You know when a liberal has lost any capability to understand the common American when they completely miss the pain that liberal tax hikers cause the average citizen in this country. Charlie Cook recently showed this elitist attitude in a National Journal column on the outrageous costs of the Cap and Trade bill – better called the Cap and Tax bill. Of course, to him, the tax hike on the average American is not a big deal and he doesn’t understand how anyone could be upset over it all.
Cook is perplexed why Washington pols were “getting an earful” from constituents over the energy tax hikes that the Cap and Trade bill will force on the nation. He just couldn’t figure why adding “only” an additional $175 a year to the average citizen’s electric bill was such a big deal.
Although the Congressional Budget Office estimates that the average household would pay only an additional $175 per year in energy costs, perception is more important than reality. The perception is that this is a huge tax increase at a time when people can ill afford one. Hence, Democrats, whether they supported the bill or not, are getting battered, increasing their blood pressure.
Sure, another nearly $200 a year may not seem so bad… if that was the only tax hike that Barack Obama was proposing to slam the people with. But this is just yet another example of rising taxes that the Obama administration is championing. The tax hike on cigarettes, the end of the Bush tax cuts soon to come, the wild tax plans being floated to fund Obama’s take over of healthcare, all these are piling one on top of the other and voters are scared that soon they won’t be able to make even it day to day. And all this is coming out of Washington during one of the worst economies in decades when people are struggling already!
But to Cook, tax hikes to pass such a supposedly important bill as Cap and Trade should be accepted without question regardless of how it hurts the average citizen. Further, he just can’t see why another nearly $200 a year would hurt people of lower incomes.
The tax hike with Cap and Trade is bad enough, but what should anger Americans most about this bill is not necessarily just the high taxes it will impose on us all. Amazingly, the fact that bills similar to our Cap and Trade bill that passed in New Zealand, Australia, France and other western nations have proven such an economic fiasco that those nations are either eliminating their carbon emissions laws or suspending them. Yet here is Barack Obama pushing the same garbage that other nations are dumping on top of adding to the tax burden for all of us. Can’t he learn from their mistakes?
That isn’t so smart for the smartest president ever, is it?
Last, I find it amazing that Cook even believed the simplistic analysis peddled by the CBO that Cap and Tax will impose “only an additional $175” to American’s tax burden. This may be true strictly with their electric bills, but the additional costs of Cap and Tax do not only affect electric bills. The entire energy industry will be affected and this extra cost incurred will cascade down to every citizen in higher prices on just about everything they buy throughout the year. So, the electric bill prices raised on consumers won’t be the only place that the pain of Cap and Tax will show up in their yearly budgets.
But why should Charlie Cook take much notice of how Washington can hurt the average American? Why struggle to understand how the average American would be a tad upset over rising taxes? It won’t hurt him and his friends and that is all he notices.
A very typical liberal reaction, that.
(H/T Brian Faughnan)
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<sound of duct tape ripping off roll>
July 15, 2009 - 05:46 ET by motherbelt"It's for the children" has been replaced by "It's for the planet !"
How dare anyone complain about the sacrifice!!
The thing that really frosts me is the arrogance of these people who think there is an "ideal" climate for the Earth, and that they can "control" it and keep it within certain parameters!
Besides, China and India have already said they won't play, so what's next? We work even harder to reduce our emissions more to make up for that?
Because none of their ideas involve scaring up more efficient, affordable energy. (Can you say nuclear?) Jeez, these people can't shut up about "affordable" housing and "affordable" health care, but they don't care a fig about "affordable" energy! Well when we are all paying through the nose for energy, no one will be able to "afford" anything else! These assclowns don't have a clue about how normal people live!
I didn't think it was physically possible, but this both sucks and blows. -Bart Simpson
Scientists are one thing ...
July 15, 2009 - 08:08 ET by KC Mulville"The thing that really frosts me is the arrogance of these people who think there is an "ideal" climate for the Earth, and that they can "control" it and keep it within certain parameters!"
Most scientists wouldn't be so presumptuous as to claim they can control anything. But when politicians got wind of the idea, and immediately started trumpeting how they can control it through legislation ... they gave us yet another snapshot of their stupidity.
KC....here's an idea
July 15, 2009 - 10:45 ET by BlondeWe need to hope the Congresscritters don't get a whiff of this idea....NC is now trying to legislate laundry.
Sheesh!
I hope he fails, too.
Strategic distraction
July 15, 2009 - 13:05 ET by KC MulvilleMaybe North Carolina's citizens are using the same technique as George Will mentioned last Sunday: giving the legislators something (anything) to work on ... to prevent them from making mischief on serious matters.
That works for me
July 15, 2009 - 13:11 ET by BlondeI had to laugh when I read that though....Save the planet, use a clothesline!
Also I found it somewhat absurd that a dryer was up to 25% of a home's energy use. Lies, damn lies, and statistics.
I hope he fails, too.
Re clothesline
July 15, 2009 - 14:42 ET by slickwillie2001We could do more to save the planet by using the clothesline on Al Gore.
I'd rather not have his
July 15, 2009 - 14:47 ET by Kat Outta the BagI'd rather not have his slime all over my clothes, thank you.
$175
July 15, 2009 - 05:59 ET by m1xramYou have got to be kidding me. Once they start trading a fixed number Carbon Credits on the exchange, look out! $175 will seem like the days of 25 cents/gal gas. It will probably take out a bunch of middle income families and finish off the housing market. How many people can make their house "green" to sell it in a depressed economy? How many failures can the banks cover before they get trashed again?
It's not like we are short imbecilic ideas these days, but a system specifically designed to cause a cascading economical failure seems a bit much. This idea wouldn't register on a brain dead scale. And the moron thinks it will cost $175/year?
Don't worry though some people will make money. (see Bubble #6)
He has already failed... his country.
It's not about reason with
July 15, 2009 - 06:02 ET by motherbeltIt's not about reason with these people; it's about their hubris and their "magical thinking." They never think of the consequences to people, of their grandiose plans. After all, they are "saving the planet."
Or are they? In his column today, Walter Williams' money quote is this:
"Cap and trade" is first a massive indirect tax on the American people
and hence another source of revenue for Congress. More importantly "cap
and trade" is just about the most effective tool for controlling most
economic activity short of openly declaring ourselves a communist
nation and it's a radical environmentalist's dream come true.
(all emphasis mine)
I didn't think it was physically possible, but this both sucks and blows. -Bart Simpson
Mother
July 15, 2009 - 08:57 ET by HoosierEmThis is one of the problems I have with cap and trade. If politicians and private business care so much about the planet and about the "common good" they would do this out of the kindness of their hearts without one dollar of profit.
But we all know, contributing to the "common good" is only for the little people.
This is the same with health care. If the D.C. politicians think it's so great, then why won't they and their families be subjected to it?
liberal compassion
July 16, 2009 - 10:14 ET by m1xramThat's liberal compassion, they steal from others rather than donate themselves. Check their finical giving.
This time around though the profits will be huge! Read The Great American Bubble Machine. Bubble #6 covers Carbon Credits and Al Gore Warming. Goldman Sachs, and others, will make billions from the destruction of America.
He has already failed... his country.
What's really really sad
July 15, 2009 - 07:10 ET by MidAmericaWhat's really really sad is that if we had two political parties in this country there would be somewhere for opposition to rally around.
The Jacksonville Electric
July 15, 2009 - 09:46 ET by BruzillaThe Jacksonville Electric Authority (my electric provider) announced yesterday that if the Cap & Tax bill goes through, they will forced to increase electric bills 10% to cover the cost of the credits they need to buy. The average residential bill is about $250/month, which means we get hit with a $300 increase right off the top. There's no telling how much more we'll all pay when that 10% gets tacked onto the cost of everything that gets sold or provided by a business that used electricity, so that $175 figure is a fantasy.
SRP (local electric co) in AZ did the same thing... 9% increase
July 15, 2009 - 10:50 ET by retroconAlso, what about the price increases on everything we buy? Do the libs think that the cost of plastic, in everything we buy, won't go up? Of course they know it will, but they are lying about it anyway! Cost of manufacturing everything will go up as the Cap-and-tax costs incurred by the manufacturer are factored into the price.
The consumers pay ALL cap and trade taxes. ALL of them. Period.
The liberals selling this schlock are selling snake oil of the worst and most expensive kind. And the MSM are complicite.
True
July 15, 2009 - 10:57 ET by StarAZMy electric co here in Phoenix--Salt River Project--wants 8.8% now...who knows when this Cap and Sap thing goes thru...If it does--do we have a shot at derailing this one? I bought a new heat pump---supposedly more efficient--any savings from that are zip--gone! And yes, this $175 is utter nonsense. They just pull these numbers out of their...Oh, well...breathe, Star....
They'll get theirs back many times over.
July 15, 2009 - 10:31 ET by metaphorsbwithuSure, these people aren't concerned about another $200 or $2000 on their bills because they'll make multiple times that as consultants and shills for the agenda they're promoting.
Add to that the fact that they're know-it-all busybodies who look down on the rest of us (who actually see these schemes for what they are) and you can understand what we're up against.
metaphorsbwithu
We've had a preview of the consequences
July 15, 2009 - 10:42 ET by pbthinkerIf anyone can remember what was going on when gasoline was over $4.00 per gallon, they'll get an idea of what's going to happen during cap and tax, only worse. If $4.00 gas was the fault of supply and demand, along with speculation, just imagine what's going to happen when demand remains the same, supply goes down, and speculators try and figure out how much they can get for a barrel of much needed oil!
The irony is it's not going to take long for all this to play out, obviously before the 2010 election.
Election 2008-God's way of showing us that elections count.
2 or 3 years down the
July 15, 2009 - 10:43 ET by ConservativeRex2 or 3 years down the track, they will abandon cap and tax as unworkable and move on to something else.
Every single time liberals blink their eyes it's a new day. They don't look ahead at any kind of consequences to anything they do. It's always "well, what looks good today". We are being run worse then a kindergarten class. Therefore, we are not obligated to listen to anything these politicians come up with at any time. Supreme Court or any of them. Hell, come and stop us, if you can. I am just damn tired of the whole damn bunch of them. What rules I can abstain from I am going to. Hell, now the military isn't listening to them either and I say more power to them. They are trying to gut the CIA and everyone else that's cares about America.
What a joke, lol. The
July 15, 2009 - 10:58 ET by ckc1227What a joke, lol. The increase in gas prices alone will cost people more than $1,000 a year. If it's less than $175 extra a month, I'll be surprised. And that doesn't even include all the free health care we're going to have to pay for.
Obama cant learn from the
July 15, 2009 - 12:19 ET by bassndudeObama cant learn from the mistakes of others. He is afflicted with mirror vision, (can only see how great he is), and folie de grandeur. Just like this liberal moron. I am beginning to think that the only requirement to be a liberal is to have an IQ of 60 or below, and see the smartest person in whatever room they are in at the time, when the look in the mirror.
If that offends any of our liberal readers, thats just to bad. I dont care.
Save a SeAL, club a liberal!!
Cap and Trade AND health care
July 15, 2009 - 12:33 ET by slickwillie2001We also have to look at the cost of Cap and Trade to the health care industry, tying together the two big stories. Imagine what the power bill of a large hospital looks like, incuding their backup power operations. All the supplies that they use will be impacted by Cap and Trade, from gases to drugs and disposables.
That's OK, slick, because
July 15, 2009 - 12:43 ET by Kat Outta the BagThat's OK, slick, because the government with be the ones to make the decision as to who should be hospitalized in the first place.
cost of cap and tax
July 15, 2009 - 12:59 ET by east tennessee johnSo Cook thinks it will only cost $175 per year. That, if accurate and these jerks couldn't even rightly predict the sun rising as exhibited by their economic projections, might only apply to household electricity. What about evrything else that uses energy in its manufacturing process or delivery? If farm cost go up, which they will, if transportation costs go up , which they will, if the cost of lighting, heating or air conditioning anywhere you go , other than your house, go up, and they will, let alone anything made with oil, such as plastics and pharmaceuticals, go up and they will, well Charlie you elitist moron, where are those costs going to be passed on? You think that might, just might raise your estimate a bit , you moron? That's not even counting the lost jobs. Shitforbrains, if any art all.
Charlie Cook is full of crap...
July 15, 2009 - 13:03 ET by PrairieSkyI have news for Mr. Cook...I live in North Dakota, a state that relies heavily on coal fired electricity and that has a number of coal mines. Last night on our local news, they had an interview with the state Public Service Commissioner, Brian Kaulk, who said that Cap and Trade would be a disaster and if it passes, it will increase electricity bills in our state for a family of four by about $400 dollars a month.
http://www.kxmc.com/getArticle.asp?ArticleId=405475
That $175 a year increase that Cook talks about is crap, and I don't know about him, but I can tell you for sure that a $400 a month increase in electricity bills for folks in my state (and anywhere else for that matter) would be nothing short of catastrophic.
"The problem is not that people are taxed too little...the problem is that government spends too much." ~President Ronald Reagan
Yikes. I haven't seen Cook
July 15, 2009 - 14:56 ET by Chris NormanYikes. I haven't seen Cook in years. What happened, did he eat Tom Shales?
The "Mainstream" Media: By liberals. For liberals.
Lol Chris...yeah, he hasn't
July 15, 2009 - 17:28 ET by bigtimerLol Chris...yeah, he hasn't been in want of anything lately, now has he?
Doubling down on stupid is not a particularly good idea. ~Andrew Breitbart
Of course this moron is
July 15, 2009 - 15:57 ET by George S PattonOf course this moron is pro-tax, look at the freak. He's looks like a younger, fatter barney frank.
I have never been able to
July 15, 2009 - 17:26 ET by bigtimerI have never been able to stand this over-paid, often wrong talking head pollster....this is another perfect example of why...he exemplifies everyone in his world, especially those on the Hill making the laws that are strangling us in so many ways....with the O-Crew leading the way.
The Blind, leading the Blind...their arrogance is beneath contempt.
The American People, us little people had better wake them up....SOON!
Doubling down on stupid is not a particularly good idea. ~Andrew Breitbart