You may not have heard of the American Clean Energy and Security (ACES) Act, sometimes also known as the Waxman-Markey bill after it's Democratic sponsor congressmen Henry Waxman and Edward Markey. You more likely have heard of the term "cap and trade" being thrown around by the news media.
It's all the same stuff, it was passed by Congress last week and is now being considered by the U.S. Senate, and what it all means is a bigger tax bill and higher prices for every single American citizen during these already tough economic times.
No matter what anyone on either side of the issue will tell you, they will never be able to adequately describe for you in just a short article the full scope and impact of Waxman-Markey, or 'cap and trade', but it will absolutely result in more money being taken from the pockets of every single person who is reading this article.
The main announced intent of the increasingly socialist Obama administration with this bill is to forcibly move the United States into 'green' solutions for what it believes to be a man-made global warming problem, and to move American industry towards 'cleaner' and more environmentally friendly processes, particularly where energy-usage is concerned.
The problem is that by forcing both companies and private citizens into compliance, the government is raising the cost on all in order to make the changes to meet new standards. These higher costs when pointed towards businesses will result in reduced wages and layoffs, or higher prices for consumers, or both, as business passes along these increased costs to the public through higher prices, or reduces work forces to cut expenses, or both.
All of this forced 'change' from the Obama administration and its Democratic congressional cohorts, resulting in fewer jobs, high prices, or more likely both, comes while the country is already mired in a deep economic crisis that shows no end. And now he wants a massive taxpayer-funded, government-controlled healthcare plan as well, a measure that will further increase expenses and cripple the economy.
But why? Why would the President and Democrats in congress want to push legislation on the citizens of the country that will hurt them in the pocketbook during already tough times? There must be incredible societal and environmental benefits to these programs, right? Not really.
Most reasonable experts on both sides believe these already massive public programs are only a small percentage of what would be needed to realistically do any good. The odds are that, like every single large-scale government program ever run, they will grow out-of-control over the years without ever supplying the hoped-for benefits.
So why is the government passing these programs? Why are they buying up interests in banks, insurance companies, automobile companies? Why are they taking over control of the tobacco industry? Why are they forcing businesses and homes to convert to 'green' technologies that will provide negligible benefits to the environment? Why are they trying to create a new public healthcare program that is universally agreed will be massive and back-breakingly expensive for our economy?
It has nothing to do with improving peaple's lives, or saving the planet, or stopping global warming, or providing cheaper energy. It is all about one simple word: control. The Obama adminstration and the majority of the Democratic party leadership has become socialist in thinking and acting, albeit unwilling to embrace the truth of that term as an identity.
What this means to you is that, directly because of 'cap and trade', because of government-run and influenced industries, because of universal healthcare, you will take home less and less money in your paychecks, if you are among the fortunate to even continue to have a paycheck to bring home.
People need to wake up and realize that they did not vote for a President and party leadership that would hug trees and save whales with them. They did not vote for a President who will protect them from outside agressors who continue to threaten our way of life. They did not vote for people who care about them as Americans.
They voted for a group that thinks it knows better than you what is best for you and your family, and that is actively moving to take away, not protect, the freedoms that were previously guaranteed to us as individual free citizens.
Waxman-Markey, 'cap and trade', or better yet 'tax and raid' is one more in a series of inappropriate and even dangerous moves by the Democratic power structure as it takes over the country and turns it from the greatest economic machine and military power that the world had ever seen into a Euro-trash nation on the brink of extinction.
That is not an exaggeration. If the current pace is allowed to continue much longer, the United States of America as most of us has known and loved it for the vast majority of our lives will no longer exist. Obama and the Dems have even more interference planned for your lives coming soon.
But don't believe me. If you are smart, stop accepting that Barack Obama is somehow brighter than you, and do the research on the actual details of these issues and how the outcomes will directly affect you and your family. Don't blow me and others off as simple political scare-tactics using opponents with a wave of your dismissive hands. Research the actual issues in full, then decide.
Those of us who love the real America have to hope that the blinders come off, and that the 2010 congressional elections will begin to turn our country back around, before it becomes too late for our grandchildren to know the greatness of the once God-fearing and God-blessed nation known as the United States of America.
