Cap'n Tax Survives First Key Vote in House

Cap'n Tax, the swashbuckling legislation designed to put Uncle Sam's hand on your tiller, survived a key test vote this morning in the House, 217 to 205, which means that it will come to a vote later today.

Have you called your congresspersons yet?

Thirty Democrats defected on this largely party line bill.

But not enough.

As usual, the White House is spouting lies.

"The bill contains provisions to protect consumers, keep costs low, help sensitive industries transition to a clean energy economy and promote domestic emission reduction efforts," the White House in a statement of support for the legislation.

Do they take us all for fools?

Not mentioned in the Associated Press report (surprise, surprise) is a 300-page "amendment" inserted into the bill in the wee hours of the night by Congressman Henry Waxman, co-author of the bill, which apparently no one has read.

The rule of law has been abandoned.

According to an outfit called SolveClimate.com, there are two amendments that will be considered today. One is Waxman's, which incorporates a compromise with farm state representatives that will give oversight of the carbon offsets to the Secretary of Agriculture instead of the Environmental Protection Agency.

This is supposed to guarantee that people like Congressman Dan Boren will support the bill.

People, bad is bad. The agriculture department is already talking plans to regulate everything that farmers do. The Secretary of Ag is appointed by the president and serves at his pleasure. Does anyone seriously think this is going to be enough protection for farmers? Wake up!

Big government is bad, pure and simple. Moving in that direction, under any plan, is a defeat for individual liberty and personal choice!

The second amendment, which doesn't have a chance of a snowball in hell, is from the Republicans, calling for scrapping Cap and Trade and replacing it with a "Manhattan Project" for Energy Independence. Sounds good, but the devil is in the details.

Maybe Satan can examine that snowball while it melts.