Waxman-Markey Is Our Smoot-Hawley

IBD Editorials ^ | June 29, 2009 | TOM MCCLINTOCK

[Kaslin]

Following is the floor speech that Republican Rep. Tom McClintock of California's fourth congressional district gave last Friday in opposition to the cap and trade legislation that passed that day.

I had a strange sense of deja vu as I watched the self-congratulatory rhetoric on the House floor tonight, and I feel compelled to offer this warning from the Left Coast.

Three years ago, I stood on the floor of the California Senate and watched a similar celebration over a similar bill, Assembly Bill 32. And I have spent the last three years watching as that law has dangerously deepened California's recession. It uses a different mechanism than cap and trade, but the objective is the same: to force a dramatic reduction in carbon dioxide emissions.

Until that bill took effect, California's unemployment numbers tracked very closely with the national unemployment rate. But then, in January of 2007, California's unemployment rate began a steady upward divergence from the national jobless figures. Today, California's unemployment rate is more than two points above the national rate, and at its highest point since 1941.

What is it that happened in January 2007? AB 32 took effect and began shutting down entire segments of California's economy. Let me give you one example from my district.

The city of Truckee, Calif., was about to sign a long-term power contract to get its electricity from a new, EPA-approved coal-fired electricity plant in Utah. AB 32 and companion legislation caused them to abandon that contract. The replacement power they acquired literally doubled their electricity costs.

[Kaslin]

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[Kaslin]

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[Frantzie]

Tom McClintock gets it. He is probably the closest thing to Reagan in CA anymore.

[El Cid]

McClintock - the only politician from California that is worth anything. He was the only one who talked sense when he ran in the Gray Davis recall election, and he continues to talk sense.
Good analysis of this latest fiasco from the Pelosi Congress.

[truthguy]

If California had elected Tom McClintock in 2003 instead of the buffoon Schwarzenegger we would be in so much better shape. He would have begun addressing the systemic problems with California's budget immediately and while revenues were decent. He said at the time we were having a difficult time balancing the budget with record revenues what will we do if (and when) we have a recession.

But hey the enlightened voters of state got a movie star for governor. That's what's important, isn't it?

Well a catastrophe has ensued and the voters of the state are responsible for the mess. I don't see any evidence that the average person knows what's going on. I guess they are too interested in watching American Idol or the Michael Jackson Non-stop publicity machine.

Well a day of reckoning will arrive July 1. The people will know then. Will they then do the right thing? I doubt it, they are too stupid.

[Proud_USA_Republican]

It should be called the Waxman-Madoff bill.

[Ol' Dan Tucker]

But hey the enlightened voters of state got a movie star for governor. That's what's important, isn't it?

Many FReepers from many states bad-mouthed Tom here on FR because he wasn't 'photogenic' enough.

Guess which one the GOP backed?

Why back a party that helps elect liberal movie-stars instead of fiscal conservatives?

[Kaslin]

Why leave Markey out of it?

[Proud_USA_Republican]

Waxman-Malarkey-Madoff Bill. That sounds perfect.

[expat_panama]

FReepers from many states bad-mouthed Tom here on FR because he wasn't 'photogenic'

Make that some freepers.  Imho it's only the noisy minority that love tariffs and hate Republicans.

[rabscuttle385]

fyi