And Then A Miracle Really Does Happen

When even the Associated Press realizes that Obamnomics is not going to work, I’d say that was a miracle. In fact, they almost ridicule Obama’s claims in this “fact check” piece.

Via Memeorandum

“And Then A Miracle Happens” Legislation

Vincent Carroll, writing in The Denver Post, is not buying the make believe reasoning driving cap and trade legislation:

A crackdown on greenhouse gases should involve “no cost to the consumer,” declared House Speaker Nancy Pelosi the other day – this from a leading supporter of the legislation. As if one fanciful pledge weren’t enough, the California Democrat also insisted that it would be wrong to pass a bill “that was a penalty to some states.”

Meanwhile, Energy Secretary Steven Chu told a congressional hearing that “in today’s economic climate, it would be completely unwise to want to increase the price of gasoline.” Trouble is, Chu is a climate-bill enthusiast, too – and the purpose of the cap-and-trade legislation that he and his boss, President Obama, favor is to raise the price of fossil fuels. Refiners will be one of the hardest-hit segments of manufacturing.

Two years ago, the Congressional Budget Office forecast that if climate legislation were enacted, low-income households would experience a 3.3 percent drop in income from higher prices associated with a 15 percent cut in carbon dioxide emissions, with middle-income households losing 2.8 percent. (The Waxman-Markey climate bill calls for cutting greenhouse-gas emissions by 20 percent by 2020.)

More recently, the CBO estimated that “the price increases resulting from a 15 percent cut in CO2 emissions could cost the average household roughly $1,600 (in 2006 dollars),” with the greatest impact “relative to income, on lower-income households.”

I heard the interview EPA administrator Lisa Jackson gave to NPR yesterday in which she was flat-out caught out on her admiration for a command and control economy in which Washington dictates what kinds of cars Detroit manufactures.  

Frankly, folks, think about it. When the cost of fuel goes up, the cost of everything goes up. The bite of this legislation will be felt most by those least able to afford it. Those who have to commute further will feel it more than those who rely on urban transport.  

It will cost jobs, it will hurt the economy. A lot. You and I will pay for this. Every, single day, you and I will pay for the cost of increasingly expensive energy.

They call it make believe for a reason. It is not a good basis for realistic legislation.

Ch-Ch-Ch-Changes

Nick Gillespie and Matt Welch at Reason have a link-filled post that looks at the stale, old discredited ideas that are passing for change in Omerica. I will not even try to excerpt any of this one, the link-fest is what makes it fun.

From my point of view, just about everything Obama is spouting is recycled. Gillespie and Welch think a real day of reckoning is fast approaching, where a lot of people will suddenly realize they’ve been had. I only hope it is soon enough to limit the damage.