by Harrison Price
How many trillions has President Obama doled out in the short time he’s been in office? Looks like there’s yet another needy group of people who might win big if Cap and Trade passes: the very people it’s going to hurt. That’s right… the Democrats are trying to pass one of the most destructive bills ever to the U.S. economy but they want to bribe the people who will be hurt most by it into submission and sock it to the taxpayers all to gain support in the energy industry:
Workers who lose their jobs if the pending climate change legislation becomes law could get a weekly paycheck for up to three years, subsidies to find new work and other generous benefits — all courtesy of Uncle Sam — under a little-noticed provision of the bill.
So let’s look at this for a moment… why the bribe (sorry I mean “assistance”)? Basically because the Democrats know Cap and Trade will be a jobs killer robbing businesses of billions of dollars in profits every year all so they can pay Uncle Sam. How much money are we talking about here anyway?
Adversely affected employees in oil, coal and other fossil-fuel sector jobs would qualify for a weekly check worth 70 percent of their current salary for up to three years. In addition, they would get $1,500 for job-search assistance and $1,500 for moving expenses from the bill’s “climate change worker adjustment assistance” program, which is expected to cost $4.2 billion from 2011 to 2019.
Just how many jobs are going to be lost? Depends on who you listen to here are some estimates (low and high):
While the analysis assumes displaced workers will eventually find jobs, the liberal-leaning Brookings Institution predicts a net job loss of 0.5 percent over the first 10 years that carbon reduction legislation, called “cap-and-trade,” is in effect. The conservative Heritage Foundation found that by 2030 net job losses would top 1.1 million, while the Coalition for Affordable American Energy, an industry group, estimates that more than 3 million jobs would be lost by 2030 as a result of the cap-and-trade system.
Of course, there will be many people put out of work, companies will suffer financially, and the taxpayer (once again) will take it in the painful place as Obama racks up even more debt with the Chinese and other countries as they (for now) are willing to buy our IOUs. The best part of the whole thing is we’ll be waiting until Obama’s term is over until we notice that giant sucking sound:
“I doubt there will be a bunch of people filing for assistance when the bill first launches because it won’t have a huge economic effect for at lease five years,” said James Heintz, associate director for the Political Economy Research Institute at University of Massachusetts at Amherst, who co-authored a study on job creation under the bill.
I think the timing is pretty sweet for the president. He can claim “victory” in “global warming” but won’t have unemployed Americans wanting to vote him out of office when he runs for re-election.
They say every time a bell rings an angel goes to heaven. How much money does it cost us every time Obama opens his mouth?
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