Lindsey Graham's costly collegiality
Examiner Editorial
October 14, 2009
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Periodically, a Republican senator is seized with desire to be the front man for the Democrats' latest regulatory monstrosity in Washington. Sen. Lindsey Graham of South Carolina is now in the throes of this pathological urge, which usually appears just when defeat seems imminent for a big-government scheme like the Waxman-Markey cap-and-trade energy bill. Democrats and their liberal buddies in the mainstream media need only whisper the magic word "bipartisanship" and soon enough along comes a gullible GOPer to take the bait.
Graham made clear in a Sunday New York Times op-ed written with Sen. John Kerry, D-MA, that he will support cap-and-trade if Democrats agree to expand nuclear power and off-shore oil and natural gas development. Kerry is the Senate point man in the Democrats' campaign to pass a Senate version of the 1,400-plus page Waxman-Markey bill approved earlier this year by the House. Graham's approach sounds like a reasonable "let's just split the difference" compromise. The problem is that no matter what Kerry and the Democrats agree to now in order to sucker Graham and similarly na?ve Republicans, environmental activists and sympathetic federal bureaucrats will file endless legal and administrative challenges to stall and ultimately veto more nuclear power production or development of America's bountiful off-shore energy supplies. Meanwhile, the Democrats' cap-and-trade bill will almost immediately begin inflicting devastating economic consequences that will be with us for decades.
Here's why: The U.S. economy depends on carbon-based fuels, which account for 85 percent of the energy we use. That won't change anytime soon, no matter how many billions of tax dollars Congress and President Obama spend on alternative energy development. Cap-and-trade establishes a $700 billion government-run "market" for business to buy and sell a steadily declining number of permits for creating carbon emissions. Confusing? Imagine a steadily tightening choke-hold on your windpipe and you've got what cap-and-trade will do to America's economy.
Forcing the private economy to use less conventional energy while waiting for the government-subsidized alternative energy sources to come online will cost millions of jobs and send energy prices skyrocketing as corporations pass along to consumers the $700 billion of for those permits. As a result, according to the Center for Data Analysis at the Heritage Foundation, gas prices at the pump will increase 58 percent, or $1.38 per gallon. Residential electricity costs will zoom up by 90 percent. Nearly 1.9 million jobs will be lost by 2012 overall, and the economy will lose nearly $10 trillion in gross domestic product by 2035. But no worry, Lindsay Graham will still be hailed as a bipartisan kind of guy.
