A Partisan Fight?

Claim:

Despite Democrats’ promises to deliver tax relief to families who need it the most, the recent budget proposal from the White House includes a “cap-and-trade” provision that should more appropriately be named the “cap-and-tax” provision, because if it became law it would raise energy taxes on every single person who flips on a light switch. As Congress takes the President’s federal budget under consideration, [insert state] families deserve to know if Rep. [insert name] would support such a devastating energy tax proposal.”

— From press release issued by the National Republican Congressional Committee targeting new and politically vulnerable House Democrats, March 31, 2009.

Truth:

Global warming is not a partisan issue. Its devastating impacts will be felt by Democrats, Republicans and Independents alike. And it will take our combined efforts as a nation to overcome the grave threat of run-away global warming.

Many leading Republicans support a strong bill to cap America’s global warming pollution — including Governors Arnold Schwarzenegger from California and Jon Huntsman from Utah; senior statesmen like former Senator John Warner from Virginia and Senator Richard Lugar from Indiana; and the Republican nominee for President last year, Senator John McCain.

These leaders understand what the NRCC and other opponents apparently don’t — that ignoring global warming won’t make it go away; that sticking with our current energy policies will only keep us addicted to foreign oil; that a real economic recovery depends on rebuilding our energy infrastructure; and that a cap on carbon will create new millions of new jobs in clean energy industries throughout our country.

Instead of offering constructive ideas on how to seriously deal with the threat the global warming and free America from our dependence on foreign oil, the same people who brought us the worst economic mess since the 1930’s are simply trying to scare us. These tired political tactics have no basis in reality — they are just one made up statistic after another about how bad things will be if we try anything different.

In reality, the costliest action we could possibly take is to do nothing about global warming — just stick our heads in the sand and pretend there’s no threat. This will lead to rising insurance premiums, increased infrastructure costs, and billions more we’ll have to spend to deal with natural disasters: floods, droughts, wildfires and the like.

What our opponents really advocate is a huge do-nothing tax that will blow up our economy and devastate our environment.