Rep. Kevin McCarthy (CA) and Rep. Steve Scalise (LA) spoke with bloggers today about the cap and tax energy bill being debated in Congress currently. Scalise participated in the hearings last week, questioning 60 professional witnesses and presenting statements on why the bill is wrong for America.
“The more people see the negative impact of this cap and trade tax, the more they don’t like it,” Scalise said. “The cost to American families is really big….[and] it has not been disputed by any Administration official that jobs will be lost.”
He pointed out that Budget Director Pete Orzag estimated last year that a former cap and trade bill (Leiberman-Warner) would have cost American families $1300 per years in taxes. The Waxman-Markey bill is estimated to double that cost.
Though former Vice President Al Gore attempted to convince the Energy and Commerce Committee last week man made global warming is not a disputed theory, Scalise noted that is not the case. He spoke of an instance overseas, when parents in Britain objected to their children’s viewing of Gore’s acclaimed film, “An Inconvenient Truth.” When a judge took over the case, nine factual errors surfaced.
“What is in agreement is the jobs that we would lose.,” said Scalise, pointing to an experiment in Spain, when they tried to cap and trade their economy. The result was for every green job created, 2.2 full time jobs were lost. He said only one of 10 jobs were permanent.
McCarthy agreed, adding that in addition to job loss, the bill offers no details, numbers or specific ways the cap will be successful.
Scalise then spoke on last week’s hearings, recognizing that most of the expert witnesses avoided speaking about the costs of the bill because they knew the public would turn against them.
Additionally, he said Democrats are “feeling the desperation,” trying to ram the bill through because they realize the prime time to lobby for global warming legislation is running short.
“It’s similar to what we did on the stimulus bill…people started seeing how much of a boondoggle it was…and that’s why [Democrats] rammed it through so quick,” he said. “The people that would win big from this bill want to ram it through because they realize some of this stuff is going to fall apart on itself.”
McCarthy pointed to moderate Democrats and others, like former head of the Energy Committee, Rep. John Dingell, who acknowledge the bill for what it is – “a great big tax.”
Both Congressman agreed that the recent tea parties were a great benefit to Republicans and a detriment to Democrats who have supported the stimulus and other tax costly policies.
“Most of those members had town hall meetings [over recess] and they didn’t go very well,” McCarthy said.
