Caught in a lie

Look at the Treasury report.

The report shows that the cap and-trade bill the White House is pushing in Congress - in which companies have to buy "allowances" for carbon emissions - is far more expensive for Americans than advertised.

Sure, everyone knew the firms would pass these costs along to customers. But supporters of the bill claimed that consumers would face only "nominal" increases - barely $200 a year.

Wrong. The Treasury analysis puts the actual nationwide cost of cap-and-trade at some $200 billion a year - or $1,761 per household. That figure is very close to the $1,870 amount estimated by the Heritage Foundation prior to the vote in the House.

Families will be hit with a steep climate-change tax, after all. And that will certainly include working- and middle-class folks who make less than $250,000 a year.

Second, the analysis was kept secret and only recently leaked. That directly violates President Obama's vows of transparency.

Even so, the bill barely passed in the House, 219-212, with 40 Democrats voting against it. It's facing difficulty in the Senate, too: Ten Dems there urged that it be dumped in favor of a carbon tariff. (This is called compromise, Democratic-style: Instead of a job-killing cap-and-trade tax, they settle for a job-killing import tax.)

John Kerry is leading the charge to bring the cap and trade bill to the floor of the senate before year's end. I would be very surprised if this news didn't kill the House bill for good. That doesn't mean that some kind of energy bill won't make it through the senate, but it will almost certainly not contain the carbon credits and other schemes to tax the American people into paupery.

Meanwhile, what of all those Blue Dog House members from coal producing states who voted for cap and trade? I'm sure their GOP opponents are licking their chops at the prospect of running a few ads based on this Treasury report.

Hat Tip: Ed Lasky