Knee-cap(ing) and Trade

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Well now that most peoples’ attentions are on Healthcare it is important to remember that there is another Presidential priority bill that they are ready to push through without debate. His cap and trade plan will (in his words) “make electricity rates skyrocket.”

 In fact the US Treasury (not exactly a right wing organization) has estimated that this bill could cost the average household $1761 a year or $146.75 a month or about $4.83 a day added to their electric bill. Hey, but that’s less than a latté at a lot of coffee shops. If you don’t drink lattes then you might as well start. Then you can stop buying them after the bill is passed, so that you won’t miss the money. Of course you might have a hard time coming up with that extra $4.83 a day after the Obama healthcare plan starts to empty your wallet. There are estimates that range from $3100.00 to $800.00 a year. Of course these estimates come from the same people who said that $1 billion would be enough for the “cash for clunkers” program for 3 months. So their estimates may be low.     

Of course months after the President had received the Treasury report he said that the cost of the bill would be less than the cost of a postage stamp. I guess he was just letting us know that the price of a first class stamp would be going from $0.44 to around $5.00 very soon.  

This plan would seem to be nothing more than a “billions for billionaires” program. You must understand that the original idea for this new trading plan came from the folks at Enron. The people who created one of the largest energy scandals of the century were only interested in how to make more money, any way they could, by raising energy prices. So the idea of trading carbon credits is nothing more than making industry buy and sell meaningless paper and paying commissions for the privilege. Those commissions will make some traders even more comfortable while the rest of us pay higher energy cost, a lower standard of living, and a declining future.

This political payoff will not decrease pollution. It will only make those who are on the inside of this grand scheme even richer. It will kneecap the economy and leave the lower and middle class with a permanent limp. With the government spending our money faster than they can print it, we need to reconsider what price we are willing to pay.

 ©2009 Pedro Sykes