Obama at the UN, the Healthcare Tax and the Costs of Cap and Trade
President Obama call for a “new era of global engagement” in addressing climate change and other issues.
Economists debate the financial impact that a healthcare mandate would have on middle class families.
Critics warn of the severe economic impact of adopting cap and trade controls on greenhouse gas emissions.
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1. ENVIRONMENT
President Obama call for a “new era of global engagement” in addressing climate change and other issues.
CEI Expert Available to Comment: Director of Energy & Global Warming Policy Myron Ebell critiques Obama’s speech before the United Nations:
“His policy prescription for poor countries is to promise them massive ‘financial and technical assistance.’ The track record of paying off poor countries is that it has lined the pockets of corrupt leaders and bureaucracies with billions and tens of billions of dollars, but has done nothing to help those countries become prosperous. What these countries need is free markets and abolishing barriers to trade. The global warming policies advocated by the Obama Administration and the Democratic-controlled Congress would raise trade barriers and foster energy poverty throughout the world. Energy rationing is not the way forward and is not a message of hope for the poorest people in the world, who lack access to electricity and modern transportation.”
2. HEALTH
Economists debate the financial impact that a healthcare mandate would have on middle class families.
CEI Expert Available to Comment: Senior Attorney Hans Bader on the President’s record on spending and taxes:
“The Associated Press is now chiding President Obama for falsely claiming that his proposed tax on uninsured people is not a tax. It is a tax increase, the AP says, and it would be enforced by the IRS…The AP also notes that the Administration’s proposed health-care tax increases contradict ‘Obama’s campaign pledge on taxes’…Obama earlier broke his promise not to raise taxes by signing into law a regressive SCHIP excise tax increase and backing a massive new cap-and-trade energy tax (supposedly to fight global warming).”
3. CONSUMER
Critics warn of the severe economic impact of adopting cap and trade controls on greenhouse gas emissions.
CEI Expert Available to Comment: Regulatory Studies Fellow Ryan Young on how cap and trade legislation could affect buying and selling a house:
“[The Waxman-Markey cap and trade] bill contains 397 new regulations. One of them would affect almost everyone who buys or sells a home. If Waxman-Markey becomes law, homes for sale that qualify as ‘federally related transactions’ — which is almost all of them — would be required to undergo an environmental inspection…Inspections are not free. Nor is fixing the inevitable violations. Compliance with new energy-efficiency standards would make homes, especially older ones, more expensive. Selling one’s home would become even harder than it already is in this down market if Waxman-Markey-style cap and trade becomes law.”
Listen to LibertyWeek, the CEI podcast, here.