Yesterday afternoon I attended a meeting of interested parties who gathered to discuss the Senate debate on Lieberman-Warner, which Sen. James Inhofe is now calling the “Boxer Climate Tax Bill.”

Democrats continue to squabble over the mess they made for themselves by pushing this wretchedness. But on the GOP side, Sen. Elizabeth Dole looks now to be a firm “yes” supporting the bill — in spite of all that the floor debate has already revealed. According to one source who met with her staff, they repeated standard green-group talking points such as “we have to invest in the future” and that this bill is where that money must come from. Yikes.

More disappointing, reports are that New Hampshire senator John Sununu (pictured), facing a re-election fight, apparently is leaning toward a “yes” vote after hearing from a number of groups demanding he support the bill — groups whose members will never support him and, in most cases, actively support his opponent.

Do what a Senate bill proposes — enforce 70 percent decreases in greenhouse gas discharges in transportation, power plants, refineries and factories over the next 40 years — and you will cost the economy hundreds of thousands of jobs and billions of dollars in gross domestic product. You will possibly induce future recessions, inescapably hike energy prices and, since it will just be the United States acting (not China or India), the chance of a significant impact on warming will be something on the order of zero.

But the Senate's approach goes deeper than that — it reaches far into the future and could cripple prospects of Americans not yet born, thereby making Boxer more a prophet than she ordinarily is, even if for reasons other than the ones she cites.

The Lieberman-Warner-Boxer organizational chart that Kit Bond referenced on the Senate floor yesterday was produced by the U.S. Chamber of Commerce. For those who'd like a closer look, you can find it here. Good work all around.

Source

For conservatives who would like to think the whole government should be handed over to the liberals for a few years until the Reagan wing of the Republican Party can get its act together, a quick look at a monstrosity under consideration by Congress is in order. Liberal Democrats and "green" Republicans are proposing a massive reorganization of the American economy to fight so-called global warming. Worse yet, proponents of this bill are attempting to sell this eco-socialism as a "market-based" policy, and their allies in the national media are going along with the charade.

For decades now, the media have shoved down our throats the idea that Planet Earth is in grave peril of catastrophic global warming. Now that Washington's elites feel confident that everyone from McCain to Obama agrees that doom is imminent, it's time to push something they call "cap and trade." Put an emphasis on the "cap." That means that the federal government is aspiring to dictate for every individual and business in America the absolutely perfect level of carbon-dioxide emissions. Once the government mandates how much emission will be allowed, then it will allow the public to "trade" on the rights that remain. The sponsors on this power grab are independent Sen. Joe Lieberman and the walking poster child for term limits, so-called Republican John Warner.