I'm not a political person. I am a realist. And what we're seeing now is, unfortunately, all too real.
Like many other Americans and citizens of the world I am concerned about the state of the environment - the water we drink, the air we breathe and the cumulative effects of our existence on the planet's ecology. These are important issues_ delicate issues, and they need to be dealt with prudently and intelligently. Last week, while every news outlet under the sun focused on the untimely death of Michael Jackson, our Congress was in session debating the Waxman-Markey Cap & Trade bill. They've actually been talking about this bill for some time and a number of you may remember the dust-up a few weeks back when Congressman Waxman brought in a speed reader to blaze through the 1200 page bill in order to be able to say that it had been "read". That insult stuck with me so I kept on top of this from every angle, sifting through every news source I could find.
Well, last Friday morning at 3:00am a 300 page addendum was added to the bill. It was also not read or properly reviewed. In fact, there weren't even copies available for most of the members of Congress. How are our representatives supposed to vote on a bill, especially one as huge as this one, without READING it?
I know, it's probably not that big a deal and it's just another piece of wordy legislation that you don't have time to think about and if it's about the "environment" it's probably a good thing anyhow....
Wrong. Very wrong.
Let me explain to you what's going on here so you get the full picture. The Waxman- Markey Cap & Trade bill (which Waxman himself admittedly hasn't even read) is a power grab plain and simple. If you think this is about the environment or Global Warming you are simply not paying attention to the facts on the ground. This bill proposes enormous amounts of regulation and unheralded spending. It is not based on science and it is not about improving the state of the environment. Money, power, control and bureaucracy. That's what this is. Congratulations; you have been sold a bill of goods wrapped up as a happy green planet-saving effort. On Friday night the House voted 219 - 212 in favor.
I want to list a few things you should know with regard to this bill and its supporters:
1. The EPA itself, which stands to receive billions in funding from this bill, took part in a 98 page report with the NCEE (National Center for Environmental Economics) that explains why the proposals in the legislation won't have ANY effect in reducing greenhouse gases and that the kind of action being proposed would be a waste and a detriment. Got that? Even an organization that stands to directly benefit from the bill's funding published a report refuting its very premise. (By the way, in case you're interested, the White House suppressed the release of that EPA report. It's just the Environmental Protection Agency...what do they know?) The report's author, a distinguished gentleman by the name of Alan Carlin received an email from his superiors at the EPA that told him to not "have any direct communication" with anyone outside his immediate group at the EPA. What? Carlin, a widely published PhD, has enormous experience in environment and public policy dating back to 1964 but after submitting his report calling into question the new climate change policy he was told to "discontinue" working on climate change entirely. Carlin's studies explained that global temperatures were dropping; not what the administration wanted to hear. He has been silenced.
Something stinks and we've only finished number 1. If you don't believe me - Google it. It's easy to find the report and the ensuing nonsense that followed it. Now please stick with me here.
2. A majority of Congressional Democrats were against the bill even though it was being proposed by one of their own. The White House put on a full court press for party solidarity to pressure House Dems to concede on the measure. Pressure is being applied at the Senate level now to push the bill through as fast as possible. Still, no one has actually read this bill. Why the rush, especially now when the economy is in such bad shape?
3. Greenpeace has come out AGAINST the bill calling it a terrible waste of resources that is taking us completely in the wrong direction. Yes, Greenpeace. I guess they did the math and saw that 85% of the funding for the bill goes to special interest groups.
4. The Cap & Trade industry was conceived by none other than...Enron back when they were still around. That's right, the people who invented profits in order to boost their stock prices. And you know who planned on joining them in rolling out the trading platform and valuing the carbon credits? AIG and Goldman Sachs; two of the biggest recipients of the recent TARP money being doled out. Who do you think is going to be the biggest insurer of the carbon credits: AIG. Who is spearheading a slew of huge alternative energy projects and "green" initiatives?: Goldman. This is business. Nothing else.
5. General Electric has set up a huge new division to trade Carbon Credit Derivatives called "GE Greenhouse Emission Services" which will be the largest carbon credit trading firm in the world. So what? Let's see; GE owns NBC Broadcasting which is giving nothing but praise to the Obama Administration for its initiative on this bill. There has been ZERO constructive criticism or balanced coverage from CNBC, MSNBC and the rest of the mainstream media for that matter. Also, it's important to note that GE's inept CEO, Jeffrey Immelt, went to the White House himself a few months back to meet with Obama in order to discuss the relationship between the government program and GE's Greenhouse Emission Services. It's obvious; GE is in bed with the Obama Administration. This isn't a conspiracy. It's a fact.
6. Al Gore is now heading Kleiner Perkins Caufield & Byers, a Silicon Valley Venture Capital firm heavily invested in clean tech and alternative energy. One of Kleiner Perkins most recent investments was for a software company that is developing the software that will track carbon emissions and carbon credits. Naturally, Gore, now worth over $100 million since the release of his blockbuster joke of a movie, says he's not taking a salary from Kleiner Perkins and that this money will instead go to climate change advocacy groups. Are you kidding me? OK Al, we know how much you really care about the environment; enough that you won't debate ANYONE on the subject. Gore will be the world's first Global Warming billionaire. He doesn't need a salary from Kleiner.
In addition, John Doerr, one of Silicon Valley's most outspoken clean-tech advocates announced in April that he was joining the advisory board of Generation Investment Management, the $1 billion enviro-investment firm that Gore founded with David Blood, who previously managed $325 billion in assets out of Goldman Sachs’ London office. Again; Gore, Kleiner Perkins, Goldman Sachs, Generation Investment...do the math.
7. Australia is now doing away with their carbon tax proposals because those proposals have failed to make any difference in emissions while imposing draconian economic restrictions and barriers to commerce there. The carbon credit program has failed in Spain where it has led to 18% unemployment - more than double Europe's average. Spain is now losing 2.2 jobs for every new "green" job created. Apparently these statistics and other news items were not available to the authors of the legislation.
8. The Waxman-Markey bill represents the largest tax increase in U.S. history (up to $3,000 per U.S. household). All of the coal-powered states in the U.S. will see their utility bills double. This is a bureaucratic quagmire that will cut jobs, depress real estate prices and increase government involvement in the economy while supposedly reducing CO2 emissions a mere 17% by 2020. In the meantime there is still no concrete evidence that a). global warming is actually occurring or b). if it is occurring that CO2 emissions are the reason.
9. Over 700 prominent scientists worldwide have come out railing against this bill and its precepts as being a complete waste of resources. This is 13 times the number of scientists (52) who authored the 2007 UN IPCC Summary for Policy Makers insisting that global warming was upon us and a dire problem. Hadley, NASA’s GISS, the UAH and the RSS - the four primary global temperature tracking organizations - all showed precipitous declines in temperature in 2007 and 2008. The declines were so drastic that they practically erased all of the warming of the last half century (which really wasn't that much to begin with). Although widely reported and easily accessible, this data has been ignored.
10. Aside from handing out over $1 trillion in "grants" (ie. bribes) to every organization and university under the sun, the Waxman-Markey bill includes billions in funding to; The Environmental Protection Agency, The State Department, The Federal Energy Regulatory Commission, The Department of Agriculture, The Internal Revenue Service, The Treasury Department, The U.S. Fish & Wildlife Service, The National Oceanographic Weather Service, The Department of Health & Human Services, The Department of Energy, The Department of Labor, The Bureau of Land Management, The Bureau of Indian Affairs, The U.S Army Corp of Engineers and the Commodity Futures Trading Commission just to name a few.
The Cap & Trade legislation will QUADRUPLE our national debt while crippling our economy, send businesses overseas and leave our environment in the same state that it is already in.
I recall people on all sides of politics and society complaining about Bush's war spending which now tallies out to a total of approximately $685 billion. After constantly criticizing Bush's budget deficits ($300 billion per year), President Obama proposed a budget that will run annual deficits averaging $600 billion even after the economy recovers and the troops return home from Iraq. Bush's average deficits were less than half of that.
So if you think that the Obama administration along with Nancy "they-never-told-me-they-were-waterboarding-terrorists" Pelosi and Henry Waxman have your best interests and in mind you're so deluded it's not even worth having you read this.
People, this is the most significant piece of legislation that we will see in our lifetimes. It's bad for this country and it's a farce. And it was stuffed through the House of Representatives after the weasel Waxman had a speed reader come into the halls of Congress and insult the collective American intelligence by babbling through the original 1200 pages like an auctioneer. They voted on the bill on a Friday night so that the results wouldn't hit the news cycle until the next week after adding 300 pages in the 11th hour that also went unread.
This is important and it is something you need to be aware of. This will affect all of us severely. Pay attention and stay informed because quietly, when you are looking the other way, loading new songs onto your iPod, thinking about health care and keeping your meaningless job, the government you just voted into power is screwing you with a smile.
