Do I really want the Cap & Trade lunacy, its huge loss of freedoms and destruction that will be wrought to the economy, including the real estate industry? No, not really. But I think it might be better than the alternative.
Because WHAT I WANT is for Americans to WAKE UP! I think Cap & Trade, HR 2454, may be just the ticket.
Surely, this will wake people up to what is happening! Skyrocketing energy costs, tax hikes, economic stagnation or worse and the nanny state in places it should never have been considered. Won’t that be enough to wake folks up?
I’m very concerned about what it might take to get the public to finally understand. Has public education wrought us a feckless population that has turned off their brains and are simply cannon fodder for smooth talking thieving politicians? Has that been the end game all along? There aren’t too many places left in the world to go where capitalism is still valued. When the U.S.A. is taking a more socialist stance than the People’s Republic of China on economic intervention, I have to wonder how folks have lost appreciation for why America is great.
So, back to Cap & Trade, or “Clean Energy” or whatever con they’re calling it. You see, I figure Cap and Trade can be made to go away pretty quickly. Sure, it will set us back and cost us just like the still to be spent stimulus money will cost us. Call it tuition for the American public whose memory is so far gone they can’t even remember back to Jimmy Carter. Again I digress, but that lesson was good enough to get us Ronald Reagan at the time.
What won’t be so easy to make go away is nationalized health care. I don’t think the lobbies that would support keeping Cap & Trade in place would be anything like the uproar that would occur if Nationalized Health Care, if it happens, has to be reduced or dismantled. So, I would rather have the populace figure out what a bad deal this whole socialist thing is with energy than health care. Energy rates should start to go up before even the mid-term elections. I smile thinking what that might accomplish.
I do believe that a public pays (even more) health care plan would be just as disastrous to the economy, the country and our freedoms and harder to reverse than the energy bill.
So, while I am against ALL OF THIS STUFF, I think that the energy bill, Cap and Trade, might be just the alarm clock the public needs. I’m trying to think a few moves down the game board. Bloodhounds, what do you think? Oh, and a Happy Independence Day!
Missy Caulk says:
Gosh you had me going there. Well, I hope you are right and America wakes up sooner rather than later.
Happy 4th to you, God Bless America!!
July 1, 2009 — 2:19 pm
Marcia Walton says:
If you have not read the letter, and signed this petition, please consider taking the time. This woman has more common sense and guts than the entire crowd in D.C. http://www.thepetitionsite.com/8/an-open-letter-to-our-nations-leadership
She WILL be remembered as the woman who woke up Americans.
(I liked your writing, too)
July 1, 2009 — 6:49 pm
Greg Dallaire says:
You had me going as well in the beginning. Sadly I have to agree that it will make the american people wake up and realize what the government is doing. But I tell you what i’m still going to be talking to all of legislator’s and letting them know right now the american people are watching there every move.
It’s time for accountability from our elected officials and they need to start acting in our best interest’s not in there parties.
July 1, 2009 — 7:07 pm
Brian Brady says:
I applaud you, Al and so many other contributors for embracing the concept of Liberty. America is a great nation, filled with opportunity. Her people are a great people, lit by an entrepreneurial fire. Real estate is a great way to build wealth, regardless of its temporary malaise.
The entrepreneur sees opportunity amidst the rubble. The faster we teach people to stand on their own two feet and claim responsibility for their successes, the sooner we’ll rid ourselves of the bad element who threatens our Liberty.
July 1, 2009 — 8:26 pm
Jeff Brown says:
Don’t wanna put a damper on your July 4th weekend, but we think alike, Al. 🙂
I thought we’d do well in the 2010 elections due to what I predicted would be sufficient backlash from Democrats who realized they’d been bamboozled (yet again), and so-called middle of the roaders (roadkill?) who would see, once and for all that bi-partisanship is what got Adam & Eve kicked outa the Garden.
Obama has eschewed any pretense of disguise, racing full throttle towards what can only be described as American style statism. Up until recently I thought those openly professing real fear for our country were overreacting. However, Obama has accomplished more in six months than I thought possible in two years. Though I am reasonably confident in the American people’s ability to see the emerging naked truth of what their new president actually believes, I too am beginning to wonder if he’ll be far too successful before the brakes can be applied.
I’ve also used Carter as an analogy for current events, but the incredible speed and crazy ambitious scope of Obama’s actions (pay zero attn to his rhetoric) has convinced me that analogy needs amending. Imagine Carter, FAR more politically astute, on steroids. That’s why it may be time to become anxious for the direction our country is now headed.
July 2, 2009 — 10:34 am
Tom Hall says:
My answer is term limits. This country has been asleep at the wheel for longer than the past 6 months – let alone 2 decades.
If national health care is a concern – hate to break the news – we’ve had it for quite some time. Not only does it cost us more per person than any other industrialized nation, it doesn’t even cover everyone.
I can’t stand the argument that somehow all of this is happening TO US.
As far as I’m concerned, the biggest issue facing this country isn’t national health care, Cap and Trade etc etc etc – it’s a career politician.
July 2, 2009 — 11:09 am
Karen Highland says:
The only problem with this line of thinking is that the damage to the economy will have long-term consequences that will not be easily recovered from. Rolling back this kind of sweeping legislation is not so easy, either.
I’m rather thinking that IF “Cap & Tax” passes, then I’ll look for the silver lining of “Americans will have to learn the hard way”. I’d rather fight it right up until the last vote.
Tom Hall—I’m totally with you on carreer politicians. Before our very eyes were watching them shore up their power.
July 2, 2009 — 1:11 pm
Al Lorenz says:
Karen, I really agree. I could never actually SUPPORT Cap & Trade. I just think, if we might only stop one thing, I am more concerned about a “public pays” health care option since I think it would have a stronger lobby against undoing it.
Tom – Term limits would be the best. Other than the fairly lame attempt at them in the contract with America, I just don’t see momentum there. Maybe there will be in the future.
July 2, 2009 — 3:47 pm
Don Reedy says:
Brian…you wrote:
“The entrepreneur sees opportunity amidst the rubble. The faster we teach people to stand on their own two feet and claim responsibility for their successes, the sooner we’ll rid ourselves of the bad element who threatens our Liberty.”
Brian, you know I love you, your heart, your sinew, your raw courage, and of course your sharp intellect. And I’ve been, as you noted in a comment on my last post, in somewhat of a funk.
But honestly, it’s my feeling, and a very strong feeling, that we’ve reached and passed the tipping point for overcoming the bad element who threaten our Liberty. Don’t take this for surrender, and don’t chastise me for taking all the data I have, measuring it, sifting it, and then arriving at this conclusion. Here’s why.
This liberty of which you speak, from whose trough you have drunk, and for which again on this July 4th weekend so many have sacrificed, is now becoming a mirage.
I started off by thinking I’d mention Hitchcock’s “Lifeboat”, where liberty gives way to pettiness, distrust, deceipt, weakness and the animal instinct for self-preservation over our common and cultivated social nuances. I found myself, however, backed into my reflections of a more “Swannian” nature, i.e. Nietzsche, “Superman”, and “The Sea Wolf.”
Perhaps this is too far off topic. Al, forgive me. Perhaps this is not the venue about which to write about my feelings about how far the tryanny has proceeded, infiltrated and overcome most of the Liberty we depended on for the sustenance of our country’s health, moral posture and yes, our once postulated unending wealth.
In Greg’s last post he ends by saying “There are no principles left in the public life of the American people. Everything comes down to devouring all of your neighbor’s wealth before he can devour all of yours — sucking greedily at his veins while he sucks greedily at yours. If you’re looking for a change in the United States — or just in California — this is what has to change.”
Will we rise up and slay Wolf Larsen before it’s too late? Will we hear the immediacy of Al’s alarm clock, and actually think far enough into the match to survive an Albin-Chatard Attack?
Al, this is what I’m thinking. And by the way, though my thoughts may seem extreme, or overdone, they are concomitant with feelings I had just before the Dot.com bust, the inane run-up in home values three to four years ago, and a foreshadowing that even Jeff Brown, who we know can fend for himself pretty darn well, would weigh in on this post with thoughts like this:
“I’ve also used Carter as an analogy for current events, but the incredible speed and crazy ambitious scope of Obama’s actions (pay zero attn to his rhetoric) has convinced me that analogy needs amending. Imagine Carter, FAR more politically astute, on steroids. That’s why it may be time to become anxious for the direction our country is now headed.”
July 2, 2009 — 9:52 pm
Gail Tassey says:
At first when I started reading your post I was stunned because I have ready many of your other posts and never thought you were for socialized anything, much less energy.. It was with relief that I kept reading and saw that of course you are not FOR socializing energy and the horrible CAP and TRADE BIll… thanks for speaking out about this underwriting of America by more DC legislatures. I recently heard on a TV show that if passed, Americans can expect thier energy costs to go up as much as 90% in the next few years. That is a real jolt, especially for the unemployed, low wage earners, seniors on fixed income and many others that the current administration is touting this Bill as an answer to. I am outraged that the regular Joes have no idea what Cap and Trade is or what it will mean to them.
July 3, 2009 — 8:33 am
Al Lorenz says:
Gail,
I would be happiest if neither Cap & Trade nor Socialized medicine becomes law, as you saw. While Cap & Trade is awful, I think the health care “reforms” that are being touted are just as bad and would be harder to undo.
Have a great Independence Day! I just erected our flagpole at our new house with my kids and put up the flag!
July 3, 2009 — 1:13 pm
Scott Grace says:
IMO this would be a bad time to introduce a cap and trade system. ROugh economic times are no the best time to roll out new taxes and tariffs. Eventually the costs for businesses are going to be passed down to the end users.
July 4, 2009 — 7:42 am
Robert Kerr says:
“Lunacy?” “Huge loss of freedoms?” “Destruction wrought?” “Disastrous to the economy?”
What is going on here?! There’s exaggerated, apocalyptic melodrama in nearly every new thread in the blog.
Gentlemen, chill, it’s not the end of the world!
July 4, 2009 — 5:16 pm
Jim Gilbert says:
The times we are living in are, to put it bluntly, scary. I cannot believe that our do-good preaident and congress are bent on bankrupting our nation! Nevertheless, I refuse to live in fear of what may happen. It’s not the end of the world, true, but I do hope that we wake up … before it is too late to turn back.
July 7, 2009 — 7:19 am