Free Republic

President Barack Obama pushed urgently Thursday for passage of legislation to confront global warming, billing it as a job-creating machine rather than the costly ''job killer'' Republicans denounced. He telephoning wavering Democrats on the eve of what could be a historic House vote. Speaking in the Rose Garden at the White House, Obama said Washington must not miss the opportunity to work on cleaning the air, creating new ''green'' energy jobs and moving the nation away from its reliance on fossil fuels such as oil, coal and natural gas. The White House appeared concerned that momentum for the bill was...

The battle cry of Joseph Romm at Climate Progress (Center for American Progress) earlier this year was “Obama Can Get a Better Climate Bill in 2010: Here’s How.” But now Romm is in panic mode, trying to convince the rebelling Environmental Left that the out-of-control Waxman-Markey climate change bill (now 1,090 1,201 pages) is the last best hope to save civilization. As Romm stated in a post yesterday:

Republicans will take their first shot at derailing a top Democratic priority — climate change legislation — by offering as many as 200 amendments when the House Energy and Commerce Committee begins marking up its bill this afternoon. The markup, which could stretch over several days, probably provides House Republicans with their best opportunity for offering changes to a bill that will likely see limited amendments on the floor. “Our folks are united against cap-and-trade,” Energy and Commerce member Fred Upton (R-Mich.) said of the carbon control policy being pushed by Democrats. Last week, Democrats agreed among themselves on a...

According to an MIT study, cap and trade could cost the average household more than $3,900 per year.It's just another inconvenient truth: If Americans want any of the government remedies that would supposedly save a planet allegedly imperiled by global warming, it's going to cost them. Just how much it will cost them has been a point of contention lately. Many congressional Republicans, including members of the GOP leadership, have claimed that the plan to limit carbon emissions through cap and trade would cost the average household more than $3,100 per year. According to an MIT study, between 2015 and...

The Spanish-American War was fought in 1898 and lasted less than eight months, but Americans still pay an excise tax on phone service that was imposed to finance it. Last week, a mere 108 years after the end of that conflict, the Bush Administration moved to terminate the levy. Its duration is something to keep in mind the next time you hear a politician call for a "temporary" tax. Treasury Secretary John Snow said the Internal Revenue Service will no longer collect the 3% federal excise tax on long-distance phone calls and will offer refunds for the past three years....

Back in 1996, Vice President Gore had a noble idea. It was to wire every American classroom to the World Wide Web. The idea came to fruition when the E-rate program was born. Often called the "Gore tax," about one-third of the 8% "universal service fee" that's levied on every American long-distance bill has been dedicated to connecting all U.S. schools to the information superhighway. At a cost of $2.25 billion per year, this program is credited with hooking up more than 90% of the nation's classrooms. Unfortunately, a recently uncovered trail of waste, fraud, and abuse demonstrates that some...

The revelation that $5 million in computer equipment became obsolete before it was ever installed in Chicago Public Schools drew the ire of South Side ministers, who complained Saturday that the "abominable waste" of tax dollars has short-changed students. The equipment was part of a $300 million package earmarked for Chicago schools over the last five years under the federal E-Rate program. The program is funded by telecommunication fees and is intended to bridge the "digital divide" between low-income and affluent students. On Saturday, the Rev. James L. Demus III, executive director of the South Side branch of the NAACP,...