Waxman-Markey is Hilarious, but the Joke is on Us

Of all the proposals in President Barack Obama's breathtakingly ambitious agenda to foster long-term economic decline, by far the biggest is the Waxman-Markey energy-rationing bill, which the House of Representatives passed with the narrowest of majorities late Friday evening. This bill by House Energy and Commerce Committee Chairman Henry Waxman (D-Beverly Hills) and Representative Edward Markey (D-Mass.) is more damaging than the $787 billion stimulus, the proposed huge increases in federal spending and corresponding increases in the national debt, the takeover of GM and Chrysler, and the proposed tax hikes on the wealthy - combined.

Enacting Waxman-Markey (H. R. 2454, the American Clean Energy and Security Act) would almost certainly make America a second-rate economic power. However, the bill is full of ironies and amusing touches. Were it not a looming disaster, the whole situation would be hilarious.

The bill is supposed to be about saving us from global warming. Yet its supporters have stopped talking about global warming. This might be because global temperatures stopped rising a decade ago. More likely it's because the pollsters have told Democrats to shut up about global warming and green jobs. The new slogan: get America running on “clean energy.”

The bill’s advocates view it as merely a first step, as former Vice President Al Gore told “super-activists” (all 11,500 of “us”) on a conference call Tuesday night. It’s the biggest tax increase in the history of the world, the largest government intrusion in people's lives since the Second World War (which was the last time gasoline was rationed) and, at 1,201 pages, a whopper of a bill. Requiring that greenhouse gas emissions be reduced by 83 percent below 2005 levels by 2050 is just the beginning.

The reason given for why it has taken years to pass major climate legislation is the bajillion dollars spent by fat cat corporate special interests--Big Oil, King Coal, etc. But a major push behind Waxman-Markey is the United States Climate Partnership (USCAP), whose members include two dozen or so major corporations (including Duke Energy, Dow, GE, Shell, BP, Ford, GM, Alcoa, PG&E, Exelon, DuPont, PepsiCo, even Caterpillar) and some of the same environmental pressure groups that blame big business for stymieing energy-rationing legislation.

Adding to the irony, the corporate CEOs who support cap-and-trade are fawned over for putting the good of the planet ahead of short-term profits. This is a shameful racket that is all about short-term windfall profits. When testifying before Congress, several CEOs of USCAP member companies said that passing Waxman-Markey was imperative but that they would have to oppose it if they had to buy the ration coupons at auction rather than be given them for free. Al Gore, too, could make hundreds of millions of dollars from his investments in alternative energy companies if Waxman-Markey makes them profitable.

The bill’s proponents talk about protecting consumers while intermittently acknowledging that cap-and-trade can only reduce greenhouse gas emissions by dramatically raising the price of energy derived from coal, oil and natural gas. President Obama said during the campaign last year that "under my plan of a cap-and-trade system, electricity rates would necessarily skyrocket." Dr. Peter Orszag, now head of the White House Office and Management and Budget, testified last year when he was head of the Congressional Budget Office that "price increases would be essential to the success of a cap-and-trade program."

When Waxman announced that they had given away 85% of the ration coupons to the various powerful special interests, he added that the purpose was to protect consumers from price increases. If that were true, then consumers would have no reason to reduce their energy consumption, nor would they be forced to use more expensive alternative energy, which would mean that the entire purpose of the bill (the reduction of greenhouse gases) would be rendered moot.

The unacknowledged truth in this charade is that the real reason for giving the ration coupons away is to buy enough political support to pass the bill. Some people are going to become very wealthy from cap-and-trade, but it isn't going to be consumers.

Supporters of Waxman-Markey are now claiming it won't cost anything and have found official support for their claim. The Environmental Protection Agency and the Congressional Budget Office have estimated that it will cost each of us only pennies to reduce emissions drastically with Waxman-Markey. We can save the planet "for the cost of a postage stamp" a day--or even less.

If that were true, why did Democrats on the Energy and Commerce Committee defeat Republican amendments to suspend Waxman-Markey if gasoline reached five dollars a gallon or electric rates doubled or unemployment topped fifteen percent?

The debate on the bill is ongoing. Though it has passed the House, it must pass a few more steps before it is forcibly imposed on Americans. Of course, if it's ever enacted, the joke will be on all of us.

I've been working on a vanity about this one, but let me try it out here.

The ineffectual opposition to this travesty helps us to diagnose the cancer eating at the soul of the GOP, but it also may show the way forward.

First of all, this bill is not a tax bill, and it should not be opposed on that basis, at least not as a matter of principle. The question of what level of taxes are needed to support a specific level of public services is a pragmatic one, not one of principle.

Second, this bill is not about energy. It creates no new sources, nor does it identify new ways of exploiting old ones.

Thirdly, this bill is not about "jobs, jobs, jobs", except jobs for government workers. There is no way that the government can do anything to create private sector jobs.

So, what is the bill if it's not a tax bill, an energy bill, or a jobs bill, and why is it so upsetting to our people?

This bill is a comprehensive structure of tyranny, that's what is is. That's why most Congressional Democrats (but, note to the file, not all) and a few Congressional Republicans are for it. They're for it because they are baby tyrants who dream of imposing a comprehensive structure of regulation from Washington which will govern and regulate the most minute aspects of our private lives, and impose tight central control over our families and our property.

THAT'S what's wrong with this bill, THAT'S why it should be opposed, and most importantly, THAT'S the issue - the only issue - which can rally a majority to depose these wannabe dictators and restore Liberty for ourselves and our Posterity.

The other side may have a temporary majority on taxes. They may have a temporary majority on energy issues. They may have a temporary majority on jobs. Now, you and I know that these temporary majorities have been herded together my fear, by propaganda, and by misfeasance. No matter. We are governed by people who know that a crisis should never be allowed to go to waste.

But there is not a temporary majority for tyranny. There is not, and there never has been. When the People, Democrats and Republicans and others, got even a whiff of what these evildoers were up to in 1993-94, they threw the bums out in a massive landslide. Yes, the majority was wasted, yes, Newt was reckless and vain, but, by God, the People were made to speak with one voice on one issue, and the one issue is this:

"Every spot of the old world is overrun with oppression. Freedom hath been hunted round the globe. Asia, and Africa, have long expelled her.—Europe regards her like a stranger, and England hath given her warning to depart. O! receive the fugitive, and prepare in time an asylum for mankind."

The issue is NOT abortion. The issue is NOT taxes. The issue is not capitalism, in fact, the issue has nothing to do with economic relations directly. The issue is NOT adultery, nor Christianity. It's not jobs, or medicine, or resource exploitation.

THE ISSUE IS FREEDOM. This bill, were it properly explained and publicized, claims the right and declares the intent "to bind us in all cases whatsoever", and "if being bound in that manner is not slavery, then there is not such a thing as slavery upon earth".

The American people are being sold on the fictitious ends of this legislation (energy, jobs,"investments") but they do not and will not subscribe to the means, especially when they are made to understand that the means in fact describe the true ends.

These ARE the times that try men's souls. Let's stand forth. Let's call tyranny by it's proper name. This bill is not "big government", it's a structure for tyranny.

Let's vote on tyranny vs. Liberty next time.

Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.