The Taxing Carbon Fallacy - Part 3

Today is the final installment of looking at the fallacy of Obama's cap and trade program for reducing carbon emissions. Two days ago we examined whether or not global warming is, in fact, a reality. We reviewed how these same types of climatologists claiming global warming is a fact today were also claiming the eminent onset of an Ice Age in the mid-1970s and how they missed that big prediction. Also in that blog, we reviewed how a senior EPA analyst's report that debunked many of the global warming methodologies and predictions had been suppressed by senior EPA and/or Obama administration members.

Yesterday, we reviewed how the world trends in population growth, economic progression, third world industrialization, and emerging middle classes around the world will demand cheap energy and the growth in their usage of energy will easily wipe out anything the United States does to restrict its carbon footprint. Thus, one solution proposed yesterday was to put together a cap and trade program and not implement it until the entire world is on board for reducing carbon emissions. Otherwise, only American businesses and consumers will bear the burden of Obama's cap and trade program and will bear it for no reason since any American savings in carbon emission will be wiped out by the increase in the rest of the world.

Today, let's finalize our analysis of Obama's cap and trade fallacy. Consider the following major Federal programs today:

• Social Security - heading for bankruptcy
• Medicare - heading for bankruptcy
• Border Patrol - probably over 10 million illegal immigrants in the country
• FEMA - ask the people of New Orleans of their opinion after Katrina
• War On Drugs - narco nations developing to the south of us and in major American cities
• Budget Management - mind boggling budget deficits now and for the foreseeable future
• Highway System - bridge collapse kills Americans in Minnesota and in the Big Dig tunnel in Boston
• Terrorist Protection - almost 3,000 Americans die on 9-11
• Veterans Administration - wounded soldiers come home to deplorable VA hospital conditions
• NASA - space station goes over budget and under performs while shuttle fleet is fatal to two sets of American astronauts
• Public Education - failure in so many places and in so many ways
• National Strategic Energy Plan - nonexistent
• Campaign finance reform laws - probably unconstitutional and ineffective anyway

Given this track record, do we really think that the political class through the Federal government has any kind of capability of executing a massive carbon cap and trade program? Be serious, what major government program does the Federal government execute in an efficient, effective, and timely manner? If you do a little searching on the Internet you will see that even the Cash For Clunkers program was an administrative nightmare with crashing government computers, incorrect rejections of applications, delayed payments to dealers, and a myriad of other snafus. If the political class cannot execute a simple rebate program like Cash For Clunkers, there is no way they could effectively execute a cap and trade program. If they did, it would be the first time they did anything successful in the past four decades. This is a risk America should not take.

In review:

• If global warming is a myth, and there is insufficient evidence that it definitely is a reality, than Obama's cap and trade program is not needed.
• Even if global warming is a reality, having just the United States abide by a cap and trade program will make no difference given the growth in carbon emissions in the developing countries and Obama's cap and trade program is not needed.
• There is little chance that the political class, through the Federal government, could implement a successful cap and trade program since they currently cannot run any successful program.

The only potential solution to the possibility of global warming is through technology. Would it not be better, more focused, less expensive, less repressive and freedom restricting, and have a better chance of succeeding if we take all of the energy and effort that would be required to police American businesses and consumers via a cap and trade program and put that focus and effort into developing clean coal technologies and automobile technologies that are not carbon based? In "Love My Country, Loathe My Government," Steps 23, 24, and 25 lay out how to accomplish what is required.