Saturday, June 27, 2009

With or without our consent: The "Cap & Trade" Bill passes the House

With or without our consent the powers that be in our supposed House of Representatives once again said they don't care what the majority of their constituents want and passed H.R. 2454: The American Clean Energy and Security Act of 2009

Here’s a PDF link to the bill passed by congress today and heading for the Senate.

HR 2454

BTW, the vote was 219-212 with enough Republicans crossing the aisle to pass it.

I would openly like to thank my own Congressman Joe Donnelly for having the sense and the intestinal fortitude to go against his party. Only 2 Indiana Representatives, Democrats Andre’ Carson from the 7th district and Baron Hill from the 9th, voted for HR 2454.

Want to see how your Congressman voted on this bill?

And here are some highlights of the 300 page amendment tacked on in the wee hours of the morning.

It was amazing to listen to Boehner run down the 300+ page amendment to the bill that got dumped on Congress at 3 AM Friday morning. Among the provisions:


1) You are now more or less subject to the CA building code no matter where you are. If you sell your house, you have to pay to get it energy rated and brought up to CA standards.

2) Son of Smoot-Hawley

3) Every city, town, and municipality must hire 3 full time people to deal with the bill

4) All house appraisers must now be retrained and re-certified by some sort of federal agency to evaluate “properly” the energy enhancements

5) FNM and FRE are to be set free to have to make more lost cost mortgages.

6) There is a 5 billion dollar set-aside for the creation of a “Green Bank” to make loans to worthy people.

7) Acorn gets a slice, since they get some money to perform the retrofit “greening”. CRA all over again.

Bend over America; Obama, Pelosi and those who voted for this travesty want to get better acquainted.





These seemed to fit.
I Started a Joke:


If I Only Had A Brain:


Friday, June 26, 2009

Open letter to Congressman Joe Donnelly On HR-2454

Below is a copy of the message I have sent to my Congressman Joe Donnelly

"Representative Donnelly,

HR 2454, the "Cap-and-Trade" bill scheduled to come before you for a vote very soon, is nothing more than a thinly disguised energy tax that will hit every single American.
I have called and left a message to let you know That I personally am against this and as my representative I ask that you take this into consideration when you vote.
If those I have been talking to locally are any indication a large majority of your constituents have no clue as to the impact this is going to have on their lives if passed. I am hoping that you sir ARE aware.
Even tho the goal of this bill is a lofty one and it may force a change in the way energy is produced in this country, it's counterparts around the world have failed miserably.
President Obama himself claimed in several campaign speeches before the election that if this plan was put into effect it would raise the rates paid for electricity by 100% or more. Mr Obama has also said that the Cap and trade WILL bankrupt the Coal powered electrical plants. Right now 49 % of our electricity nation wide comes from coal, I'm sure I don't have to tell you here in Indiana that number is much higher.

Energy companies will pass the costs of their new regulations through to consumers in the form of huge price increases, meaning higher electric bills, gas prices, and increased costs across the board.

Barack Obama has estimated the costs of this legislation to American taxpayers to be over 650 BILLION dollars over the next eight years, and that figure is no doubt just a fraction of the real cost.
For my family our share figures out around $9000. Not a huge amount spread out over 8 years but then again that's HIS estimate and I'm the one who forced to figure out what my kids can do without to pay for it. Independent sources are putting the real figure at double that or better.

Higher costs of doing business also means companies will be forced to lay off more workers. This current economic crisis is no time for Congress to consider both raising prices on hard-working Americans AND costing them their jobs.
I am a Network administrator for a Non-profit serving the mentally and physically handicapped in Kokomo. We,and other services like us, are trying our best to maintain services for our clients. I know I do not have to enumerate what this town is going thru. This bill will put even more stress on depleted resources and force business to reduce services.

As your constituent, I strongly urge you to stand up for the American people by opposing HR 2454.

Thank You,
David McDougle"

Thursday, June 25, 2009

Indiana Electric rates WILL double if We do not act NOW

TOMORROW (Friday June 26th, 2009), the House will vote on the Pelosi/ Obama-pushed massive carbon tax -- what the Wall Street Journal today is calling the "biggest tax in American history."

That means we have just a few hours left to voice our opposition.

The Journal says the bill "defies the laws of economics" and then lambasts the Congressional Budget Office for totally ignoring the negative effects on the economy this bill will cause.

For example, Heritage Foundation’s estimates that the cap-and-trade Carbon Tax will:

"Reduce aggregate Gross Domestic Product (GDP) by
$9.6 trillion"

"Destroy up to 2.5 million jobs in some years"

"Raise electric rates 90%, gasoline prices by 74%, and
natural gas prices by 55% after adjusting for inflation"

"Raise a typical family's average annual energy bill
by $1,500."

I am asking everyone to take immediate action in two ways:
#1 -- Send Faxes and emails Now!

We must let every member of the House know that citizens do NOT want yet another enormous tax and government bureaucracy! We oppose their massive carbon taxing scheme! Below is a link that will help you find who your Congressman is and how to contact them.

#2-- Call your Rep today!

Call your Representative and key House leaders and tell them you oppose H.R. 2454!

Here is a link that will help you find who your Congressman is and how to contact them. https://writerep.house.gov/writerep/welcome.shtml

Other key House leaders or undecideds to call:

Rep. Collin Peterson (Ag Committee Chair): 202-225-2165
(Peterson just caved and is now supporting the bill)

Rep. Tim Holden (Ag Cmmtte Vice Chair): 202-225-5546

Rep. Tim Walz (MN) 202-225-2472

Rep. Mike McIntyre (NC): 202-225-2731

Rep. Henry Cuellar (TX): 202-225-1640

Rep. David Scott (GA): 202-225-2939


Talking Points:

1. I oppose the cap-and-trade Carbon Tax. This is an outrageous
power grab by the federal government that will greatly expand
government control and increase energy costs for my family.

2. This system of "allocations" has failed in Europe and will
politicize America's energy policy.

3. Especially in these difficult economic times, Congress must
not pass this tax on the American people!

Here are the links to the articles in the Wall Street Journal :

http://online.wsj.com/article/SB124588837560750781.html

And at the Heritage Foundation:

http://www.heritage.org/Research/EnergyandEnvironment/wm2450.cfm

Ron Paul Outraged at the $108 billion loan guarantee to the IMF.

U.S. Rep. Ron Paul, R-Texas, says he was dismayed that Congress passed the war supplemental appropriations bill so easily last week.

“An economic collapse seems to be the goal of Congress and this administration,” Paul said during his weekly radio address Monday.

“Washington spends with impunity, domestically bailing and nationalizing basically everything they can get their hands on,” Paul said.

Mocking the idea that Obama was a “peace candidate,” Paul pointed out that his administration will be sending another $106 billion it doesn't have "to continue the bloodshed in Afghanistan and Iraq without a hint of a plan to bring American troops home."

Paul noted that many of his congressional colleagues who previously voted with him in opposition to every war supplemental request under the Bush administration seem to have changed their tune. He maintains that a vote to fund the war is a vote in favor of the war.

“Congress exercises its constitutional prerogatives through the power of the purse,” Paul said. “As long as Congress continues to enable these dangerous interventions abroad, there is no end in sight: that is until we face total economic collapse.”

Paul noted that, as Americans struggle through the worst economic downturn since the Great Depression, the foreign aid and International Monetary Fund appropriations in the spending bill passed last week can be called an international bailout:

The emergency supplemental appropriations bill sends:

  • $660 million to Gaza
  • $555 million to Israel
  • $310 million to Egypt
  • $300 million to Jordan
  • $420 million to Mexico
  • $889 million to the United Nations for so-called “peace-keeping” missions
  • $1 billion overseas to address the global financial crisis outside U.S. borders
  • $8 billion to address a potential pandemic flu, which he said could result in mandatory vaccinations “for no discernable reason other than to enrich the pharmaceutical companies.”

    Perhaps most outrageous, Paul said, is the $108 billion loan guarantee to the IMF.

    “These new loan guarantees will allow that destructive organization to continue spending taxpayer money to prop up corrupt leaders and promote harmful economic policies overseas. Not only does sending American taxpayer money to the IMF hurt citizens here, evidence shows that it even hurts those it pretends to help.”

    Paul said that IMF loans require policy changes called “structural adjustment” programs, which amount to “forced Keynesianism.”

    “This is the very fantasy-infused economic model that has brought our own country to its knees,” Paul said, “and IMF loans act as the Trojan horse to inflict it on others."

    Leaders in recipient nations tend to become more concerned with the wishes of international needs than the needs of their own people, he said.

    “Argentina and Kenya are just two examples of countries that followed IMF mandates right off a cliff. The IMF frequently recommends currency devaluations to poorer nations, which has wiped out the already impoverished over and over.”

    Paul noted a long list of brutal dictators the IMF happily supported and propped up with loans that left their oppressed populaces with staggering amounts of debt with no economic progress to show for it.

    The continued presence of U.S. forces in Iraq and Afghanistan does not make America safer at home but, in fact, undermines national security, he said.

    “We are buying nothing but evil and global oppression by sending [our] taxpayer dollars to the IMF — not to mention there is no constitutional authority to do so.”

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