Obama’s $80 Billion-a-Year Hidden Tax
May 26, 2009 by Penny Wise
Filed under Energy & Environment
Candidate Barack Obama promised not to raise taxes on those making less than $250,000 a year, but he rarely mentioned that if elected president he would effectively tax all Americans by supporting a carbon emission cap-and-trade tax program that would increase the price of gasoline by 74%, natural gas by 55%, and electricity by 90%.
In January 2008, he told the San Francisco Chronicle that “Under my plan of a cap-and-trade system, electricity rates would necessarily skyrocket. Businesses will have to retrofit their operations. That will cost money. They will pass that cost on to the consumers.”
Peter Orszag, who is now director of President Obama’s Office of Management and Budget, agreed with his future boss in testimony as the Director of the Congressional Budget Office in an April 2008 hearing. Orszag testified that “Under a cap-and-trade program, firms would not ultimately bear most of the costs of the allowances but instead would pass them along to their customers in the form of higher prices.”
President Obama may not call this a tax, but investor Warren Buffett calls this a tax “like anything else.” Speaking on CNBC, Buffett said, “Anything you put in that effectively taxes carbon emissions is–somebody’s going to bear the brunt of it. In the case of a regulated utility, the utility customers are going to pay for it.”
The Congressional Budget Office estimates that President Obama’s cap-and-trade tax would cost consumers a minimum of $80 billion a year, or about $1,600 a year for the average family of four. That is the single largest tax increase President Obama has proposed since taking office. And the impact of this tax on lower-income Americans, those whom candidate Obama promised would not see any tax increases, would be greater. They typically devote more of their incomes to energy-intensive purchases and will see no corresponding tax decreases because this tax is passed from energy suppliers to consumers.
If that is not enough, President Obama has backed away from auctioning all the emissions permits to auctioning some permits and giving the rest away to energy producers for free. While the government would collect less for the permits from energy producers, consumers would still pay more for energy because the permits that the Obama administration gives away would establish emissions caps that would push energy prices higher.
President Obama acknowledged this in Iowa, saying, “Over time, as the cap on greenhouse gases is lowered, the commodity becomes scarcer — and the price goes up. And year by year, companies and consumers would have greater incentive to invest in clean energy and energy efficiency as the price of the status quo became more expensive.”
The president’s cap-and-trade proposal is a $80 billion-a-year hidden tax aimed directly at the Americans the president promised to protect from any tax increases. His plan favors high-income Americans at the expense of the poor and working class.
And all of this ignores the impact that a $1,600 per year tax increase on a family of four will have on an already very fragile economy.
“The 2009 spending plan BUSH sent to Congress on Monday will project huge budget deficits, around $400 billion for this year and next and more than double the 2007 deficit of $163 billion. But even those estimates could prove too low given the rapidly weakening economy and the total costs of the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, which Bush does not include in his request for the budget year beginning Oct. 1.”
SOOO. obama had a $400 BILLION deficit left behind from bush to begin with on his first day, NOT INCLUDING the cost of the wars in iraq and afghanistan, and that was BEFORE the greatest global financial meltdown since the great depression, which happened… under…
BUSH.
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/22981657/
Denise:
Ever hear of the free market?
That’s how ‘…demand and support (for) alternative energy…’ is supposed to work in this country.
The Obamunist didn’t break his promise? This is a tax on EVERYTHING for EVERYONE!
As to the ‘…looking for another planet…’ nonsense –
Gore-Bull Warming is a HOAX!
NOT TRUE!
Carbon Dioxide is 0.03% of the atmosphere.
Man-made CO2 is a tiny fraction of that.
Educate yourself to the real science of how solar activity controls temperature and man, taxes and even the Risen Son Obama can do nothing to change or control that.
Denise, those who are for cap and trade or any tax increase should open their wallets and give more to Obama and his govdernment. I say make it a voluntary tax. If you want to give or if you don’t want to give. Then we will see how many of you Liberals will actually tax yourself. Liberals talk big on taxes because they want my money also. And if you Liberals would quickly start giving more to the government we’ll be out of this Deficit your Obama got us into.
Cap and trade will accomplish little else beyond destroying the economy. China and India are free to produce CO2 without penalty.
We should be spending the money relocating our people away from the coast. If that’s not a priority, why are we bothering with this?
So what if energy is clean if I can’t afford it?
All this to cap our CO2 at four one hundredths of one percent, while China and India are free to raise CO2 without penalty.
We should be spending the money relocating our population for the day when the oceans begin rising due to China’s and India’s CO2 emissions.
Regarding the carbon emission cap-and-trade tax program.
Sure this is a tax that we will all be impacted by, but the reality is that without something like this it is unlikely that there will be any great strides in developing cleaner ways to provide energy.
This is a tax that I can live with because I believe that it will force some long needed changes.
And if we don’t make some changes quickly our children and grandchildren are all going to be looking for a new planet to live on.
I don’t feel that Obama is breaking his promise with this one. We are free to demand and support alternative energy sources.