H/T to Riley from Virginia Virtucon
“Dear Lord … this year you have taken away my favorite actor, Patrick Swayze, my favorite actress, Farrah Fawcett, my favorite singer, Michael Jackson, and my favorite salesman, Billy Mays. … I just wanted to let you know that Chris Christie is my favorite governor.”
Does it strike anyone else that union rhetoric is typically virulent and without any value whatsoever?
Many readers may remember Sam Church as president of the UMWA during the late 70’s and early 80’s. Mr. Church was the predecessor to Richard Trumka. Mr. Church passed away this week at 72 years of age. Godspeed Mr. Church.
I am thankful for an organization like the Heritage Foundation that works tirelessly to inform the American citizenry about the need for conservative solutions to problems in America today. An example is this Web Memo from Heritage that crunches the estimated job loss numbers by Congressional district. It is not surprising that in our Commonwealth, Waxman-Markey will have the greatest negative impact on the Fightin’ Ninth District. I’ll outline the findings for the Ninth District:
1.) GSP Losses in 2012 = $646.53 million This is a staggering loss of the economy in an already struggling CD. If the devastation to the Ninth’s economy were isolated, it might not be as bad, but the losses continue to pile up for the next twenty years or so.
2.) GSP Losses in 2012-2035 = $1.3 billion, yes billion. This is a tragic and devastating loss to a district that largely depends on coal as a source of income for the economy. Think this is bad? You ain’t seen nothing yet.
3.) Personal Income Loss in 2012 - $592 million and this is in just 2012. It does not get better.
4.) Average Personal Income Loss 2012 –2035 = $342.9 million The good news just keeps on coming doesn’t it?
5.) Non-Farm Job Loss in 2012 – 5,483 I’m sorry but this district cannot afford job losses on this scale. Rick Boucher should be thrown out on his can for voting for this.
6.) Non-Farm Job Loss 2012-2035 – 3,439 per year.
This bill of goods that recently passed the house will drastically affect the quality of life in the Ninth District. As before, it is no surprise that Waxman-Markey has the greatest negative impact on the Ninth District. And for what? A very negligible decrease in carbon emissions over the life of this legislation. Rick Boucher, shame on you.
Chrysler CEO Robert Nardelli told a U.S. bankruptcy court on Thursday that Iacocca's pension would be among the obligations Chrysler will no longer have to pay if it gets bankruptcy court approval to sell itself to a "New Chrysler" to be owned by its union, the U.S. and Canadian governments and Fiat SpA (FIA.MI).
Well, I won’t be buying Chrysler or Government Motors. Looks like Ford will be getting my business for a while. While some may see the restructuring of Chrysler as a God send, I say its a load of crap. Don’t believe me, how many of us could see this coming with the advent of Government Motors.
Meanwhile, the Kool-Aid is starting to take effect. The American people have started to lose all sense of reality, caught up in the hope and change that the Spender-in-Chief has sold them. You suckers!!!!
At least that’s what one would think Rick Boucher and Cecil “I Own Rick Boucher” Roberts would believe. After all, a vast portion of the Ninth District is “Coal Country.” Apparently not, according to this release by Roberts’ UMWA. I’ll restate the question I previously asked: How does cap and tax protect good paying coal jobs? Answer: It doesn’t. Capping carbon emissions and then allowing trade allowances for these credits will do nothing but enact a National Energy Tax and thus seriously threaten the coal industry. That’s the whole point behind the Waxman-Markey bill. They want to tax coal out of usage in the United States. What does that leave? Hundreds of miners out of work with no prospects for jobs that pay equally as well.
What benefits would the United States gain environmentally under a cap and trade system? Little to none according to the Heritage Foundation:
Waxman-Markey Bill: Dumb and Dumber
- Waxman-Markey Global Warming Tax: The cap-and-trade tax proposed by Reps. Henry Waxman (D-CA) and Edward Markey (D-MA) is disguised as environmental legislation when it would have little impact on global temperatures. In fact, it is a massive energy tax that promises soaring household energy bills, major job losses, income cuts, and a sharp left turn toward big government.
- And It Keeps Getting Worse: The original draft of Waxman-Markey was so bad for the economy that moderate Democrats demanded it be changed. The new version, believe it or not, is much worse. Compared to no cap and trade, real GDP losses increase an additional $2 trillion, from $7.4 trillion to $9.6 trillion
- And Why Is It Getting Worse? Attempts to reduce costs to consumers in the current bill do ease some near-term economic pains, but because "pollution permits" are handed out as subsidies, debt is driven up, interest rates increase, and businesses significantly reduce the investments that drive the overall economy, resulting in a more costly bill.
- Green Jobs Are a Myth; Real Job Losses Are Not: For every "green job" created, others are wiped out. Compared to no cap and trade, average unemployment increases in the new bill an additional 261,000 jobs, from 844,000 lost jobs to 1,105,000 lost jobs in the current version
- Your Family Will Pay: Waxman-Markey will raise electricity rates 90% after adjusting for inflation, gas prices 74%, natural gas prices 55%, and an average family's annual energy bill by at least $1,500.
And What Do We Get After We Tax the Weather?
- The Ultimate Outsourcing: India and China have repeatedly said they would not match U.S. environmental goals in order to protect their economies. Cap and trade will merely move manufacturing jobs to China and India.
- Environmental Status Quo: All of the outrageous costs associated with this bill may at best result in 0.2 degree drop in temperature by the end of the century, and most likely even less.
- Massive Corruption: The New York Times reports that cap and trade "is almost perfectly designed for the buying and selling of political support through the granting of valuable emissions permits to favor specific industries and even specific congressional districts" (May 20, 2009).
- An Alternative That Supports American Taxpayers: Instead of appeasing a radical environmental agenda, President Obama should give us access to all energy sources, including domestic oil production, nuclear energy, coal, and new renewable fuels. Instead of new taxes, the President should aim to lower gas and electricity prices. When government impediments are lifted, America's energy entrepreneurs can develop innovative and market-driven solutions to our energy needs.
The problem is that Cecil Roberts and the UMWA are sweeping Boucher's support of Waxman-Markey under the rug. I posted about this, but no seems to be paying attention, I know you all read stuff, but the complicity here is staggering considering Roberts' rhetoric. The question we ought to be asking Roberts, Boucher and the UMWA, is how does cap and tax protect good paying coal jobs? Boucher's song and dance routine about being middle of the road is getting him nowhere. We've all seen the protest at his DC office and the arrests that followed. Being middle of the road does nothing but get you hit by a tractor and trailer.He should stick with being liberal, he's better at it.
In this press release, Cecil “I Own Rick Boucher” Roberts comes to the Feckless One’s defense citing “protections” in the Waxman bill. How does cap and tax protect coal jobs Mr. Roberts?
“Coal is America’s most abundant energy resource. We have more coal than any nation on earth. As the debate over climate change has evolved over the past two decades, we have not only insisted on the preservation of coal mining jobs, but argued as well for the essential part that coal plays in sustaining our national economy and ensuring our independence from foreign oil.
“While we still have concerns about this legislation, it contains many items that Rep. Boucher and others worked hard to attain and which we support, including over $100 billion to advance and deploy carbon capture and storage (CCS) technology.
The fact of the matter remains that cap and tax will create a huge bureaucracy to handle the trade of “allowance” in carbon emissions and will effectively create a National Energy Tax which will discourage the use of coal and other sources of energy which are readily available to us now. This cap and tax system, by Obama’s own admission, will cause electricity rates to “skyrocket.” Don’t believe me? Hear now the Spender-in-Chief:
This is simply about partisan politics and the fact that Rick Boucher is owned and funded by Roberts and the UMWA. I suggest that Mr. Roberts read HR 2300, the American Energy Innovation Act to see the right approach to energy solutions for the United States. Until he does, he remains clueless as to what Americans really want.
I’ll grant that this is only one example of the possible coercion card check would allow, but it is a powerful one.
