Obama Seeks Political Gain in BP Oil Spill
By Brad O'Leary
"You don't ever want a crisis to go to waste; it's an opportunity to do important things that you would otherwise avoid."
So says President Obama's Chief of Staff Rahm Emanuel, and so the President is attempting to do by using the oil spill disaster in the Gulf to propel the latest cap-and-trade bill forward.
"The tragedy unfolding on our coast is the most painful and powerful reminder yet that the time to embrace a clean energy future is now," announced President Obama.
Our no-jobs President is talking about the American Power Act, introduced by Senators John Kerry (D-MA) and Joseph Lieberman (I-CT). The Act is the latest iteration of the Democrats' "cap-and-tax" plan, and should it pass, it will crush what's left of our economy and knock our standard of living back a few decades.
Ever since the cap-and-tax scheme was hatched years ago, its defenders have used every lie and accounting trick in the book to try and make the case that putting a boot heel on the throat of America's economy won't cost us our jobs, our money, our way of life, and when it comes right down to it, our health. And one by one, each of their phony studies about the "true" cost of capping CO2 has been exposed and debunked.
The Kerry-Lieberman bill would cap the amount of carbon dioxide that energy companies and businesses are allowed to emit, and create an artificial "market" for trading "carbon credits" – i.e. the buying and selling of the right to emit CO2. Such a scheme would be a boon to the hundred-million-dollar-man, Al Gore, who long ago placed a big wager on carbon futures, but it would be serious pain for Main Street America.
Even President Obama, perhaps weary of defending studies and numbers that he knows aren't true, admitted that cap-and-tax would cause energy prices to "skyrocket" when he told the San Francisco Chronicle in 2008:
When I was asked earlier about the issue of coal…under my plan of a cap-and-trade system, electricity rates would necessarily skyrocket…even regardless of what I say about whether coal is good or bad, because I'm capping greenhouse gasses, coal power plants, natural gas…you name it…whatever the plants were, whatever the industry was, they would have to retro-fit their operations.
That will cost money…they will pass that money on to the consumers. You can already see what the arguments are going to be during the general election. People will say Obama and Al Gore …these folks...they're going to destroy the economy.Â
Yes, Mr. President, that is what we the people are going to say. It's what we the people have been saying for years, because…well…it's TRUE.
Cap-and-tax legislation is great for President Obama's allies in the multibillion-dollar environmental lobby. It's great for Al Gore, and therefore, great for the massage industry in Portland.
But for every other corner of America, it's death.
The Heritage Foundation gives us just a taste of what Kerry-Lieberman would mean for Americans:
- An additional $2.7 trillion in national debt by 2035 (meaning a family of four would be on the hook for an additional $27,000)
- 1.4 million fewer jobs on average for the years 2012-2035, with peak job losses exceeding 2.5 million
- A 45% increase in gas prices
- A 72% increase in electricity prices
- A $9.9 trillion loss in GDP between 2012 and 2035 (meaning a family of four would lose $4,500 on average in yearly income)
