Cap-and-trade energy tax vote looms

I'm starting to get a bit nervous about the Dems succeeding in getting their cap-and-trade energy tax passed in the House. Rep. Mike Pence (R-IN) says he believes the GOP doesn't have enough votes to stop the bill that could end up costing a family of four at least $1,800 a year.

A Marathon Pundit reader from Chicago's Northwest Side suggested I post this Wall Street Journal article from yesterday about "cap-and-tax":

House Speaker Nancy Pelosi has put cap-and-trade legislation on a forced march through the House, and the bill may get a full vote as early as Friday. It looks as if the Democrats will have to destroy the discipline of economics to get it done.

Despite House Energy and Commerce Chairman Henry Waxman's many payoffs to members, rural and Blue Dog Democrats remain wary of voting for a bill that will impose crushing costs on their home-district businesses and consumers. The leadership's solution to this problem is to simply claim the bill defies the laws of economics.

Their gambit got a boost this week, when the Congressional Budget Office did an analysis of what has come to be known as the Waxman-Markey bill. According to the CBO, the climate legislation would cost the average household only $175 a year by 2020. Edward Markey, Mr. Waxman's co-author, instantly set to crowing that the cost of upending the entire energy economy would be no more than a postage stamp a day for the average household. Amazing. A closer look at the CBO analysis finds that it contains so many caveats as to render it useless.

For starters, the CBO estimate is a one-year snapshot of taxes that will extend to infinity. Under a cap-and-trade system, government sets a cap on the total amount of carbon that can be emitted nationally; companies then buy or sell permits to emit CO2. The cap gets cranked down over time to reduce total carbon emissions.

As I've written before, if you drive a car, use public transportation, flick on a light switch, or read Marathon Pundit, you will pay this tax.

President Obama says he will sign this legislation into law. It will break a campaign promise of his not to raise taxes on families earning less than $250,000 a year. Yes, Americans aren't directly being taxed by cap-and-trade, but their wallets won't notice the difference.

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