Bachmann: 'Cap-and-Trade' Huge Tax for Americans

Bachmann: 'Cap-and-Trade' Huge Tax for Americans

Sunday, April 5, 2009 6:20 PM

By: Jim Meyers Article Font Size




Minnesota Congresswoman Michele Bachmann tells Newsmax that the Obama administration’s “cap-and-trade” plan should be called the “China and India Stimulus Plan” because it would result in American jobs being shipped overseas.

Rep. Bachmann also said the plan — which seeks to reduce pollution by setting limits on carbon emissions and requiring businesses to pay to surpass them — would constitute an “energy tax” and be devastating to all Americans.

Newsmax TV’s Ashley Martella noted that Rep. Bachmann has criticized President Obama’s $3.5 trillion budget, and asked what most concerns her about the spending plan.

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“The number one thing I’m worried about is the debt load for our generation as well as for the subsequent generation,” said Bachmann, a member of the House Financial Services Committee.

“Within five years, President Obama’s budget will double the national debt,” she said. “Within 10 years it will triple the national debt. These are astounding figures — so astounding that President Obama’s budget director, Peter Orszag, himself has said this is not a sustainable budget.

“And we all know President Obama’s former commerce secretary [nominee], Senator Judd Gregg, also said this budget will bankrupt our country. That’s very concerning.”

Martella noted that by some estimates cap-and-trade will add more than $3,000 a year to every American’s bill for gasoline and energy.

“At a minimum it will add that much, Bachmann responded.

“In Minnesota, for instance, we’re probably looking at a doubling of our monthly energy bill, whether it’s natural gas or electricity. In Minnesota that’s a huge deal, as it is in most states, because in October we don’t have a choice — you have to turn your furnace on and that furnace will stay on usually through the month of April. If people see a doubling in their monthly energy bill, this will be devastating.

“It’s not just that — it’s also reducing the American standard of living,” she said. “I was in a meeting that talked about the potential for job loss in our country. Businessmen are savvy and they’re preemptive and they’re looking at what President Obama wants to do with this new tax on energy. Because that’s what this is, a tax on the right to use and consume energy — as if energy didn’t cost enough already.

“And what we’re very concerned about is that businesses are already looking at plans to locate new business expansion overseas. This will cause tremendous what they call leakage. It’s essentially jobs fleeing the United States for other countries.