Sen. Bond's Opening Statement at Today's EPW Hearing

Madame Chairman, thank you for hosting today’s markup of the Lieberman-Warner Climate Security Act of 2007. This chart here is a diagram of the bill’s requirements, new agencies and new programs. The first thing one notices is how extremely complicated and far-reaching this proposal is. Rube Goldberg would be proud, as several members will focus upon.

I want to focus upon the red blocks at the top. Unfortunately, they are not just blocks - they represent millions of families, farmers, drivers and workers who will pay higher heating bills, suffer more pain at the pump, and lose more jobs because of this bill.

The bill’s sponsors themselves admit this bill will cost our families and workers hundreds of billions of dollars. Where will that money go?

It will flow out of the pockets of our families, farmers, drivers and workers at the top here in red, through those pass thru entities in orange, thru EPA and the new Climate Change Credit Corporation in black and out to all of these new government programs and causes here in blue and purple.

Adoption of my amendments will guarantee that these massive new costs do not significantly harm low-income families, farmers, drivers and workers. My amendments will also close loopholes in the international program that leaves U.S. workers at a competitive disadvantage to foreign workers. I also provide for a liability system left out of this bill that is necessary for underground carbon sequestration. I look forward to their debate and adoption.

In case you couldn't follow it, here is a handy diagram he includes for clarity.

Hillary Matters, through proxy Sen Botoxer proposing to fix energy looks a lot like Hillary-Care for oil. You really expect government to solve anything? And not one drop of new oil in the whole affair.

Socialism is complicated.

"The whole aim of practical politics is to keep the populace alarmed (and hence clamorous to be led to safety) by menacing it with an endless series of hobgoblins, all of them imaginary." ---- H. L. Mencken

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