David Harsanyi, Denver Post:
Were you aware that Americans have a collective obligation to stop kicking challenges to the next generation and join the White House in supporting “sweeping” and “transformative” legislation? I thought so.
These days, there are few higher callings in Washington than pretending to save the environment. Authoritative “leadership” is sorely needed in this area — and quick, before the three-corner-hat-wearing Visigoths storm Washington’s barricades this midterm election.
Reporting for duty are John Kerry and Joe Lieberman, armed with a new cap-and-trade “energy” bill — christened the newspeaky “American Power Act” — that is so inclusive it nearly secured the support of a single radical right-winger (as if there were any other kind) in Republican Lindsey Graham, before he had a temper tantrum.
Praising the legislation, President Barack Obama made his customary case, twinning the fictitious economic benefits of statism with freshman-class utopianism, claiming that “we will put Americans to work in new jobs that pay well and can’t be outsourced — jobs building solar panels and wind turbines; constructing fuel-efficient cars and buildings; and developing the new energy technologies that will lead to even more jobs, more savings, and a cleaner, safer planet in the bargain.”
Like most parents, I too hope my children one day toil in a non-productive factory assembling taxpayer-subsidized wind turbines rather than turning to imported Canadian fossil fuels and constructive high-income professions. Unlike profits, you see, dreams can never be outsourced.
[…]
The fabricated cap-and-trade “market” is a well-documented concoction of rent-seeking corporations who will work diligently with Washington to ensure taxpayers always foot the bill. As the legislation stands now, oil companies will also have to pay emissions allowances — outside the cap-and-trade market — which is nothing more than another gas tax.
Not only is this bill loaded with obvious costs, it also features underlying protectionist expenses that benefit the usual industries (agriculture and steel) and, of course, unions. For example, the legislation forces nations “that have not taken action to limit emissions to pay a comparable amount” — in other words, pay for having the good sense not to engage in slow-motion economic suicide. (Hey, I thought we weren’t supposed to impose our values on other nations?)
What do we expect from these countries, and ourselves? The bill mandates we reduce emissions by 83 percent by 2050. Roll up your sleeves, because we’ll all be doing organic farming. Or, as Pat Michaels of the Cato Institute points out, we “will allow the average American the carbon dioxide emissions of the average citizen back in 1867, a mere 39 years from today.”
While an energy breakthrough could make all this possible — and that would be wonderful — solar panels, carbon sequestration and the fertile imaginations of political opportunists who make demands before they have solutions will not.
And, remember, these legislators were supposed to be the grownups.
Uh huh. Or you could just admit that you don’t like black people, and save the canned arguments for those who can’t see right into your grubby little dream-killing soul.
Racist.
Even the Dems are starting to see this cap and trade nonsense is not going to help them. The public is catching on.
There’s “enough blame to go around and all parties should be willing to accept it,” the president said.*
This reflects a deep commitment to science, no?
“Ebbybody fud up,” said the little president man, eager to indict capitalism afresh.
Wind turbines are already made elsewhere. I’m not sure about solar panels. However, every one of those manufacturing jobs could be done elsewhere cheaper because the state and federal governments tax businesses too much.
In the mean time, the true solution which would be nuclear power, has been legislated out of existence. Also, reducing our emissions that much might make a difference of half a degree in temperature while most likely destroying the economy.
They think we’re sub-morons.
“They think we’re sub-morons.”
Well, we do employ them, after all, so they’ve got something of an argument going for them.
sdferr –
Arrgh – a touch, I do confess it!
Politics involves jobs that most Americans don’t want to do. Maybe we can get some illegal aliens to do them cheaper.
Blame gets spread around “equally”, it flows downhill, like shit. Credit flows directly to the top, like fine cream above the baser milk.
“I won, you eat the shit, suckers.”
They are the best of us, cranky. Maybe they’d govern as such.
Solar panels mostly come from China. They just dump toxins and waste on the ground, so they can churn those panels out cheaper.
I feel so much better going green. It makes me a better person. China is far away.
The amount of economic ignorance (or intentional deceit) is remarkable in DC. All of these jobs will be created in the ‘green’ community–really? What they won’t say (or are too stupid to realize) is that for every ‘green’ job building ‘green’ cars, someone on the current assembly line is losing his. For every ‘green’ job building wind turbines or solar panels, some schlub mining coal, or working in oil, or wherever, is going to lose his. This is a zero-sum (more or less) game. But the commies in DC don’t care. And the great unwashed…..well, the DC elite will take adequate care of them, keeping them ignorant and living a meager existance. For the whole purpose of being the ‘elite’ is to work the cocktail circuit on the upper crust—and making damn sure the great unwashed stay far away (except for the ones to bring the canapes and serve the drinks).
“This is a zero-sum (more or less) game.”
I suspect that were we to tote up every subsidy dollar of whatever sort, we’d find it’s firmly negative sum by far.
Lurch and Lieberman? What, even ol’ Tree-stump wouldn’t touch this one, is that it?
The fun part of the article is in the comments in which the lotus-eaters throw out the old “you’re anti-science!” canard.
jeez our bitch-ass president is attacking Texas now
and then the federal faggots try and act all butch and shit
They should just change the name to Fagmerica and be done with it I think.
Don’t mess with Texas, boys. Word.
time to shutdown epa
I feel so much better going green. It makes me a better person if you can see my virture in the form of a shiney blue solar panel array on my roof. China is far away.
I am a superior person. The government gave me a tax incentive to prove it.
Making air conditioning expensive – can that be made racist, sexist, ageist, etc?
Because that is the way to killing this bill.
our illegals in arizona and georgia and california need the coal burners
Well the lack of it in France in the recent past led to the demise of several thousands of the elderly.
the demise of several thousands of the elderly.
I thought that was the reason for ObamaCare…
Only because the heat didn’t rack up the body count fast enough. Damn stubborn old geezers. Wish they’d GET OFFA MY LAWN!
[Mikey NTH, awhile back you asked me to give evidence of “evolutionary pressures” still in effect. I couldn’t answer because of a browser problem I had – it’s now fixed.
Anyway, I’m assuming there’s always at least hominid to hominid competition taking place on a genetic basis, perhaps analogous to past human evolution. And I also choose to keep the concept of evolutionary pressures intact/acting, instead of assuming that suddenly there are none or that 40,000 years is enough to show such pressures are absent, as some people claim. Imo, that’s more reasonable or more “safe”. Other than that I have no evidence, though I did read something by the anthropologist, John Hawks, which discussed the issue in terms of one example he thought showed showed evolutionary pressure at work in humans. But I can’t get anything at all from his blog now, and I haven’t looked elsewhere.]
See, that’s why you need to fire everybody up, including the rubes. Let’s not forget how Baracky got to be Pezzydent.
Apparently the Federal regulations regarding emissions from refineries are on a much higher plane than Federal regulations regarding immigration.
Or maybe in both instances they’re just pissed that a lowly State government would dare to usurp their God-given athoritah.
Fagmerica? No!
Northern Venezuela? Si!
organic farms could actually save us from carcinogens and toxins“”
organic farms will be the trend of the future coz we don’t like artificial stuffs inside our body-~’