A Hidden Tax on All Americans

"Not only does the Administration's budget increase taxes on families and small business owners, it also calls for a massive National Sales Tax on Energy as well." --Senator John Thune

Under my plan of a cap and trade system, electricity rates would necessarily skyrocket." --Barack Obama campaigning for President-- January 2008 interview with the San Francisco Chronicle.

The architect of the President's budget, Peter Orszag-- Director of the Office of Management and Budget, has testified that before Congress that a cap-and-trade program would increase energy costs and that those cost increases will be passed on to consumers.

Under a cap-and-trade program, firms would not ultimately bear most of the costs of the allowances, but instead would pass them along to their customers in the form of higher prices for products such as electricity and gasoline." --Peter Orszag during a 2007 hearing of the House of Representatives Budget Committee.

Cap and trade, in other words, is a scheme to redistribute income and wealth -- but in a very curious way. It takes from the working class and gives to the affluent; takes from Miami, Ohio, and gives to Miami, Florida; and takes from an industrial America that is already struggling and gives to rich Silicon Valley and Wall Street "green tech" investors who know how to leverage the political class." --Wall Street Journal editorial, Who pays for cap and trade? --March 9, 2009

Climate change legislation that Congress is expected to take up later this month would raise energy prices for millions of Americans; there's little dispute about that... South Dakota utility and cooperative managers estimate that a cap-and-trade system would increase residential electric bills a minimum of 41 percent by 2015 ... Sen. John Thune, R-S.D., has joined the power industry and other Republican critics in deriding the cap-and-trade plan as a 'national energy sales tax' that should be scrapped. Instead, he wants to move ahead with market-based incentives to expand the use of solar, wind and other alternative energy sources." --Sioux Falls Argus-Leader,"Congressional delegation split on strategy" --April 12, 2009

On March 31, 2009, Senator John Thune offered an amendment to the Democratic budget in the U.S. Senate that would prohibit the collection of funds from any future cap and trade proposal if that proposal would increase electricity rates and gasoline prices for American consumers and businesses.The amendment passed the Senate with 89 votes, but this issue is not going away.The President and the Democratic leadership in Congress are committed to passing a cap and trade bill during this Congress. We need your help to stop it.