As we watch the ongoing clown show in Glasgow, a thought. Instead of beating up Joe Manchin for wanting to share facts with a slogan-spouting Green Guard ideologue, or pressing for confiscatory taxes so the government can “spread the money around” to its favorite corporate cronies and other petitioners, perhaps everyone hyperventilating about the “climate crisis” should stop a bit and think.
Leaders of China, Russia and Brazil didn’t even attend the 2021 Glasgow climate conference. Those are the first, fourth and fourteenth most prolific producers of greenhouse gasses. India showed up, short of. China has been the top emitter since 2006 and now produces over 30% of the world’s total. Russia and Brazil continue to grow their output, as do many others like India – now the world’s third-largest source of greenhouse gasses, and growing.
The US produces about 13.3% of the world’s greenhouse gasses – less than half of China’s output. And our contribution has been declining since 2010, thanks largely to the switch from coal and oil to cleaner-burning natural gas. Thank you, fracking. Now, if we only had a few more pipelines…
These disparities suggest Washington’s approach to the “climate crisis” will fail, and the trillions Joe Biden wants to transfer from groups Democrats despise – farmers, rural residents, pickup truck drivers – to groups they favor will be wasted. Without controlling emissions from everyone including China, Russia, Brazil, India, Indonesia and many others, our efforts are useless. We cannot solve this problem alone and shouldn’t commit economic suicide while our adversaries continue on their merry, polluting way.
Unless the whole thing is a grift. Here’s a serious question: do Democrat leaders really want to fix the climate or do they want to enhance their power and enrich their friends using this “global crisis” as a vehicle? One giveaway in the titanic new social welfare bill masquerading as “human infrastructure” is a provision subsidizing electric vehicles. But when twelve thousand dollars is authorized for a vehicle built by unionized plants, while only seven thousand is allocated for those from nonunion facilities, it smacks of kickbacks, not conservation. Do “union made” electric vehicles actually produce less pollution? Of course not.
According to “Reason,” recent drafts of the “Framework” also contain new subsidies for aviation biofuels starting at about $1.25 per gallon. The aviation industry uses about 3 billion gallons of the stuff annually right now; you do the math. Among the key players in this nascent industry are the agricultural giant Archer Daniels Midland and Tech powerhouse Honeywell.
Forbes notes the $80 billion in new funding for the IRS – probably necessitated by the 87,000 new IRS employees. Snooping on everyone’s bank accounts because “we need to catch tax cheats” takes a lot of time and money. By the way: does Janet Yellen have probable cause to assume anyone with bank transactions over – what is it now, $10,000 – is a tax cheat? If she does, she should see a judge. A real one, not those FISA court rubber-stamp stooges. If not, how does this snooping not violate the Fourth Amendment? Be sure to read it before answering.
There’s lots of “equity,” including “Tree equity” ($3 billion). “Charging station equity,” to be sure there are plenty of charging stations in neighborhoods where people can’t afford to buy electric vehicles ($1 billion). “Climate justice” ($5 billion). “Neighborhood Access and Equity ($4 billion). And the list goes on.
Is amnesty for those in the country illegally in the “Build Back Better” bill? Maybe. It’s hard to tell. The Senate Parliamentarian says it can’t be, because this is a bill about “budget reconciliation.” At least a few Democrats including Senate majority leader Chuck Schumer, have said they don’t give a damn and that it will be in the bill. Besides, This is just a “Framework.” Remember “We have to vote for it to find out what’s in it?” Did you really think that was a one-and-done?
The bill is far from “paid for,” unless one accepts the Potomac Swampland gimmick through which two – or in some cases, six – years of programs are paid for with ten years of taxes. If you can find a Washington politician willing to tell their constituents “I’ll give you six years of services and charge you only ten years of taxes for them,” I’ll show you Joe Biden – because that’s exactly the math Democrats are using.
The entire business is a fraud, a hundred new Solyndras ready to be foisted on the gullible and the powerless. Its greatest flaw is that it will have little effect on the climate, but a powerful effect on less-well-off Americans who will pay through higher prices, slower economic growth and the “equity” of shared misery so that the nation’s liberal elites may feel better about themselves.
Welcome to the New Workers’ Paradise.
