Gagging on Cap-and-Trade

Why is everything so rushed?

The mantra of the “stimulus” bill was that it had to be passed immediately to avoid economic meltdown.

President Obama said that health care reform has to be passed this year.

Now a gargantuan energy tax, designed specifically to HURT taxpayers so that they use LESS energy, is on the house floor getting rammed through with pieces of the bill listed as ‘place holders’ and deals being cut into the bill even while debate is being limited.

Are you kidding me?

The bill is over 1200 pages and there was an amendment filed at 3am this morning that was an additional 300 pages. The bill is yet to reach a truly completed form, but they are seeking to limit debate and push for a vote now.

Just a sanity check here. Congress, on both sides of the aisle, messes things up on a regular basis. Even when they take their time and really look at something it can have adverse effects that were unplanned. What happens when you are talking about a $4 TRILLION dollar hit to the economy, effecting every household in America with a tax in excess of $3 THOUSAND dollars, at a time when the economy is still deep in the trough of a significant recession?

Any representative voting for this piece of junk, based on bad science, defying reason, common sense, and spitting in the face of fiscal responsibility, should just go ahead and withdraw their name from the ballot for the next election.

This is why American’s don’t trust their elected politicians. And for good reason.

*****Update: Rep Boehner from Ohio is going through the late night amendment page by page pulling out all kinds of things that are horrible about this bill. The problem is that he has to stop every page or every other page; everything from requiring small communities to hire full time building inspectors to prohibiting the sale of homes that fail to obtain a predetermined energy score. It also gives the Sec. of Energy full authority to circumvent the rules and bylaws of private agreements and home owners’ associations. Can you say, “power grab?”

***** Double Update: If you haven’t read Atlas Shrugged you need to. You’re living it.

***** The vote. Check here to see how your rep voted. The bill passed 219-212. Mine missed the vote. Harry Mitchell and Kirkpatrick from AZ both defected against the Dems and voted NO.