As soon as healthcare reform is dispensed with (one way or the other), the next fun legislation the radicals in Congress have in mind is Cap and Trade (known lovingly as Cap and Tax). This is the bill that if healthcare had cooperated better in being passed in October or November, President Obama would have taken to Copenhagen to show what great little ‘green’ people we are. It will thoroughly cripple our economy if passed, but we will have the satisfaction of knowing what great little ‘green’ people we are. People will lose their jobs, children will go hungry, people will lose their houses, but we will be great little ‘green’ people. We’ll see what happens next.
France tried to pass its version of Cap and Trade to be enacted January 1st, but they have run into a few problems. Bloomberg.com is reporting today that the French Constitutional Court has rejected a tax on carbon emissions, saying that the exceptions in the law violated the concept of equality and and totally undercut the attempt to limit greenhouse gases.
The article points out:
“The tax, which would have started on Jan. 1, was set at 17 euros ($24.38) per ton of carbon-dioxide emissions, President Nicolas Sarkozy said in September. To make the tax more palatable, he partially or fully exempted power plants, public transport, airlines, farming and fishing, as well as 1,018 older cement, steel and glass factories.
“In all, 93 percent of all industrial carbon emissions in France would have avoided paying the full tax, the constitutional court said in a decision published on its Web site. The tax would have fallen disproportionately on fuel for heating and cars, it said.”
Stop a minute and think how this would work in America. Corporations and industries generally have lobbies that pay serious money to influence legislation. You and I, the average American, have only our votes. Guess who will get the breaks if Cap and Tax comes to America? Guess who will make serious money if Cap and Tax comes to America? Oddly enough, people like Al Gore and Nancy Pelosi are heavily invested in industries that will profit greatly from a carbon tax. General Electric, which owns some media outlets is heavily invested in the new energy that is supposed to develop from Cap and Tax legislation. Do you think they would use their media outlets to portray Cap and Tax in a positive way? Hmmm.