*****LEGISLATIVE ALERT*****

You've probably already seen a lot about the so-called CAP AND TRADE bill that just passed the House, with the help of eight RINO's. This monstrosity passed the House 219-212. It needed 218 affirmative votes to pass, which means these eight Democrat-Lites could have stopped it dead in its tracks. I wonder what the payoff for them was? It certainly wasn't any consideration for John Q. Workingman or Jane Q. Workingwoman. While we're on the subject of how they voted, click HERE to see if your representatives sold you down the river or not. There are also clickable links providing a way for your to contact the representatives for your district.

I am reading this bill and am now on page 140. It's a shame that me, a private citizen, actually reads legislation pending before Congress, and the Democrat majority does not. They set arbitrary deadlines in order to try to push it through without anyone knowing for what they voted. If it were me, anything I couldn't read before the vote because of such nonsense would be an automatic "NO" vote from me. Beware of ANY bill that has amendments or any changes going on with it in the middle of the night, as was the case on this legislation. Notice a pattern here? This is the second time the Democrats have done this. The first time was with the so-called economic stimulus bill.

What I have read so far will have disastrous effects on our already weak economy. An example concerns cars. This bill, if passed, will offer carmakers incentives to manufacture plug-in electric cars. Furthermore, there is a provision for an infrastructure of charging stations. Now, for short trips around town, and IF you have the money to buy one, electric cars are OK. But if the "town" in which you live happens to be some place like New York or Chicago, and you have to go "across town", I don't think you'd make it. Imagine having to stop for a recharge at a recharge station. Once you found one, of course. Then, you get out, get your car's extension cord and plug it in for a "fast" recharge. We all know that a "fast charge" on any battery takes awhile. So, you stand . . . and stand . . . and stand . . . or sit . . . and sit . . . and stand or sit some more. Now just how practical do you think that is? And even though you left your car plugged in overnight, sooner or later you're going to need to fill 'er up at one of these handy charging stations.

These are cars that have been marketed, and for one thing, nobody wants them. They don't sell. The next thing that is often not considered is the additional load on power plants if they did happen to become the rage. There is a silent crisis in the world of electricity generation because the building of power plants has not kept up with demand over the past thirty or forty years. So, the additional load would cause generating plants to have to generate more electricity which would in turn increase overall electric rates for us and cause more pollution - the very thing electric cars are supposed to reduce. And if you keep it very long, long enough to replace that battery, you certainly won't replace it for any $60-150. According to AUTOBLOG GREEN, Tesla, a manufacturer of electric car batteries, the replacement cost for the battery that goes in Tesla's Roadster costs a cool $30,000 to replace. Yeah, that's thirty will all those zeros behind it. Now, since that certainly isn't representative of what it would cost to replace others, I think we can safely conclude that the cost of replacement would be considerably more than the one little battery in your car, and I would even go so far as to say it would not be user replaceable.

Another little item I have found in this bill. If passed, it would be illegal for a car dealership to sell a trade-in that was determined to get less than eighteen miles per gallon. We all know just WHO would make THAT determination - your not-so-friendly all-up-in-your-business government! Just what would happen to these non-saleable trade-ins? Glad you asked! The Cap and Trade bill would REQUIRE that the vehicle be either crushed or shredded, and the entire drivetrain destroyed. The dealership would have to submit a certification that this was done. The government could very easily plaster a "gas-guzzler" label on anything they wanted to, large, mid-size, or small and thereby force the plug-in electric cars, hybrids, or whatever they want on us regardless of what we want or need. My truck, a 1994 Ford Explorer two-door, would certainly be destroyed if traded in. I looked up the government's fuel mileage estimate for it at FUELECONOMY.GOV, and it's supposed to get 20 mpg highway and 15 mpg city with the 5-speed manual transmission which is what I have. There's a notice that they have "revised" these estimates to "make them comparable to the new 2008 and later MPG estimates." Needless to say, in real life, my truck does FAR better than that. At 70 mph on the interstate it gets more than the government's figures. Here are my figures from having checked it many times over the years: At 55 mph, 30 mpg; at 60 mph, 28 mpg; 70+ mph, 23-24 mpg; city 23-24 mpg consistently. I've had a number of Toyota, Honda, Nissan, and other small car owners all tell me that not many SMALL cars will get that kind of mileage. But, since "Big Brother" doesn't think so, it would look like or like if I traded it in. Personally, I think most dealerships would not accept such trades since they would not get anything from it other than a pile of rubbish. Interesting little side effect as to what to do with a car you needed to trade that the government deemed to thirsty.

Then we get to carbon offsets. I haven't read everything in this bill about them yet, but your energy costs would rise dramatically. This bill provides for utility companies having to purchase carbon offsets according to how much so-called greenhouse gasses they produced. A carbon offset is, simply put, a tax. And we all know what happens when taxes go up on utility companies and businesses. WE pay them through higher rates and costs. According to an article on the National Federation of Independent Businesses WEBSITE, the average family would see an increase of abougt $1,300 per year in energy-related bills. That's over ONE HUNDRED DOLLARS A MONTH! The article also pointed out that this would be disastrous for small businesses since they use a lot of energy. The increased cost would be enormous, so many would go out of business. Great timing since we're in a recession, isn't it? The national economy would take a major downturn if this happened since small businesses comprise the majority of America's business sector. In this same article, the Obama administration ITSELF ADMITS that a cap and trade system would hurt consumers. But do you think he cares? Not on your life. He continues to push it, despite the KNOWN consequences.

Last, I want to share a link to Deb's blog, My Take On Life. Her post (clickable link), WHY CAP AND TRADE MUST BE STOPPED, is an excellent post on the subject. She has a link you can click and calculate how much this legislation will cost you. She also has three excellent videos. Click HERE for a listing from her previous post of the RINO-8. Deb also posted a link so you can find out who your Senators are and how to contact them.

This bill has got to be stopped, or we're all going to be in the poorhouse.

And just in time for the Senate vote, click HERE to see an article of June 30, 2009 in the Huffington Post. The Minnesota Supreme Court has ruled Al Franken the winner of the Senate race there, and his challenger, Republican Norm Coleman, has conceded. The importance here is that the Democrats now have a 60 SEAT FILIBUSTER PROOF MAJORITY IN THE SENATE. How convenient.

As I continue to do that which the Democrats and RINO's in Congress do not do, that is, continue reading this bill, I'll make future posts about other "sweet" little provisions.