GOP Blasts Cap-and-Trade, Ineffective Stimulus

Congressional Republicans may have finally found a unifying message of criticism they can ride all the way to the 2010 midterm elections.

In the weekly GOP address, House Minority Leader John Boehner blasted cap-and-trade legislation recently approved by the House, the abysmal results yeilded by Porkulus thus far, and President Obama’s proposed behemoth health care reform efforts.

To answer the minority leader’s question, there are no jobs created by stimulus.  The only thing that porkulus has managed to stimulate is government.

Boehner is on a roll this week.  Yesterday’s effectual filibuster of Waxman-Markey was inspired, his response to Waxman’s parliamentary inquiry was delightfully snarky, and the above address is succinct and powerful.

Republicans need to continue to blast cap-and-trade as an egregious infringement on liberty–and what’s more, a flagrant break on the part of the Obama administration with his campaign promise not to raise taxes on 95% of Americans.  The WSJ notes the crippling effect of Waxman-Markey, in effect a tax on individual energy use:

When the Heritage Foundation did its analysis of Waxman-Markey, it broadly compared the economy with and without the carbon tax. Under this more comprehensive scenario, it found Waxman-Markey would cost the economy $161 billion in 2020, which is $1,870 for a family of four. As the bill’s restrictions kick in, that number rises to $6,800 for a family of four by 2035

It is true that the tax is levied on industries that exceed their allotment for emissions; but a tax on industry is passed on to consumers, in effect “taxing” them for their use of energy.  Liberal Democrats think that simply because the tax isn’t applied directly in all cases to 95% of all Americans, they don’t endure it.  This is ridiculous.

Republicans need to stay on message.  No action taken by Congress and the Obama administration has positively affected the economy in even the slightest measure.  Congress has expanded government to the detriment of the individual; it continues to explore and seek out new ways to usurp individual liberties under the banner of helping to assuage and economic crisis that owes its origins to onerous government interference in the first place.  The most pernicious legislationin the works, to date,  is cap-and-trade, soon to be followed by ObamaCare.  Overreach on the part of liberal Democrats is now a reality.  All Republicans have to do is point it out, spell out the alternative, and find charismatic messengers.