatically low-balls the amount of revenues that would come in from a proposal as aggressive as the one he outlined. Even the President’s own aides admit that the proposal will generate “two-to-three times” the revenue he publicly claims, as this Wall Street Journal story entitled “White House Official Boosts Cap and Trade Revenue Estimate” noted:

“A top White House economic adviser told Senate staff a proposed cap and trade system could raise ‘two-to-three times’ the administration’s existing $646 billion revenue estimate, according to five people at the meeting.”

“This could mean the cap and trade system could actually generate between roughly $1.3 trillion and $1.9 trillion between fiscal years 2012 and 2019.”

An MIT professor has questions about the $3,100 figure but his letter makes assumptions that are factually inaccurate. Moreover, he claims “government rebates to consumers” must be factored in. But we all know that Democrats have no intention of using a cap-and-trade system to deliver rebates to consumers; they want the tax revenue to fund more government spending. Key Democrats – including Senators Reid & Conrad – have even said they want to use cap-and-trade to fund their bureaucrat-controlled health care plan. In fact, nothing in the Democrats’ budget would provide rebates or any relief to consumers.

The supporters of President Obama’s “cap-and-trade” energy tax have gone to great lengths to conceal the true burden it will impose on the American people, as the Wall Street Journal reported. In reality, it would be a tax of up to $3,100 per family on every American family that drives a car, buys products manufactured in the United States, or flips on a light switch.

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HOUSE Republican Leader John Boehner