Newspapers Blast Pelosi’s National Energy Tax as a Job-Killing Attack on the Middle Class
Posted by Kevin Boland on June 26th, 2009
This afternoon, the House is slated to vote on Speaker Pelosi’s job-killing energy tax. In a press briefing yesterday, House Republican Leader John Boehner (R-OH) said: “Mark my words: The American people are going to remember this vote. This will be a defining moment and a defining vote in this Congress.”Â
Newspapers across America have ripped into Speaker Pelosi’s energy tax this week, slamming it as a bill that will raise electricity prices, increase gasoline prices, and ship American jobs overseas to countries like China and India. A roundup of newspaper editorials from across America follows:
The Denver Post:
The debate on such a transformative issue ought to continue and broaden. How is it possible the 1,200-page American Clean Energy and Security Act is being rushed through Congress in a repeat of what happened with the stimulus package? Has anyone read this one?…
Largely left out of the current debate are questions about nuclear power. House Republicans say reducing CO2 depends on more atomic development. And for good reason. Nuclear power generation produces zero greenhouses gases and the technology far outpaces renewables like wind and solar in the amount of electricity it can add to the grid.”
Investor’s Business Daily:
Not since a misguided piece of legislation imposed tariffs that turned a recession into a depression has there been a piece of legislation as bad as Waxman-Markey. The 1,000-plus-page American Clean Energy and Security Act (H.R. 2454) is being rushed to a vote by House Speaker Nancy Pelosi before anyone can seriously object to this economic suicide pact.
The Orange County Register:
Since 85 percent of U.S. energy comes from hydrocarbons, almost all use of energy would become more expensive due to the necessity to buy permission to emit a constantly declining amount of carbon dioxide every year. Thus the system would be a hidden tax on energy that would cost every American, including the middle class and lower-income people that President Barack Obama promised he would never tax.
The Deseret News (Utah):
Cap and trade would end up raising the cost of electricity to the point where Americans would have little choice but to use less. That means they would be forced into buying fewer laptop computers, iPods, televisions and other electrical appliances. It means the move toward hybrid automobiles would be stymied, as the cost of running one would increase dramatically. Technological innovation would begin to dry up as venture capitalists would grow suspicious of any new idea that would require electricity. And, it is worth noting, this increase in energy costs would hurt the poor more than any other group.
The Detroit News:
This bill will break the budget of U.S. households….[the American Institute] warns the cap-and trade-bill co-sponsored by Reps. Henry Waxman, D-Calif., and Edward Markey, D-Mass, could double the price of natural gas, the favored fuel for home heating in Michigan. Electricity costs could rise more than 100 percent in the Midwest.
The Wall Street Journal:
The hit to GDP is the real threat in this bill. The whole point of cap and trade is to hike the price of electricity and gas so that Americans will use less. These higher prices will show up not just in electricity bills or at the gas station but in every manufactured good, from food to cars. Consumers will cut back on spending, which in turn will cut back on production, which results in fewer jobs created or higher unemployment. Some companies will instead move their operations overseas, with the same result.
The Chicago Tribune:
If anyone in Congress tells you that he has read and completely understands this bill, and can explain exactly how the system to reduce carbon emissions would work and what its effects would be, he’s lying.
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June 26th, 2009 at 2:11 pm
I cannot believe that you cannot find or convince enough democrats to vote against this horror. Everything coming out of DC is more tax, more strain on the taxpayer - and we are helpless. You Republicans better start speaking out loud and hard - we out here are all disgusted - and that spreads.
We are looking for someone to stand up to all this - we are seeing nothing but a bunch of Republicans jockeying for position in the next election. You all better get serious about your jobs… or get out.
We are afraid and angry. Not a good combination
June 26th, 2009 at 6:54 pm
Vote no on this bill. It will be very bad for the country if it passes.
June 26th, 2009 at 11:29 pm
[…] to prevent climate change but will saddle American’s with thousands more in tax increases and job losses. Contact links for each member are available on their web page linked […]
June 27th, 2009 at 1:22 pm
Are H.R. 2454 and/or H.R. 2998, or any portion thereof, Constitutional?
U.S. Constitution
Amendment X
“The powers not delegated to the United States by the Constitution, nor prohibited by it to the states, are reserved to the states respectively, or to the people.”
June 28th, 2009 at 7:13 pm
I think the Republicans should promote a plan to do an energy audit on every building in America in the next 5 years. Then heavily subsidize insulation and other items to increase efficiency. It would be an investment that would pay off in the future, save energy and make people alot happier than higher electrical costs. It would be a win win win situation.
Cap and trade will take us from a recession to a depression.
June 29th, 2009 at 5:47 am
First of all I would like to thank the Republicans in the House for uniting and voting against the Democrat’s stimulus plan. But if House Republicans could unite against that, then why were they unable to hold together for the Waxman-Markey vote? There should not have been one Republican who voted for what will amount to a huge tax on energy and on our economy. Instead, eight Republicans voted for this!!! The final vote was 219 to 212 in favor! If all eight of these Republicans who voted for this had remained united with the rest of the Republicans in the House: THIS VOTE WOULD HAVE EASILY BEEN DEFEATED!!!! Why were the House Republicans not able to stand together for this bill after standing together for the stimulus bill?
July 3rd, 2009 at 5:51 pm
Our government is out of control! They say Cap and trade will create jobs but we have already been losing and lost jobs to china, mexico and india already because of corporate greed. Personally I dam glad to be employed right now but with the crisis in California and the rest of the united states I think those days are numbered. I’ve already taken a huge paycut and am living pretty much paycheck to paycheck and now the government wants to tax the hell out of us without actually coming out and saying it. I feel sorry for the people that voted for Obama but I’m sure eventually they will have to open there eyes and see that this guy does not care about America or American!