Cap and Trade, Part IV

The San Francisco Examiner (Gasp! San Francisco?) has an excellent editorial about Waxman-Markey's HR 2454. Apparently, buried within its 946 pages are several unpopular surprises that Congressional Clowns want to pass by stealth such as a 3 year program of unemployment benefits. Three years? Are they admitting that the so called surge of Green Jobs is pure bunk? Has news of Spain's painful experience with green jobs penetrated the Beltway?

Michele Malkin has a video on her Blog showing Waxman admitting, "I certainly don't claim to know all the details in this bill." In other words, he is pushing a bill without knowing everything that's in it. That's either extreme incompetence or fraud.

Heritage Foundation has a neat summary of the real costs of HR 2454:
Analysis of the economic impact of Waxman-Markey projects that by 2035 the bill would:

* Reduce aggregate gross domestic product (GDP) by $9.6 trillion;
* Destroy 1,105,000 jobs on average, with peak years seeing unemployment rise by over 2,479,000 jobs;
* Raise electricity rates 90 percent after adjusting for inflation;
* Raise inflation-adjusted gasoline prices by 74 percent;
* Raise residential natural gas prices by 55 percent;
* Raise an average family's annual energy bill by $1,500; and
* Increase inflation-adjusted federal debt by 26 percent, or $29,150 additional federal debt per person, again after adjusting for inflation.
Go here to read the whole article.