Wednesday, November 19, 2008

Quote of the Day: Global Warming = Tax Hikes


"Speaking via video to a “climate change” conference in California yesterday, President-elect Obama promised hundreds of liberal environmental activists and officials from around the world that the United States would change its environmental policies, which according to the president-elect “will start with a federal cap and trade system.” Obama warned, “The science is beyond dispute and the facts are clear. Sea levels are rising. Coastlines are shrinking. … storms are growing stronger with each passing hurricane season.”

With all due respect, the science is very much in dispute. In the last few days, NASA’s Goddard Institute was forced to retract its erroneous announcement that this past October was the hottest ever. In fact, according to figures from the National Climatic Data Center, 87 new record low temperatures were recorded on October 29th alone.

Moreover, a major climate conference in Venice concluded last week with a report on the findings from the deepest Antarctic ice core ever extracted. The chemical analysis of the two-mile deep ice core revealed that the “Earth has gone through 8 ice ages and 8 ‘warm ages’” over many thousands of years. It’s difficult to blame that on human activity.

Now regardless of what you may think about global warming (we are skeptical), what is beyond dispute is that imposing extraordinary new tax burdens on businesses in the middle of a recession is a horrible idea that could well tip us into a depression. Yet, that is exactly what President-elect Obama is promising with his carbon “cap and trade” scheme.

An Investors Business Daily editorial yesterday connected the dots to decreased emissions demanded by the Kyoto treaty and economic activity. Consider this: “…according to forecasts from the U.S. Energy Department, the costs [of Kyoto] could reach as high as … $570 billion a year. It would kill nearly 5 million jobs. Still want to sign on?” Unfortunately, President-elect Obama intends to sign on, and all of us will pay for it in higher taxes and more unemployment. CWF will fight Obama’s job-killing green tax hikes every step of the way, and we will need your help!"

Gary Bauer
Campaign for Working Families