At last, a break from the bitter cold, our second big cold wave of the season. Yeah, it's supposed to be cold in Wisconsin, but anyone watching the college football bowl games down south had to notice the shivering fans. No wonder the Big Ten did so well against the Southeast Conference. Fact: The recent Orange Bowl in Miami, Florida, was the coldest on record!
Health care, bailouts, and stimulus spending have taken center stage in the Left's crusade to make government the ultimate arbiter of the marketplace. But no legislation is more insidious than the Cap and Trade bills in Washington and now, Wisconsin. Using man's supposed ability to alter the climate at will, it would regulate all commerce -- even local building codes.
Cap'n Trade: Where does it all end? A new book professing to be a "guide to sustainable living" calculates the carbon footprints of family pets. Be forewarned: your pet dog may have a larger carbon footprint than an SUV. That is why it may be Time to Eat the Dog.
Washington has its Cap 'n Trade bill. Wisconsin has its own climate change/globaloney warming version, Assembly Bill 649. Gov. Jim E. Doyle was supposed to be unveiling it amidst the usual pomp and ceremony in Milwaukee last Thursday night but (ahem) got snowed out.
What sayest the only meteorologist serving in the state legislature?
"Introducing a job killing, global warming bill in the midst of a bad economy and during an extremely cold winter shows how out of touch Doyle and the Democrats are." So said former WTMJ weatherman Jim Ott, a member of the State Assembly.
Ott noted that the roll out of the proposal did not go off as planned.
"The Governor's press conference to announce the bill in Milwaukee was canceled due to weather."
Portions of Southeastern Wisconsin were blanketed with nearly a foot of snow on Thursday. [MacIver Institute: Jim Ott bashes global warming bill]
Likewise, Democrat(ic) legislator and Manitowoc County Executive Bob Ziegelbauer calls the "Global Warming" bill introduced this week ...
a proposal we in Wisconsin simply cannot afford. Drafted in response to widely disputed theories of man made climate change it would lead us further down the road toward poverty without any assurance at all of impact on the world's climate. It's an expensive mandate-laden threat to our economic future.
The Wisconsin Policy Research Institute estimates that Wisconsin's version would kill 25,767 private-sector jobs and decrease overall disposable income by $1,836 million.
Wish I had said it: who do you trust to handle your money: Jim Doyle or Charles Schwab? [Milwaukee Journal-Sentinel op ed: Green jobs or pink slips?]
Fox-Palin News: Flurries in Florida
National Democrats duck and cover
Now the chastised Sen. Ben Nelson of Nebraska, Mary Landrieu of Louisiana and Kent Conrad of North Dakota are asking that Crap N' Trade be taken off the table during this election year.
The 1,500-page Waxman-Markey (H.R. 2494) passed the House last June by a 219-212 vote. The legislation would impose a "crap and trade" regime that limits the amount of carbon dioxide that could be released into the atmosphere. Companies exceeding their prescribed limit would have to buy "carbon allowances" in a government-contrived system. It awaits action in the Senate.
This just in: Over 31,000 scientists, including over 9,000 Ph.Ds, have signed off on a petition circulated through the Oregon Institute of Science and Medicine that states human activity is not responsible for causing catastrophic disruption of the earth's climate system. Moreover, over 700 scientists have now endorsed a U.S. Senate minority report that questions man-made global warming. [Big Government: 01-12-2010]
Crap and trade would cost American taxpayers up to $200 billion a year, the equivalent of hiking personal income taxes by about 15 percent. [CBS News: Cap And Trade Could Cost Families $1,761 A Year]
