Cap-and-Trade Will Slow the Economy
The Congressional Budget Office Director Douglas W. Elmendorf testified before the Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee recently regarding the long term effects of the cap-and-trade provisions of H.R. 2454, the American Clean Energy and Security Act of 2009. In his testimony, Elmendorf states that cap-and-trade will
reduce GDP below what it would otherwise have been— by roughly ¼ to ¾ percent in 2020 and by between 1 and 3½ percent in 2050.
The cap-and-trade provisions will also cause job loses during the shift from carbon-based industry to an alternate based industry because “labor markets would most likely not adjust as quickly." If all that wasn't bad enough Elmendorf also reports that middle class households
[will] see net losses in purchasing power amounting to 0.6 percent of after-tax income in 2020 and 1.1 percent in 2050
while lower class households will see a rise in purchasing power in both 2020 and 2050.
It looks like the left has created a war on a supposed enemy (global warming) and has taxed the heck out of the businesses that produce the necessary things to turn the wheels of our economy. This in effect will slow down our economy and middle class while helping out the lower class...A little misdirection anyone?