A climate bill should not be a vehicle for hiding a tax hike.
Let your elected officials know that you're watching how they vote on hidden energy taxes.
Congress is debating the largest tax increase in history, the cap-and-trade energy tax.
Cap-and-trade is a tax on coal, oil, and natural gas but instead of being a specific tax rate, the total level of use is capped and companies are forced to pay the government for emissions permits. They bid against each other to stay in business, and nobody knows how much the tax will be until they hold the auctions.
It's a crazy, unpredictable tax, but it's certainly a tax.
The Pelosi/Reid/Obama strategy is to hide the gigantic tax hikes they want to fund their bailouts and big government spending inside a global warming bill. However, the bill is stalling in the U.S. House of Representatives because of political infighting and citizen outrage over the cost.
Last year, among friends in San Francisco, Obama explained what his cap-and-trade energy tax is supposed to do to ordinary Americans:
"Under my plan of a cap and trade system, electricity rates would necessarily skyrocket... whatever the industry was, uh, they would have to retrofit their operations. That will cost money. They will pass that money on to consumers."