Today in Washington D. C. - June 3, 2008
On The Floor: The Senate will resume post-cloture debate on the motion to proceed to the carbon emission cap-and-trade bill (S. 3036). Yesterday, the Senate voted to begin debate on the cap-and-trade bill.
With gas prices approaching $4 per gallon, Senate Democrats have apparently decided that now is the time to debate a costly carbon emissions cap-and-trade bill that would amount to a climate tax on Americans. Many Republicans are referring to it as the Boxer Climate Tax bill, since Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid is expected to offer a substitute amendment written by Sen. Barbara Boxer (D-CA), the Chair of the Senate Environment & Public Works (EPW) Committee, as the basis for debate.
From Senate & News Sources: Senate GOP Leader Mitch McConnell introduced the debate on the bill in a floor speech yesterday, warning of the disastrous economic consequences of passing this legislation. “If passed, it would have a devastating impact on the U.S. economy. . . . It is, at its heart, a stealth and giant tax on virtually every aspect of industrial and consumer life. It would result in massive job losses. And it seeks to radically alter consumer behavior, without any measurable benefit to the environment in return. Overall, it’s expected to result in GDP losses totaling as much as $2.9 trillion by 2050.”
Sen. Jim Inhofe (R-OK), the ranking member on the EPW Committee, has long been leading the fight against the ill-considered policies embodied in this bill. He has a website tracking all the latest news and opinion on this climate tax bill, which can be found at the EPW Committee site.
In The Wall Street Journal, Sen. Inhofe details a number of major concerns about the bill: “The Senate is debating a global warming bill that will create the largest expansion of the federal government since FDR's New Deal, complete with a brand new, unelected bureaucracy. The [bill] represents the largest tax increase in U.S. history and the biggest pork bill ever contemplated with trillions of dollars in giveaways. . . . Various analyses show that Lieberman-Warner would result in higher prices at the gas pump, between 41 cents and $1 per gallon by 2030. . . . A recent CBO report found: ‘Most of the cost of meeting a cap on CO2 emissions would be borne by consumers, who would face persistently higher prices for products such as electricity and gasoline."
Republicans are not alone in voicing concerns about the bill. Both The New York Times and Politico noted the poor timing of this debate, given record fuel prices, high energy costs, and a sluggish economy. And newspapers and columnists across the country have spoken out against the Boxer Climate Tax bill. Many Democrats also have problems with the legislation being debated this week. Roll Call reports "Another senior Senate Democratic staffer echoed those sentiments: ‘Everyone knows this bill is going nowhere. The president is opposed to it. The House is not inclined toward action on this, and now we’re going to spend valuable floor time on a bill that’s going nowhere . . . while Republicans are champing at the bit to accuse Democrats of raising gas prices.’”
The Columbus Dispatch reports that Democrat Sen. Sherrod Brown of Ohio is between a rock and a hard place, with environmental groups on one side, and “many labor unions warning that the bill would require such huge reductions in carbon dioxide emitted by utilities and industries that Ohio would suffer a major loss in jobs.” Sen. Inhofe pointed his fellow senators to the bottom line: “Will you dare stand on the Senate floor in these uncertain economic times and vote in favor of significantly increasing the price of gas at the pump, losing millions of American jobs, creating a huge new bureaucracy and raising taxes by record amounts?”
Tags: cap on CO2, carbon dioxide, price of gas, lost jobs, US Congress, US House, US Senate, Washington D.C. To share or post to your site, click on "Post Link". Please mention / link to the ARRA News Service. Thanks!
With gas prices approaching $4 per gallon, Senate Democrats have apparently decided that now is the time to debate a costly carbon emissions cap-and-trade bill that would amount to a climate tax on Americans. Many Republicans are referring to it as the Boxer Climate Tax bill, since Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid is expected to offer a substitute amendment written by Sen. Barbara Boxer (D-CA), the Chair of the Senate Environment & Public Works (EPW) Committee, as the basis for debate.
From Senate & News Sources: Senate GOP Leader Mitch McConnell introduced the debate on the bill in a floor speech yesterday, warning of the disastrous economic consequences of passing this legislation. “If passed, it would have a devastating impact on the U.S. economy. . . . It is, at its heart, a stealth and giant tax on virtually every aspect of industrial and consumer life. It would result in massive job losses. And it seeks to radically alter consumer behavior, without any measurable benefit to the environment in return. Overall, it’s expected to result in GDP losses totaling as much as $2.9 trillion by 2050.”
Sen. Jim Inhofe (R-OK), the ranking member on the EPW Committee, has long been leading the fight against the ill-considered policies embodied in this bill. He has a website tracking all the latest news and opinion on this climate tax bill, which can be found at the EPW Committee site.
In The Wall Street Journal, Sen. Inhofe details a number of major concerns about the bill: “The Senate is debating a global warming bill that will create the largest expansion of the federal government since FDR's New Deal, complete with a brand new, unelected bureaucracy. The [bill] represents the largest tax increase in U.S. history and the biggest pork bill ever contemplated with trillions of dollars in giveaways. . . . Various analyses show that Lieberman-Warner would result in higher prices at the gas pump, between 41 cents and $1 per gallon by 2030. . . . A recent CBO report found: ‘Most of the cost of meeting a cap on CO2 emissions would be borne by consumers, who would face persistently higher prices for products such as electricity and gasoline."
Republicans are not alone in voicing concerns about the bill. Both The New York Times and Politico noted the poor timing of this debate, given record fuel prices, high energy costs, and a sluggish economy. And newspapers and columnists across the country have spoken out against the Boxer Climate Tax bill. Many Democrats also have problems with the legislation being debated this week. Roll Call reports "Another senior Senate Democratic staffer echoed those sentiments: ‘Everyone knows this bill is going nowhere. The president is opposed to it. The House is not inclined toward action on this, and now we’re going to spend valuable floor time on a bill that’s going nowhere . . . while Republicans are champing at the bit to accuse Democrats of raising gas prices.’”
The Columbus Dispatch reports that Democrat Sen. Sherrod Brown of Ohio is between a rock and a hard place, with environmental groups on one side, and “many labor unions warning that the bill would require such huge reductions in carbon dioxide emitted by utilities and industries that Ohio would suffer a major loss in jobs.” Sen. Inhofe pointed his fellow senators to the bottom line: “Will you dare stand on the Senate floor in these uncertain economic times and vote in favor of significantly increasing the price of gas at the pump, losing millions of American jobs, creating a huge new bureaucracy and raising taxes by record amounts?”
Tags: cap on CO2, carbon dioxide, price of gas, lost jobs, US Congress, US House, US Senate, Washington D.C. To share or post to your site, click on "Post Link". Please mention / link to the ARRA News Service. Thanks!
Posted by Bill Smith at 10:15 AM - Post Link
0 Comments:
Post a Comment
<< Home