What North Texas lawmakers had to say about climate bill | Business | Star-Telegram.com

Area lawmakers’ views on climate-change bill

A look at how some North Texas U.S. House members voted on the historic climate-change bill:

Joe Barton, R-Arlington: Against. This bill “will be the largest tax and job killer ever.”

Michael Burgess, R-Lewisville: Against. “We cannot afford to risk our economic future on unproven science and a reliance on nonexistent technology.”

Chet Edwards, D-Waco: Against. “I’m concerned it could increase gasoline and utility costs for families, farmers and businesses during tough economic times.”

Kay Granger, R-Fort Worth: Against. If impacted companies “can’t operate within their emissions limit, they [will] have to pay the government or other parties to get a higher limit.”

Eddie Bernice Johnson, D-Dallas: For. “I believe we have a responsibility to our young people, and this legislation will preserve our planet for them by reducing the pollution that causes global warming.”

Kenny Marchant, R-Coppell: Against. “This legislation has nothing to do with becoming energy independent. It has everything to do with an agenda by some to have government control every aspect of its citizens’ lives.”

Michelle Malkin » What will happen next if cap-and-tax passes?

America’s biggest oil companies will probably cope with U.S. carbon legislation by closing fuel plants, cutting capital spending and increasing imports.

Under the Waxman-Markey climate bill that may be voted on today by the U.S. House, refiners would have to buy allowances for carbon dioxide spewed from their plants and from vehicles when motorists burn their fuel. Imports would need permits only for the latter, which ConocoPhillips Chief Executive Officer Jim Mulva said would create a competitive imbalance.

“It will lead to the opportunity for foreign sources to bring in transportation fuels at a lower cost, which will have an adverse impact to our industry, potential shutdown of refineries and investment and, ultimately, employment,” Mulva said in a June 16 interview in Detroit. Houston-based ConocoPhillips has the second-largest U.S. refining capacity.

The same amount of gasoline that would have $1 in carbon costs imposed if it were domestic would have 10 cents less added if it were imported, according to energy consulting firm Wood Mackenzie in Houston. Contrary to President Barack Obama’s goal of reducing dependence on overseas energy suppliers, the bill would incent U.S. refiners to import more fuel, said Clayton Mahaffey, an analyst at RedChip Cos. in Maitland, Florida.

“They’ll be searching the globe for refined products that don’t carry the same level of carbon costs,” said Mahaffey, a former Exxon Corp. refinery manager.

Prices Seen Rising

One in six U.S. refineries probably would close by 2020 as the cost of carbon allowances erases profits, according to the American Petroleum Institute, a Washington trade group known as API. Carbon permits would add 77 cents a gallon to the price of gasoline, said Russell Jones, the API’s senior economic adviser.

via Michelle Malkin » What will happen next if cap-and-tax passes?.

via Bloomberg.

CNSNews.com – Holder Calls for Passage of Hate Crime Based on Sexual Orientation, Gender, Disability

Attorney General Eric Holder urged Congress Thursday to pass a new hate crimes law which would allow the federal government to prosecute cases of violence based on sexual orientation, gender or disability.

Holder, who testified at a Senate Judiciary Committee hearing, cited the recent killing of a security guard at the U.S. Holocaust Memorial Museum in Washington. The alleged assailant is a white supremacist.

“One has to look at the unfortunate history of our nation. There are groups that have been singled out, that have been targets of violence,” the attorney general said. “We have to face and confront that reality.”

Lawmakers at the hearing debated the possible impact of the Matthew Shepard Hate Crimes Prevention Act. The bill – named after a gay man killed in Wyoming in 1998 – would allow federal prosecution of violence committed because of the actual or perceived gender, disability, sexual orientation and gender identity of the victim.

For more than a decade, Democrats have sought to update the hate crimes law, which already makes it a federal crime to attack someone because of their race, creed or color.

via CNSNews.com – Holder Calls for Passage of Hate Crime Based on Sexual Orientation, Gender, Disability.

Three Questions Politicians Must Answer Before They Vote on Obama’s Proposed Government Takeover of Health Care | FreedomWorks

Three Questions Politicians Must Answer Before They Vote on Obama’s Proposed Government Takeover of Health Care:

1. The Congressional Budget Office has said the proposed government takeover of health care could cost $1.6 trillion. Other estimates put the cost much higher. Various officials have proposed raising taxes on soda and alcohol, a higher payroll tax, taxing current employer-provided health plans, and even a new national sales tax to fund this massive government program. Do you support any of these middle-class tax hikes to fund government-run health care? If not, how would you pay for it?

2.Under Obama’s plan, can you guarantee that I would get to keep my current health care plan and doctor? President Obama himself has actually said both “yes” and “no” to this question.

3. Provisions in the Obama plan call for “comparative effectiveness research” to be used to decrease costs. “Savings” are achieved by denying treatments based on criteria such as cost, a patient’s health and/or a patient’s age. Isn’t this health care rationing? Can you guarantee that a new government plan will not deny care to individuals in order to control costs?

We want to put every Member of Congress on the record. What is their understanding of the Obama health care plan? How will it effect how patients get treatment and how will it impact your pocket book?

via Three Questions Politicians Must Answer Before They Vote on Obama’s Proposed Government Takeover of Health Care | FreedomWorks.

ObamaCare: Far worse than economically ignorant | FreedomWorks

In a news conference yesterday, Barack Obama demonstrated a remarkable ignorance of and antipathy for free markets and free enterprise when speaking about the possibility of a “public option” as part of “health care reform.”

It’s not easy for Obama to surprise me but the vacuousness of his statements combined with their casual disregard for the power of government when “competing” with private companies was truly shocking.

According to an AP article about the news conference, Obama said that “A government-run health insurance option is needed ‘to discipline insurance companies.’” Let’s get this straight: 1300 insurance companies aren’t enough to have competition? We need 1301 to suddenly make it all OK?

via ObamaCare: Far worse than economically ignorant | FreedomWorks.

IBDeditorials.com: Editorials, Political Cartoons, and Polls from Investor’s Business Daily — On The Road To Socialism? We’ve Arrived!

In his campaign and inaugural address, Barack Obama cast himself as a moderate man seeking common ground with conservatives.

Yet his budget calls for the radical restructuring of the U.S. economy, a sweeping redistribution of power and wealth to government and Democratic constituencies. It is a declaration of war on the right.

The real Obama has stood up and lived up to his ranking as the most left-wing member of the Senate.

Barack has no mandate for this. He was even behind John McCain when the decisive event that gave him the presidency occurred — the September collapse of Lehman Bros. and the market crash.

Republicans are under no obligation to render bipartisan support to this statist coup d’etat. For what is going down is a leftist power grab that is anathema to their principles and philosophy.

via IBDeditorials.com: Editorials, Political Cartoons, and Polls from Investor’s Business Daily — On The Road To Socialism? We’ve Arrived!.

Stop Soda Tax for Government-Run Health Care | FreedomWorks

Stop Soda Tax for Government-Run Health Care

New tax on the table for government take-over of health care

Whether you call it soda or pop, another tax scheme has just emerged from the House Ways and Means Committee to fund a massive government run health care scheme. This time it’s a 10 cent tax on each can of soda. That number sounds familiar because President Obama pledged as recently as February that no family earning less than $250,000 would see its taxes increased by “a single dime. Not a single dime.” I think we can safely assume that there are many families earning less than $250,000 who enjoy a cold soda now and again.

TAKE ACTION to help stop this new tax.

This soda tax scheme is the latest to surface as liberals scramble to try and figure out how to pay for their proposed government take-over of health care. The big-government believers behind socialized medicine, who want to put your health in the hands of bureaucrats and politicians, have discovered that the price tag is a hefty one indeed. The plans coming out of Hill committees could easily top $1 trillion over 10 years. There’s no way this can be accomplished without raising taxes.

Even this soda tax will only bring in $600 billion over 10 years, so other taxes and more borrowing and debt are surely on the way.

This is a tax we can’t afford for absolutely the wrong reforms. Help stop the government-run healthcare train wreck. Take Action and tell your legislators you oppose this soda tax scheme to fund socialized medicine.

There’s no doubt that this will be a long and drawn out fight, but your constant vigilance and action on this crucial issue can help freedom win the day.

via Stop Soda Tax for Government-Run Health Care | FreedomWorks.

U.S. military teaches ‘protesters’ are ‘low-level terrorists’

But Thompson noted that the report also targeted as “potential terrorists” Americans who:

* Oppose abortion

* Oppose same-sex marriage

* Oppose restrictions on firearms

* Oppose lax immigration laws

* Oppose the policies of President Obama regarding immigration, citizenship, and the expansion of social programs

* Oppose continuation of free trade agreements

* Are suspect of foreign regimes

* Fear Communist regimes

* Oppose a “one world” government

* Bemoan the decline of U.S. stature in the world

* Are upset with loss of U.S. manufacturing jobs to China and India, and more

And Thompson told WND no apology has been offered to the members of any of those classes of citizens.

via U.S. military teaches ‘protesters’ are ‘low-level terrorists’.

Why Obama Should Stay Silent on Iran | Cato @ Liberty

President Obama should keep quiet on the subject of Iran’s elections. At least two pernicious tendencies are on display in the Beltway discussion on the topic. First is the common Washington impulse to “do something!” without laying out clear objectives and tactics. What, after all, is President Obama or his administration supposed to do to “support protesters” in Iran in the first place? What would be the ultimate goal of such support? Most importantly, what is the mechanism by which the support is supposed to produce the desired outcome? That we are debating how America should intervene in Iran’s domestic politics indicates the sheer grandiosity of American foreign policy thought.

The second, related tendency is that of narcissism: to make foreign countries’ domestic politics all about us. In this game, American observers anoint from afar one side the “good,” “pro-Western” team and the other the “bad,” “radical” one and urge Washington to press its thumb on the good side of the scale. But doing so would risk winding up Iranian nationalism, a very real force that binds Iranians together more tightly than their differences pull them apart.

If Iran’s government has overreached, the right response is schadenfreude. It couldn’t have happened to a nicer group of guys. Meanwhile, President Obama has a full plate of problems to deal with in his own country. Whatever government emerges from the Iranian political process, we’re going to have to deal with it. Until then, whatever President Obama’s personal prayers or wishes are for Iran, he ought to keep them to himself.

via Why Obama Should Stay Silent on Iran | Cato @ Liberty.

DHS: Statement by Secretary Napolitano on the Introduction of Pass ID in the Senate

Release Date: June 15, 2009

For Immediate Release

Office of the Press Secretary

Contact: 202-282-8010

“Today’s introduction of Pass ID in the U.S. Senate brings us closer to greater compliance with federal standards for secure driver’s licenses and better protection against terrorists and other threats nationwide,” said Secretary Napolitano. “Pass ID is a cost-effective, common-sense solution that balances critical security requirements with the input and practical needs of state governments. I am committed to supporting this important bill and it is my hope that Congress will pass it into law as quickly as possible.”

via DHS: Statement by Secretary Napolitano on the Introduction of Pass ID in the Senate.