CAP AND TRADE: THE UGLY TRUTH

A License Required for your HOUSE?
If you own your home you really need to check this out. If the country thinks the housing market is depressed now, wait until everyone sees this. No one will be buying homes in the future.

I encourage you to read the provisions of the Cap and Trade Bill that has passed the House of Representatives and are being considered by the Senate. This Congress and their "experts" are truly out to destroy the middle class of the U.S.A.

A License will be required for your house...no longer just for cars and mobile homes....Thinking about selling your house? Take a look at H.R. 2454 (Cap and Trade bill) This is unbelievable! Home owners take note and tell your friends and relatives who are home owners!

Beginning one year after enactment of the Cap and Trade Act, you won't be able to sell your home unless you retrofit it to comply with the energy and water efficiency standards of this "Cap & Trade" bill, passed by the House of Representatives. If it is also passed by the Senate, it will be the largest tax increase any of us has ever experienced.

The Congressional Budget Office estimates that in just a few years the average cost to every family of four will be $6,800 per year. No one is excluded. However, once the lower classes feel the pinch in their wallets, you can be sure that these voters will get a tax refund (even if they pay no taxes at all) to offset this new cost. Thus, you Mr. And Mrs. Middle Class have to pay even more since additional tax dollars will be needed to bail out everyone else..

But wait. This awful bill (that no one in Congress has actually read) has many more surprises in it. Probably the worst one is this: A year from now you won't be able to sell your house without some bureaucrat's OK. Yes, you read that right.

The caveat (there always is a caveat) is that if you have enough money to make required major upgrades to your home, then you can sell it. But, if not, then forget it. Even pre-fabricated homes ("mobile homes") are included. In effect, this bill prevents you from selling your home without the permission of the EPA administrator.

To get this permission, you will have to have the energy efficiency of your home measured. Then the government will tell you what your new energy efficiency requirement is and you will be required to make modifications to your home under the retrofit provisions of this Act, to comply with the new energy and water efficiency requirements.

Then you will have to get your home measured again and get a license (called a "label" in the Act) that must be posted on your property to show what your efficiency rating is; sort of like the Energy Star efficiency rating label on your refrigerator or air conditioner. If you don't get a high enough rating, you can't sell.

And, the EPA administrator is authorized to raise the standards every year, even above the automatic energy efficiency increases built into the Act. The EPA administrator, appointed by the President, will run the Cap & Trade program (AKA the "American Clean Energy and Security Act of 2009") and is authorized to make any future changes to the regulations and standards he/she alone determines to be in the government's best interest. Requirements are set low initially so the bill will pass Congress. Then the Administrator can set new standards every year.

The Act itself contains annual required increases in energy efficiency for private and commercial residences and buildings. However, the EPA administrator can set higher standards at any time. Sect. 202 - Building Retrofit Program mandates a national retrofit program to increase the energy efficiency of all existing homes across America .

Beginning one year after enactment of the Act, you won't be able to sell your home unless you retrofit it to comply with its energy and water efficiency standards. You had better sell soon, because the standards will be raised each year and will be really hard (expen$ive) to meet in a few years. Oh, goody!

The Act allows the government to give you a grant of several thousand dollars to comply with the retrofit program requirements IF you meet certain energy efficiency levels. But, wait, the State can set additional requirements on who qualifies to receive the grants. You should expect requirements such as "can't have an income of more than $50K per year", "home selling price can't be more than $125K", or anything else to target the upper middle class (that includes YOU?) and prevent you from qualifying for the grants.

Most of us won't get a dime and will have to pay the entire cost of the retrofit out of our own pockets. More transfer of wealth, more "change you can believe in." Sect. 204 - Building Energy Performance Labeling Program establishes a labeling program that for each individual residence will identify the achieved energy efficiency performance for "at least 90 percent of the residential market within 5 years after the date of the enactment of this Act."

This means that within 5 years 90% of all residential homes in the U.S. must be measured and labeled. The EPA administrator will get $50M each year to enforce the labeling program. The Secretary of the Department of Energy will get an additional $20M each year to help the EPA. Some of this money will, of course, be spent on coming up with tougher standards each year...

Oh, the label will be like a license for your car. You will be required to post the label in a conspicuous location in your home and will not be allowed to sell your home without having this label. And, just like your car license, you will probably be required to get a new label every so often - maybe every year.

But, the government estimates the cost of measuring the energy efficiency of your home should only cost about $200 each time. Remember what they said about the auto smog inspections when they first started: that in California ? It would only cost $15. That was when the program started. Now the cost is about $50 for the inspection and certificate.

Expect the same from the home labeling program. Sect. 304 - Greater Energy Efficiency in Building Codes establishes new energy efficiency guidelines for the National Building Code and mandates at 304(d) that one year after enactment of this Act, all state and local jurisdictions must adopt the National Building Code energy efficiency provisions or must obtain a certification from the federal government that their state and/or local codes have been brought into full compliance with the National Building Code energy efficiency standards.

Health Care History

I feel that I want to both weep and vomit after the health care vote last night. This vote represents perhaps the single most devastating assault on freedom in my lifetime. Here are just a few of the reasons this bill is so profoundly dangerous:

1. It violates the constitution by mandating that every American purchase health care. If I don't want to purchase health care, or if I cannot afford it, I should not be compelled to do it!!
2. This bill mandates that tax payers' money be used to fund abortions. Apparently some deal was reached with pro-life democrats to make them believe that this requirement be reversed or pulled, but the truth lies within the wording of the bill itself. This bill WILL use our money to pay for abortions, period.
3. Our health insurance premiums will go up, up, up. Our taxes will go up, too. Free health care is a joke. This is going to cost us all a LOT - not just the super wealthy, but all of us.
4. This bill will destroy private health insurance companies. In fact, I am confident that is one of the primary goals of its creators. Once private health insurance companies go out of business, we will all be stuck with a public option - because, you know, the government will have to swoop down and save us all from those evil companies.
5. This bill screws veterans! Excuse my vernacular - I am in a hurry, and my academic brain is on hiatus while I focus my days and nights on changing diapers and teaching the ABC's. (I wouldn't trade it for the world, but my brain has taken a temporary hit!)

I listened to hours of debate yesterday in the House of Representatives. It was truly fascinating. I love watching our political process at work. I was inspired by some of what I saw and heard, but truly disheartened by the words and actions of so many that pretend to represent us! This legislation is so fully reprehensible, not only because of the ways in which it violates our liberty, but because of the fact that the VAST majority of Americans are AGAINST it!!! Those who make our laws are elected to represent US. We hire them - they work for US! Sadly, their arrogance has led them to believe that they can do whatever they want without consequence.

I am so sick of people talking about this 'historic' vote. It's similar to the way the world wouldn't stop talking about Obama's election in terms of its historic value. Has anyone ever noticed that just because something is historic does not mean it is positive? Hitler's movement was historic. Mao's forced starvation of tens of millions of Chinese peasants was historic too. In my opinion, this is tragic too - not to the same degree, of course. But the doors of history open and close on small hinges. This 'historic' law is just a set of hinges on a very dangerous door - a door I do not want to open!

Stop the Stimulus Madness

You've seen the coverage of the approximately $1 trillion debt scheme pushed by Speaker Pelosi and President Obama that's being called the "Stimulus Package."
These political leaders don't realize that massive deficits, higher taxes, wasteful spending and heavy-handed regulation are primary reasons for the current recession.
You can fight back today by visiting http://nostimulus.com/ and joining the growing army of taxpayers saying NO by signing Americans for Prosperity’s petition to stop this disastrous trillion-dollar debt scheme, known as the “Stimulus Package.”
It is critical that we send a loud and clear message to DC politicians that ordinary citizens simply cannot afford the crushing burden and devastating consequences of this initiative.
Please act now to make your voice heard -- and encourage your friends and family to do the same -- by signing AFP’s petition at NoStimulus.com

I was thrilled to find this website...especially after hearing this morning that the current bill passed the senate. I thought it was all over, because that is what the news people are saying. However, that is not the case!! Go to the website and sign the petition. It gives you a little space to write a message, too. This was mine:

This stimulus bill is a horrific mistake. The expansion of the federal government represented therein will put a crushing burden on the American people in the long-term. We cannot afford the consequences of such an irresponsible move. Please listen to the millions of Americans (and the many economists) who are fiercly opposed to this legislation.

By the way, have you ever noticed that decisions based on fear are usually a mistake? I feel like the best argument I have heard so far for this stimulus bill is something along the lines of, "if we don't do something, anything, right now, civilization as we know it will be obliterated... oh, and your left kidney will most likely fall out too." I'm a dramatic lady and can appreciate well placed hyperbole, but come on! I would just like to think that huge decisions affecting the future of every American (including many yet un-born) would be well thought out, instead of just thrown together in a mad fury.

Again, the nifty little website is: www.nostimulus.com