New Boxer-Kerry bill endangers taxpayers and the economy

When most in Washington are focusing on the health care debate, we would be foolish to forget about the other looming nightmare for taxpayers across America: cap-and-trade, more appropriately termed the National Energy Tax. The latest example of this is the Boxer-Kerry bill entitled the "Clean Energy Jobs and American Power Act,” which if passed would condemn taxpayers to poverty and the American economy to oblivion.

In fact, it is easy to make the argument that cap-and-trade legislation would exert more control over a bigger sector of our economy than even the most radical proposals for national health care. That’s because energy, especially carbon-based energy, is a factor in the production or provision of virtually every good or service in America. From family-run restaurants, which rely on a fleet of delivery vehicles to the airlines we use to visit relatives, from the clothing factory that uses gas-fired electricity to the coal mine on which a local town depends for employment, cap-and-trade means higher prices, fewer jobs, and lower rates of return for millions of middle class investors and retirees.

Equally troubling is that an internal Treasury Department memo recently uncovered through a Freedom of Information Act request revealed cap-and-trade initiatives could cost American taxpayers $100 to $200 billion annually. What’s worse, the Treasury Department indicated that additional economic costs – such as higher energy prices – could raise the total as high as several hundred billion dollars more, working out to a combined direct and indirect burden of $3,000-$5,000 per family every year. Such a price tag would be difficult to justify in the best of times; in the current recessionary climate, it is absolutely unconscionable.

Even supporters of cap-and-trade admit that their legislation would, at best, have only a small impact on global temperatures.

As recent polls demonstrate, so much pain for so little gain is unacceptable to the majority of Americans.

Rather than gamble on a discredited cap-and-trade system, Senators should advocate for environmentally sound reforms that also improve economic productivity. First among these reforms should be removing regulatory barriers in order to develop more emissions-friendly alternatives, like nuclear and hydropower.

This will reduce our reliance on foreign oil, as will careful exploration for new domestic petroleum sources. Low taxes can help the private sector cultivate green technologies without the need for any government subsidies.

Plain and simple: America can’t afford the Boxer-Kerry bill.