Legislation Has Consequences

According to yesterday's Investor's Business Daily, even though Reps. Henry Waxman and Ed Markey have modified their cap-and-trade global warming bill, the the Gross Domestic Production cost of their new regime jumps from $7.4 trillion from 2012 through 2035 to $9.6 trillion.

This chart (from the Heritage Foundation) shows the impact the legislation will have.  According to the Heritage Foundation, under the new legislation gasoline prices are expected to jump by 74%, natural gas by 55% and electricity by 90%.  The rise in energy prices will result in higher unemployment and lower incomes.  Our spending power as people will decrease as corporations raise prices to compensate for their increased energy costs.

According to the article:

"It's conceivable that a cap-and-trade regime -- or a carbon tax, which would likely generate similar GDP losses -- could create permanent economic stagnation.

Economies grow best when the tax burden is low. But economies are handicapped when the burden is high, and cap-and-trade (indirectly) and a carbon tax (directly) increase that burden. As Myron Ebell, the Competitive Enterprise Institute's director of energy and global warming policy, noted, this would be the "biggest tax increase in history.""

I am hoping that the American economy can survive the good intentions of some of the people currently serving in our Congress.