By Bob Ellis
Environmentalists like to paint a picture that tells us their interest in robbing us of our money and freedom is altruistic, while the motives of anyone opposing them is all greed and avarice. That has sold well over the years, but as the dominance of the “mainstream” media wanes, we are beginning to see the truth. We are see that environmentalists are like the pigs in George Orwell’s “Animal Farm;” while they want us to think they believe everyone is equal, they actually consider themselves “more equal” (and entitled to a bigger share of things) than everyone else. So it comes as no surprise that while average Americans are going to take a huge hit from the cap and trade global warming tax in the form of lost jobs, higher energy costs, and government mandates, some folks are going to make out like bandits on the deal. When people start talking about taking your hard-earned dollars from you along with your freedom in order to “protect the environment”, don’t buy it. They’re most likely looking not for altruistic fulfillment but for a cash crop, and they’re looking for it in your wallet. David Alan Coia at Human Events outlines some of the bandits who are going to end up with your money if the Senate passes this tax:
- Congressmen desperate for campaign cash – Shortly before cap and trade passed by a narrow margin in the House, four key Democrat PACs gave $130,000 to 41 wavering Democrat congressmen to secure their vote
- Congressmen desperate for taxpayer money with with to bribe the voters – Shortly before the vote in the House, earmarks totaling $5.45 billion went to the districts of four Democrat congressmen: Bobby Rush (D-IL), $1 billion; Alan Grayson (D-FL), $50 million; Mary Kaptur (D-OH), $3.5 billion; and Frank Kratovil (D-MD), $1 billion.
- Congressmen desperate to placate wealthy interests caught in the cross hairs of this fraudulent assault on the American way of life – Emission allowances were given away to threatened areas of industry to buy the votes of wavering congressmen
But here’s one that even a good socialist should get upset about:
Energy companies are among the Waxman-Markey legislation supporters, and the authors cite a story in Forbes magazine in which American Electric Power CEO Mike Morris says his company’s rates “could go up as much as 30% to 50%” as the company begins “to react in a costly cap-and-trade market or deploy carbon-capture and storage technology.” However, carbon law will not negatively affect AEP, he says. “Our business profile actually increases.” “John Rowe — CEO of Exelon, one of the nation’s largest electricity distributors — estimates that for every $10 increase in the price of cap-and-trade permits, Exelon’s annual revenues will increase $750 million,” the report says, adding that “electric utilities support Waxman-Markey, because they stand to make a fortune from it.” “Everyone acknowledges that the cost of Waxman-Markey will fall on citizens and small businesses, not on so-called ‘carbon polluters,’” many of whom, the report says, “can shift their production activities — and the corresponding jobs — to countries with less stringent environmental standards.”
Alas, while such evil profits for diabolical energy companies almost certainly give good socialists indigestion, there are bigger considerations that help them get over this momentary distaste: the expansion of government influence and greater wealth distribution through the sticky fingers of government. Now I have no problem with private companies making a profit. That’s what happens in a free market, and it’s a good thing. The free market is the best, most fair economic system ever devised, working the darker elements of human nature against one another to keep abuses to a relative minimum. Capitalism is a key component in America’s unparalleled success. What I do have a problem with is (a) government imposing a massive new tax that is (b) founded on a fraudulent and unscientific premise, and (c) will kick average Americans in the stomach through the costs that naturally get passed along to them, (d) cost jobs, (e) make our foreign trade deficit even worse, (f) steal our everyday freedoms, (g) and hurt our struggling energy infrastructure…while (h) propping up these congressional enemies of the Constitution and the American people. How about you? Do you have any problem with that? Source