OUR VIEW

0 Comments | Gazette, The (Colorado Springs), Jun 7, 2008

GREENIE MANTRA:

MONEY FOR NOTHIN'

Why the elite want to save Mother Earth

Safe prediction, and you read it here first: The winner of this year's presidential race will be a multi-millionaire environmentalist. Whichever environmentalist wins won't be personally fazed by inflated costs in gasoline, food and other consumer goods. Neither environmentalist will understand how a 50- cent increase in the price of gas, or another rise in the cost of bread, can hurt. Chicken Little will have command and he'll save us from the sky at any cost.

Barack Obama and John McCain weren't present Friday when Senate Democrats made their final attempt to pass a multi-trillion dollar global warming bill, unable to end a Republican filibuster. But McCain and Obama each submitted statements to the Senate indicating they would have supported the bill. In other words, each man running for president supports a gargantuan spending proposal to fund futile efforts to control the climate of planet Earth.

Sen. Barbara Boxer, D-Calif., supported the bill but was unshaken by its demise. She said the failed attempt at this year's radical save-the-planet legislation was "the laying of a foundation for a new president to move rapidly to be able to get this done."

And she's correct. Our new president will likely get it done, which should frighten and anger the middle-class Americans who will feel it most.

The bill is classic feel-good legislation that appeals to the positively mainstream green movement, championed today by liberals and conservatives alike. We've seen Nancy Pelosi and Newt Gingrich, side-by-side on TV to champion going green. And this week it's the Revs. Pat Robertson and Al Sharpton, side-by-side on TV, promoting the need to save Mother Earth. Don't be surprised if Ronald Reagan returns from the grave to promote "going green" alongside Jimmy Carter.

The Senate bill aimed to cut greenhouse gases 66 percent by 2050 through the so-called cap-and-trade system on emissions. To make a long story short, the bill would add artificial process and expense to energy production and consumption in the United States, slowing progress and adding to the costs of commodities.

At a time when energy is expensive and hard to come by, resulting in food inflation and aggravating human struggle, this would make a bad situation considerably worse. All so that Americans might help with a theoretical problem that may or may not be affected by human activity.

Sen. James Inhofe, R-Okla., said the bill would raise taxes by more than $1 trillion (yes, trillion with a "T") in the next 10 years and increase consumer costs in the United States over the next decade by $6.7 trillion in the form of higher priced gasoline and electricity. Had it passed, the bill may have represented the largest transfer of wealth in human history.

The U.S. Chamber of Commerce and the American Petroleum Institute estimate the bill alone would ultimately have raise the cost of gas by $1.40 a gallon -- on top of all the other inflationary factors affecting fuel.

The consumer costs of the bill probably don't alarm either Obama or McCain. In their worlds, gas is cheap at almost any price. The sworn environmentalists have the luxury to embrace radical conspiracy theories that hold Americans accountable for the planet's climate. They're able to support a law that would place substantial burden on middle-class Americans because both men are wealthy -- largely because of their wives. McCain's wife is the billionaire heiress of a beer company, and Obama's wife has for years earned a high six-figure wage as a hospital administrator and charity director. Neither man has tried to feed children on the proceeds of an average, hard-earned American paycheck.

Nobody should begrudge the incomes and lifestyles of wealthy Americans, by any means. Wealth and success are good, and should be pursued by any who want them. But wealthy Americans seeking lives of public service should keep in mind the tens of millions of working- class Americans, the people who keep this country afloat, before embracing hefty feel-good spending proposals that are tied to conspiracy theories about man-made global warming. The global warming bill is likely to have no effect on the climate, and it's guaranteed to push working Americans further into hardship at a time when they most need a break.

Senate Republicans were able to contain the ravenous beast this time around. Next year, however, they'll have the enthusiastic support of the president of the United States -- no matter who it is. And they might just get this nightmare legislation through Congress. Then watch out. Middle-class Americans will be forced to pay the cost of a futile effort to control the global climate -- a piein-the-sky fantasy of comfortable conspiracy theorists with money to burn.

CRAZY TUESDAY ON TEJON

The annual Pike Peak or Bust Rodeo Parade will be on a Tuesday night, not Saturday morning as usual. Tuesday night? Who attends parades on Tuesday nights? Are they crazy? The change represents a classic scheduling conflict. This year, the Saturday before the rodeo falls on July 5. Organizers feared a sort of post-July 4 party fatigue, as people celebrate late on the Fourth of July and probably aren't up for a parade the next day.