Climate Change Bill

HEALTH CARE, HEALTH CARE, HEALTH CARE, CLIMATE CHANGE, HEALTH CARE

While the death of Michael Jackson dominated the news headlines, the House of Representatives passed a Climate change bill that will have dramatic effect on every American.

I'm not sure if it was intended or just worked out that way but the democrats in the House did a little sleight-of-hand on Friday and passed the largest tax bill in American history. ABC hosted what amounted to Obama Care infomercial last week (disguised as a news show) and health care has dominated the talk shows and news programing so it went somewhat under the radar that Pelosi tried to pass the largest energy tax bill that America has ever seen. And she succeeded!

This Climate Change Bill is touted as the first measure to reverse man made climate change on the planet. If you go back and read my first blog you will find I am not sold on the idea that man has caused the climate to change. Quick recap: The primary component of greenhouse gases is water vapor. CO2 comprises less than 10% of all greenhouse gases. Man made CO2 comprises less than 10% of the total CO2 emissions. So, man made green house gases is less than 1% of total green house gases. In addition, Al Gore's charts shows a parallel between increased CO2 and the surface temperature of the planet. A closer look shows that the increased CO2 levels FOLLOW the increased temps so they cannot have caused the change.

CAP-AND-TRADE: This bill is essentially a cap-and-trade bill. What that means is each company is allotted a certain amount of CO2 emissions. If the company goes over that limit they must purchase more, resulting in basically a tax. The thought behind the plan is that the largest polluters will have to pay more and this will entice them the adopt "greener" energy solutions. Basic supply and demand. Price goes up so the demand goes down.

IMMEDIATE EFFECT: The largest polluters are the energy companies. Burning of fossil fuels to create electricity creates a lot of pollution. This will immediately cause the cost of energy to increase. Also subject to this bill are oil refiners, natural gas producers and any company that produces energy on-site. So virtually all our energy will cost more money. Every manufacturer will now have higher energy costs, higher transportation costs and will have to increase their prices. So now we are paying more for every goods and services we purchase. The democrats estimate the initial cost is approximately $175 per household but independent studies estimate $436 initially and $1,241 in 2035.

LONG TERM EFFECT: It does take much foresight to see that in a world economy if one country increases the cost of production on all their manufacturers and the rest of the world does not, that one company will have a disadvantage and the world will purchase their goods and services from the other countries. This will either cause U.S. manufacturers to close down or move more of their operations to other countries. Either way, this will cost American jobs. Since farming is energy intensive that sector will be hit the hardest costing food costs to rise.

This tax does not hit people evenly. Lower income people spend a higher percentage of their budget on energy costs so this will be a regressive tax. In addition, rural Americans spend more on energy than urban Americans so it will hit them harder. (Rural America typically vote overwhelmingly for conservatives, coincidnce?) Candidate Obama kept telling us only the top 5% of American wage earners are going to pay more taxes under his plan. Maybe, technically, that may be true but EVERY SINGLE AMERICANS WILL BE PAYING MORE TO THE GOVERNMENT either directly or indirectly through higher energy costs.

America is the second largest polluting country in the world next to China. Even though, per capita our carbon footprint is much higher, we also produce twice as much as China. Approximately 25% of the world CO2 is produced in the U.S. Let's say we can cut or CO2 emissions by 20%, the world is still putting 95% of the pollutants into the air. Is a worldwide 5% reduction going to save the planet? Unless we can get the rest of the world to put the same restrictions onto their producers all this bill will do is give the government a much larger income and cause more of the world production to be produced outside the U.S. borders.

This was an 1,100 page bill with 300 pages of that added at 3:00am the night before yet they felt compelled to vote on the bill the following day. Al Gore, President Obama and Nancy Pelosi spent the day on the phone making deals and pressuring congressmen(women) to pass the largest income generating bill in the history of the U.S. No one could have read and comprehended all aspects of the bill but that was probably the plan. If the bill is such a great idea, if it will save the planet, if it put America ahead of the world then why didn't they sell the case to the American people? Why was this snuck through the back door when no one was looking?

Muslim World

(Follow Up)

Since President Obama's "epic" speech a few weeks ago in Cairo where he addressed the Muslim world in an attempt to ease tensions, we have had a few events that have shown how the Middle East accepted his olive branch.

1. A major part of his speech addressed not only what the U.S. and the Muslim community need to do to move towards peace in the Middle East but also put pressure on Israel to accept a Palestinian state and to stop the settlements in the West Bank which the President labeled as "illegal". Israel, once again, extended their hand by accepting a Palestinian state with conditions that this state be non-militarized and that they recognize the Israeli state. This demand is not only reasonable but key due to the fact that Hamas, the Palestinian terrorist group (and now elected leaders) have launched over 7,000 missiles and rockets into Israel over the last three years. That averages out to over 6/day for three years!

Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak, one of the more reasonable of the Muslim leaders in the Middle East, attempted to respond to Israel for the Muslim community, stated that they will never recognize Israel as the Jewish state. The response to Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's vision for peace in the region was to refuse to even recognize Israel as an independent state. Now, where does Israel go from there? If the Muslim world will not even recognize Israel right of sovereignty how can they even begin to negotiate peace?

2. The most notorious of all the Muslim leaders has to be Iran's President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad who term of power came up for reelection this past week. He was challenged by a more moderate contender who has gained the support of the youth of the country, similar to what provided Obama's victory. After a day long paper ballot vote, it took just a few hours for these paper ballots to be counted and to declare Ahmadinejad the Landslide victor.

We can interrupt this result in two different ways but either ways shows that Iran has no intention to work with the U.S. and they cannot be trusted. First, we can trust the accuracy of this election and accept that the people of Iran like the way the country is being run by the President who continually lies about his country's nuclear intentions and has on many occasions called for the annihilation of Israel. Or, secondly, we can question the overwhelming discrepancies of an election facilitated by the incumbent who a) won by a landslide in a highly contested race, b) counted millions of paper ballots in a few hours and c) carried his challenger's home city by a large margin. If it is in fact a "stolen election" then how we can trust a leader who cheats his own people out a basic right to have their vote counted. He has proven time and time again that he cannot be trusted so what can be gained out of working on a peaceful solution to problems with this man. He will just say what we want to hear and do exactly as he wants.

I do agree with President Obama that we cannot get involved with this election. We are not trusted or liked by these people and nothing can be gained by meddling into their internal affairs.

Both of these situations show that the Middle East is not a place that wants peace. No matter what efforts we make and what ally we throw to the wolves we will not be able to negotiate peace with these people. The Middle East is a unique part of the world where the radical extremists have too much power. I don't believe our relations with the Muslim world changed significantly or in any important way under President Bush nor do I believe things have or will change under President Obama. The speech in Cairo was, in my opinion, neither good nor bad. It may have eased some feelings with the moderate Muslim people but it did nothing to make our country safer or bring an overall peace to the region and if anyone believed it did, I think that is nieve.

Obama/Muslims

"Throughout our history, people of different faiths have shaped the character of our Nation. Islam is a peaceful religion, and people who practice the Islamic faith have made great contributions to our Nation and the world. As Americans, we cherish our freedom to worship and we remain committed to welcoming individuals of all religions. By working together to advance freedom and mutual understanding, we are creating a brighter future of hope and opportunity."

President Obama realized that we needed to break away from the Bush years and acknowledge that Muslims have made many contributions to the world and that Islam is a peaceful religion. This premise of the President's speech is nothing new. The quote above is from a speech made by President Bush in 2003 on the Muslim religious holiday of Ramadan.

The ideal of building a better relationship with the Muslim people is good, who could argue that. The problem is the media's drooling over everything this man does no matter how insignificant or non-original it may be. I do, however, take exception to a few items:

1. The President is going out of his way to make friendly with the Arab world. Once again, he apologized for all the evils the U.S. has perpetrated upon the world but apparently he has forgotten all the times the U.S. has gone to bat for Muslims. Americans have gone to war and died protecting Muslims, Kuwait, Kosovo are all examples of this.

2. Radical extremist Muslims are at war with the western world. This was not as the result of anything the Bush administration has done. "Death to America" has been a common chant of Muslim extremists since before the Carter administration. There is no way to make friendly with these people. They have taken a position that leaves no room for negotiation. They want the destruction of Israel. How do you negotiate with that? Kill only some Jews? No, you cannot make friendly with these people no matter how much you apologize and try to "start anew."

3. We have one alley in the Middle East, other than the new Iraqi government, and that is Israel, although Obama threw the Israeli people under the bus. He is basically siding with the Muslim world at the expense of our relationship with Israel. Obama feels strongly that Israel needs to give up any settlements in Gaza but it has been proven that this will not appease the extremists. He calls the settlements in violation to peace agreements but so are the bombing by the Palestinians but that won't stop. The Palestinians were given 95% of what they wanted in peace talks in 1999 but Arafat walked away because the hatred of Israel is how these leaders maintain their power. Without the conflict they would have no purpose. Basically, Obama is trying to appease a people who have no desire for peace and the general Muslim world has no power over the extremists. This has been proven time and time again.

He compared the holocaust, the slaughtering of 6 million Jews to the suffering of the Palestinians wandering without a homeland. His point was to try and show both sides have been wronged but to compare the holocaust to Palestinians can do nothing but incite ill feelings with the Israelis and is just plain wrong.

4. Obama reached out to the Iranian leaders and made it known he is willing to forget the past and look to the future. Build a new relationship with the leaders of Iran. These are the same leaders who denied the holocaust ever happened. Claims Israel will be annihilated. Israel is "doomed" to collapse. This is also the leaders who claim their nuclear program is peaceful and for energy purposes only while tests long range ballistic missiles that can reach Israel. The leader of Iran cannot be trusted especially by the Israeli leaders. What if we trust them and they prove, once again, to be lying? Israel cannot take that chance and as an ally and only world superpower nor can the U.S. Sounds good but impractical. Maybe the new Iranian elections will change the tone but they still must answer to their people and their neighbors who feel the same.

5. Women's rights. He credits several Muslim countries for electing women leaders but discusses the troubles of women's right in America. Are you kidding me? In some Muslim countries women can be stoned to death for being raped. I know what his point was but to compare the rights of women in America to women of the Middle East is absurd.

President Obama started by acknowledging all the accomplishments of the Muslim world. Crediting them with algebra, compasses and navigation tools, pens and printing, understanding how disease spreads and how to heal as well as praising them for their contributions to the arts with poetry and architecture. Just a whole lot of very nice (although sometimes exaggerated) thing to say about the Muslim culture. Wouldn't it be nice to hear him occasionally say some nice things about his own country?

The Speech: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NaxZPiiKyMw