Among the issues most commonly discussed are individuality, the rights of the individual, the limits of legitimate government, morality, history, economics, government policy, science, business, education, health care, energy, and man-made global warming evaluations. My posts are aimed at intelligent and rational individuals, whose comments are very welcome.

"No matter how vast your knowledge or how modest, it is your own mind that has to acquire it." Ayn Rand

"Observe that the 'haves' are those who have freedom, and that it is freedom that the 'have-nots' have not." Ayn Rand

"The virtue involved in helping those one loves is not 'selflessness' or 'sacrifice', but integrity." Ayn Rand

For "a human being, the question 'to be or not to be,' is the question 'to think or not to think.'" Ayn Rand

26 June 2009

Democrats - The Party of Mass Destruction

As I noted earlier, the Democrats in the House of Representatives have made the compromise they were working on to assuage agricultural and Midwest interests and pass the carbon cap and trade tax. This legislation rests for justification on the not only unproven, but actually incorrect claim that man-made CO2 emissions are causing a catastrophic global warming. Yet, a doubling of the atmospheric CO2 concentration would only cause about 0.5C temperature increase! The multiplying effects put into the bogus computer models which spew out larger temperature increases are now known to be of the wrong sign. Increased CO2 causes feedback which moderates, not increases, the heating effect of CO2 by means of more cloud cover.

In the face of the global cooling due to the decrease in solar activity, the microscopic temperature increases due to increased atmospheric CO2 should be welcomed. In addition, the cooling is likely to cause crop yield decreases, which are offset by the growth enhancement provided by higher levels of CO2 fertilizer. So, the present rates of CO2 atmospheric concentration increases are good, not bad. But to prevent this good thing, our very insipid Democrat power elite is trying to wreck the American economy. What they are doing is stupid in so many ways that it is clear that many of them must have been bought and sold for some combination of power lust and goodies from special interest groups.

The carbon tax will cause the loss of many more jobs than it will create. Many jobs destroyed will surface in other, wiser parts of the world. Americans will not be able to affordably produce high energy input goods such as aluminum, steel, concrete, and much more. We will lose jobs in the oil and gas industry and the pipeline industry and much of the transportation industry that supports it. The coal, power, and railroad industries will all suffer and many of their jobs will be lost. Meanwhile every small business, home owner, and apartment renter will see major increases in their heating, cooling, and power costs. Cars will become still more expensive, harder to maintain, and some will be more costly to operate. For what?

Yes, a piddling number of jobs in wind generation and solar power will be produced. A few industries given free carbon permits will have an advantage for awhile over others. Big business will wheedle these permits out of Washington and small businesses with no political clout will suffer in comparison. But, in the end, the entire American economy will suffer a serious Democrat kick to the head. Eventually, the taxes will be increased on most of the big businesses initially exempt and the many jobs produced by small businesses will be greatly curtailed.

Already the American economy is staggering under the weight of huge government debt and taxes to pay for mostly unnecessary bailouts. The Medicaid and Medicare welfare programs are staggering under unfunded debt, which is about to become far worse. Taxes will be raised to pay their bills. The personal retirement savings of many a soon-to-retire baby boomer crashed when the stock market plummeted by 40%. The Social Security system is clearly going to stagger as the same Baby Boomers retire in a slow-growing economy, so social security taxes will go up. The new government subsidized health insurance program will cost still more. The energy tax and many other taxes will greatly depress the American economy for a very long time.

It is not possible to come up with a more wrongheaded plan to rule the country than these power-lusting Democrats are pursuing with incredible vigor. There is something truly awesome in such a determination to blow-up and pulverize the mechanisms of a voluntary, productive free market to make room for a fascist command economy. The new economy will be run by bureaucrats and motivated by envy to destroy all that is free, individual, and enlightened. All the lessons of history are being ignored.

The Democrats are the party of awesome mass destruction and that destruction is directed inward upon ourselves. This is a party to celebrate self-immolation as it has never before been celebrated in the United States of America. Is this really the Change Americans wanted?

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