Dear Fellow Patriots:
Thank you for coming out today to make your voice heard. Throughout our history, it has been the fury of the citizens that has fueled great change and quieted poor policies.
Increased taxes, big government, and obscene spending are policies that should be dead on arrival. I support your efforts today and will continue to fight excessive taxing and spending in Washington, D.C. You are proof that the people of this great country are still in charge. Your message will be heard by elected officials in Washington, and I will make sure that it is not forgotten.
God bless you all, and God bless America.
Sincerely,
John Ensign
Senator Ensign was interviewed by Captain Ed Morrissey of Hot Air and The Ed Morrissey Show on the issues of the Employee "No" Choice Act, the Democrats' planned energy tax and more.
Here's a preview:
Some quick takeaways:
- Ensign thinks that a business-Democrat alliance on health care may be overstated, and only temporary.
- The unions may opt for incrementalism on Card Check in order to get around the lack of support at the moment in the Senate, but they're not going to give up on Card Check.
- Cap-and-trade may not come up in Congress this year, but Ensign worries that Obama will get most of what he wants through EPA regulation.
- Expect a big push from Republicans this summer on Drill Here Drill Now.
Watch the interview over at Hot Air.
President Obama's cap-and-trade plan is really a national sales tax on energy with the stated purpose of driving up energy costs by thousands of dollars.
More from my op-ed in the Las Vegas Review-Journal:
President Barack Obama has been shockingly upfront about his heavy-handed plans to govern energy production across the country from Washington, D.C. His plan is known as cap-and-trade, but it amounts to a new national energy tax that will be detrimental to consumers' pocketbooks at the worst possible time.
President Obama noted that "under my cap-and-trade plan, electricity prices would necessarily skyrocket" and his Budget Director, Peter Orszag, testified before Congress that under this program "firms would not ultimately bear most of the costs of the allowances but instead would pass them along to their customers in the form of higher prices ... price increases would be essential to the success of a cap-and-trade program."
So we know the president's plan would raise significant revenues -- otherwise known as taxes -- paid by consumers. The question is: What will this cost the consumer?
An MIT study looked at a cap-and-trade scheme that closely tracked the president's proposal and projected revenue of $366 billion in a single year. To calculate the impact on families, we divided the revenue by the number of U.S. households to get a new tax burden of about $3,000 per family. That is a straightforward way to evaluate the tax burden per family.
Recently an employee of MIT accused Republicans of overestimating the per- household figure. The number we calculated, however, was lower than the one published in MIT's own study. Using an alternative household number, MIT estimated that $366 billion in revenue would equate to an astonishing $4,560 per family of four.
The MIT study assumed all revenues raised would be rebated back to consumers (and even after a 100 percent rebate, according to a letter they sent to Congress, they apparently conclude that energy costs would still increase by $340 a year).
It is unlikely, however, that consumers will see significant rebates from Uncle Sam because history has shown us that Washington will find ways, too often wasteful, duplicative and inefficient ways, to spend your money.
Read more.
Today is Tax Freedom Day -- the day Americans must work until they they have earned enough money to pay this year's tax obligations at the federal, state and local levels.
Michelle Malkin reported on Tax Freedom Day and the question Senator Ensign posed on Twitter about future Tax Freedom Days:
It has finally arrived.
Sen. John Ensign asks a good question on Twitter this morning: "When will it come after Democrats pass their national energy sales tax?"
Help restore fiscal discipline by joining Senator Ensign's Restore Fiscal Responsibility Facebook group.
President Obama released his budget proposal for the 2010 budget (which starts 10/1/09) today.
As I have said many times in the past it is critical that we work together to solve this nation's economic woes, and President Obama has indicated he wants to do this through an 'honest' budget. But we need to remember that we don't just need an honest budget, we also need an effective one.
With this budget, Democrats have laid out their priorities for spending taxpayer dollars, and their priorities are clear: grow the size of government until it is entwined into every aspect of our lives. The era of big government is back.
This budget proposes over one trillion dollars in new taxes. Don't let the rhetoric fool you -- it is not just the rich who will be responsible for paying for this colossal spending bill -- every single American will feel the effect of this budget. If you use electricity you will be taxed to pay for this bill. It's as simple as that.
Let's get to work to craft a budget that protects taxpayers' dollars while creating jobs at the same time.
