Posted on 06/25/2009 5:15:31 PM PDT by p. henry
I wrote the following letter to my Congresscritter. Please feel free to plagiarize.
As your constituent, I write to urge you to vote against Waxman-Markey. While its potential benefits are at best remote, its deleterious effects would be certain.
For it to be of any benefit to the nation, ALL of the following would have to be true: It would have to result in a reduction in the output of carbon dioxide by the United States; the models that show that a significant increase in golbal temperatures would result from increased concentrations of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere would have to be correct (I note that none of these models predicted the cooling of the last 10 years and that none of them can account for the Little Ice Age or the medieval warming period that preceded it); the benefits caused by increased concentrations of carbon dioxide and temperatures (principally increased plant growth and therefore increased food supplies) would have to be outweighed by the detriments; and the decrease in global carbon dioxide caused by implementation of the bill would have to be adequately significant to make a difference in global temperatures (unlikely since all of the carbon dioxide produced by all of humankind accounts for less than one percent of all greenhouse gases). If even one of those statements is untrue, the bill would be of no benefit to your or your constituents.
On the other hand, the costs of Waxman-Markey are certain. It is a tax on industry and potentially any other activity that results in the production of greenhouse gases. Any tax on productive activity increases the costs of that activity and therefore reduces the liklihood that it will occur. Any reputable economist will tell you that the argument that the jobs created in the alternate energy field will even come close to offsetting the destruction of jobs and wealth caused by this tax is false. With unemployment in our state now exceeding 11%, how could any member of our Congressional delegation even consider voting for this job killer.
Even those of us fortunate enough to retain our jobs would be poorer under Waxman-Markey. Estimates of increases in utility bills that would be caused by this bill range from $1700 per year to $3100 per year. Even the President admitted during the campaign that a cap and trade system would result in sharply higher utility bills. How many of your constituents would be able to shoulder those added costs?
Our economy would also be hurt by Waxman-Markey in that it would result in the allocation of resurces by government fiat, rather than customary market forces. This would occur because government would decide how great a CO2 allowance would be granted to a particular industry or company, thereby enriching or impoverishing that industry or company. And imagine the liklihood of corruption that would accompany giving government this vast new power - literally the power to determine if private companies and other institutions live or die. Those favored by government would prosper and those not in favor would struggle. We can already see this in the negotiations in Congress over who will apply Waxman-Markey to farmers, the EPA or the Department of Agriculture. Is this any way to run an economy?
I will be 58 years old this August. I have followed politics and government since I was a child. I remember my parents walking off through the snow to vote for Stevenson in 56. I worked for Kennedy in 60 and Humphrey in 68. In all that time, I have never seen a bill worse for the working men and women of our country than Waxman-Markey. I urge you in the strongest sense to vote against it.
Don’t let the recent news diversions take our eyes off the ball. It is time to email or call your congressmen and senators to vote no on the Waxman-Markey climate-energy bill.
Do it!
I live in a liberal hell called Rhode Island. I have contacted my congressman in the house and senate. Unfortunately,Jack Reed, Sheldon Whitehouse, and Patrick Kennedy will all be voting in favor. I want their names posted for the future. If they every think about any type of Presidential or VP campaign. I want America to remember what these people did to our economy.
bump
My condolences.
I doubt we'll have the chance to vote them out, but they'll be remembered in every history of the fall of our once great nation.
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