The following item from The Alabama Policy Institute affects not only Alabamians but the entire country...watch out folks these far left legislators will break our banks, break our backs, break our necks and if they already haven't, break your heart...Can we put the breaks on these fellas? C'mon! Lets do it! - Norman E. Hooben******
Waxman-Markey Bill Will Put America on the Path to the Poorhouse |
| Published: April 16, 2009 - |
Viewpoints by Gary Palmer Thirty-eight years after the first Earth Day, it seems the dire warnings and predictions from that era are coming to fruition. But it isn’t the predictions of world catastrophe as a result of global cooling (1970s), overpopulation (1960s-70s), depletion of natural resources (1970s-80s), deforestation (1970s-present), or even global warming/global climate change (1990s-present) that have proven true. Rather, it’s the predictions that if leftist environmentalists were to gain control of our government, they would force economy-wrecking, society-changing environmental laws upon us. The latest version of climate protection legislation introduced in Congress could be fulfilling that prophecy. If this bill becomes law, it could take almost two trillion dollars out of our economy and eliminate about one million jobs over the next 20 years. Rep. Henry Waxman (D-CA), Chairman of the House Energy and Commerce Committee, and Rep. Edward Markey (D-MA), Chairman of the Energy and Environment Sub-Committee, have introduced the American Clean Energy and Security Act of 2009 (ACES). According to Rep. Waxman, ACES is a comprehensive approach to America’s energy policy that charts a new course toward a clean energy economy. “This legislation will create millions of clean energy jobs, put America on the path to energy independence, and cut global warming pollution,” said Chairman Waxman. The Waxman-Markey bill, which is really another version of “cap and trade” legislation that has been pushed for several years, will put Americans on the path to the poorhouse. The last cap and trade bill was the Lieberman-Warner America’s Climate Security Act of 2007. An analysis of that bill by The Heritage Foundation indicated that had it passed, cumulative costs to the American economy would have been $1.7 trillion on the low end and as high as $4.8 trillion. Projected annual job losses would have been devastating at 500,000 to 900,000 jobs destroyed by 2030. Another analysis by the Science Applications International Corporation (SAIC) using the same economic forecasting model used by the U.S. Energy Information Agency projected the impact on a state-by-state basis. The SAIC model projections for Alabama found that by the year 2020 annual household income would be reduced by $805 to $2,611 and by $3,431 to $6,257 by the year 2030. Job losses in Alabama would run from 17,000 to 26,000 by 2020 and between 45,000 and 60,000 by 2030. Overall, the SAIC analysis projected that Alabama’s gross state product would be reduced by $8.1 billion per year. Keep in mind that the projections above were based on the Lieberman-Warner cap and trade bill. Compared to the Waxman-Markey bill, Lieberman-Warner looks absolutely conservative. Another study published by the Tax Foundation projects the cost of the Waxman-Markey cap and trade bill as broken down by household income. According to their analysis, the bill would cost households with incomes of $30,000 to $39,999 about $960 per year and $1,079 for households with incomes of $40,000 to $49,999. The cost for households earning over $150,000 per year would be $2,706. What should be noted is the regressive nature of the cap and trade schemes. Cap and trade is really a tax on energy consumption that takes a much higher percentage of disposable income from lower-income households. Higher-income households would pay more in terms of total dollars; however, as a percentage of disposable income, the impact is much more severe for lower-income households. According to the Tax Foundation report, the Waxman-Markey cap and trade burden as a percentage of household income would be 2.8 percent for households with incomes of $30,000 to $39,999, 2.4 percent for households with incomes of $40,000 to $49,999 and only 1.1 percent for households earning over $150,000. To put this in context, according to the Legislative Fiscal Office, repealing the state’s four percent sales tax on groceries would only save the average family of four in Alabama $468 per year. In other words, the higher energy costs that would result from the Waxman-Markey bill would really stick it to the poor. Last year, the editors of The Wall Street Journal called the Lieberman-Warner bill “… the most extensive government reorganization of the American economy since the 1930s.” Reorganization of the American economy is really what these cap and trade bills are all about. So while Earth Day and other environmental crusades may have started out as an effort to clean up the environment, they have become a crusade against free enterprise and the American economy. Gary Palmer is president of the Alabama Policy Institute, a non-partisan, non-profit research and education organization dedicated to the preservation of free markets, limited government and strong families, which are indispensable to a prosperous society. April 16, 2009 Note: This column is a copyrighted feature distributed free of charge by the Alabama Policy Institute. Permission to reprint in whole or in part is hereby granted, provided that the author and API are properly cited. For information or comments contact: Gary Palmer, Alabama Policy Institute, 402 Office Park Drive, Suite 300, Birmingham, Alabama 35223, (205) 870-9900, e-mail garyp@alabamapolicy.org. To subscribe or unsubscribe to this column, please e-mail joannel@alabamapolicy.org. |
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