Shots Across the Bow

Remember when President Obama said that there would be time for the public to read and comment on all legislation prior to it coming up for a vote? Remember when he promised a 5 day waiting period before signing a bill, to allow for people to comment?

That's OK, neither does he.

Last night, the Cap and Trade bill in the House got a 300 page amendment by Henry Waxman. Yep, 300 pages. That's on top of the already existing 1200 pages. I'm a fast reader and I couldn't digest 300 page a lawyer speak in a single night, and I am certain that no Congresscritter voting today could do so either. That means that once again, Congress will be voting on a bill that nobody has bothered to read!. Even worse, the House Democrats have moved to limit debate to 3 hours.

1500 pages in 3 hours.

Folks this is just like TARP 1, the economic stimulus package, and the Federal budget, we know how those are working out don't we?

Here's the bottom line folks. Obama himself said that energy prices will skyrocket when cap and trade passes. The last time energy prices skyrocketed, the economy collapsed in a smoking heap. Guess what? The economy is still collapsing and we're about to take ratchet energy prices up again. Does this seem like a wise thing for us to do? Wait, there's more.

Our government has pumped trillions of dollars into the global economy without any corresponding increase in value. The end result will be high inflation as those trillions of dollars make their way into circulation. I'll give you an example.

Right here in Oak Ridge, the stimulus package has funded several new projects and in order to hire the manpower for these projects, employers are paying a premium price for skilled workers. That's good, right? In the short term, sure, because the new projects are funded with free stimulus money, they can afford to pay their skilled staff 50% more than the going rate. In Oak Ridge, a company I do some work for lost a significant portion of their trained employees because the stimulus funded employers offered them 50% raises.

This leaves companies that don't get stimulus money in a bind. If they want to keep their skilled employees, they have to raise their salaries to match, and then pass that expense on to the consumer. That's you and me, by the way. We're getting the exact same product at the exact same level of quality; we're just paying more for it. A lot more.

That's inflation folks. An increase in cost without a corresponding increase in value.

So, we couple the tremendous inflationary pressures of the stimulus package and the Obama budget with a sharp increase in energy costs, and guess what comes next? It won't be long before we are looking back on the days of Jimmy Carter's stagflation and thinking about how good we had it back then.

Is there anybody left in the House of Representatives with anything remotely resembling a conscience? Where's the loud voices shouting that this bill is too big, too important, and too dangerous to be rammed through Congress without the members having time to read it, digest it, and understand it? Where are the responsible adults in Washington?

They certainly can't be found on Capitol Hill today.

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