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Thompson Praises CBS News on Cap and Trade Truth

September 23, 2009

Washington, D.C.—U.S. Representative Glenn `GT’ Thompson today praised CBS News, which reported the Administration’s real estimate of costs per household for the Cap and Trade legislation.

“The Obama administration has privately concluded that a cap and trade law would cost American taxpayers up to $200 billion a year, the equivalent of hiking personal income taxes by about 15 percent,” according to CBS reporter Declan McCullagh. “At the upper end of the administration’s estimate, the cost per American household would be an extra $1,761 a year.”
“How is the average American household going to pay for this added almost $2000 a year?” asked Thompson. “How are my constituents, in some of the lowest employment areas in the state, supposed to pay for this?”

The analysis was prepared by the U.S. Department of the Treasury and was obtained under the Freedom of Information Act by the free-market Competitive Enterprise Institute, who presumably gave it to CBS.

“For some reason, the Obama Administration has never released this memo from Judson Jaffe at Treasury, who also writes: `It will raise energy prices and impose annual costs on the order of XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX.’ Apparently the Treasury Department blacked out that line because they did not want the American people to see it,” said Thompson.
Democrats have pointed to estimates of about $800 a year per household. Republicans had set the figure at $3,100 per year.

“There are reasons to address climate change, but there should be transparency about how much it is going to cost. I repeatedly have said cap and trade will raise energy costs and tax each household while contributing to job loss on a massive scale,” said Thompson. “There are those who counter that `green jobs’ will be created, and perhaps that is true. But robbing one set of jobs to pay another is no help to our struggling economy.”
For a look at the CBS story, go to:
https://www.cbsnews.com/blogs/2009/09/15/taking_liberties/entry5314040.shtml


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