Energy bill nothing but big tax hike

Washington is trying to hand Illinois, and the rest of the nation, the largest tax increase in our history. The "cap-and-trade" scheme at the core of the energy tax bill recently passed by the U.S. House of Representatives will have an enormously negative impact on our economy.

Congressman Mark Kirk voted "yes" for this bill. As a prospective member of Americans for Prosperity and a voter in Kirk's district, I want everyone to consider the consequences of this vote. The cap-and-trade scheme is a huge new tax in disguise - a tax on energy that will drive up the price of nearly everything in the country.

Take President Obama's own word for it. He told the San Francisco Chronicle last year: "Under my plan of a cap-and-trade system, electricity rates would necessarily skyrocket." That means you pay more. A lot more. Not just for electricity, but for gasoline, diesel and everything else that uses energy. In other words, everything.

What do we get for the billions of dollars it will cost? Nothing. Similar cap-and-trade efforts failed to reduce greenhouse gas emissions in Europe. And even if they did, climate models show the reductions would have no detectable impact on global temperatures.

Let's hope that this bill dies in the Senate. But, if by some chance it is revised and comes back to the House for a vote, we need to tell Congressman Kirk to reject special interest taxes and vote for the taxpayer this time around.

David Jackson

Waukegan Township