First it was tire gauges. Then it was tea bags. And now it’s candles.
Really, the Republicans desperately need to hire some good PR people because their messaging lately has been positively comical.
Cap-and-Trade Candles? Really?
Cap-and-Trade Candles. Really.
…the RNC sent a candle to House members this morning with a note attached.
“If Democrats pass ‘Cap and Tax,’ this is all the energy American families and businesses will be able to afford,” the note says. “Don’t tax our lights out!”
They also put out one of their oh-so-awesome YouTube vids:
From The Hill’s Blog:
In a PR blitz to kick off the week, the RNC released a web video and sent props to lawmakers on Capitol Hill, warning them to not “tax our lights out” by way of passing the Waxman-Markey bill.
The web video shows several people using appliances around their homes before the power goes out, and they have to light up a candle, after which they facetiously “thank” President Obama.
This is the kind of gimmickry that comes from a party with no fresh ideas or direction to lead in. Rather than offering legitimate alternatives to the Democrats’ and President Obama’s ideas, they simply stomp their precious li’l feets, shout NO! and then hand you some stupid trinket in a completely FAIL attempt at being clever.
I desperately wanted one of those tire gauges and actually wrote to Mike Rogers, my congressman at the time, to see if I could get one. I just knew they would be come collectors items, antique examples of how pathetic and lame a political party can become when it has no leadership and no ideas. I never got one. He was probably too embarrassed…
Think Progress points out that it’s also a complete fallacy:
In reality, the Congressional Budget Office found last Friday [pdf] “that the net annual economy-wide cost of the cap-and-trade program in 2020 would be $22 billion — or about $175 per household” — less than the cost of a postage stamp a day. The CBO analysis, done at the request of Rep. Dave Camp (R-MI), found that the 23 million Americans “in the lowest income quintile — would see an average net benefit of about $40 in 2020.”
Strangely (or not), conservatives are still pushing the meme that cap-and-trade legistlation would, as the Wall Street Journal recently put it, “probably destroy the economy, reduce the dollar to junk status, and end the U.S. as a free and productive country as we know it.”
Riii-iiight…
For instance, Nancy Thorner at American Thinker wrote just today:
There is massive deceit taking place among advocates of global warming through doctored data, misrepresented study findings, and flawed computer simulations that amounts to a government-created Ponzi scam that surpasses the shame of the Madoff scandal. As such global warming is not and never was the crisis so many politicians and activists claim it is. Fraud by investment gurus earn them jail and fines; no punishment awaits fraud on the public by government officials.
Efforts made to control emissions of greenhouse gases would not only be ineffective and completely pointless as carbon dioxide is not an atmospheric pollutant, but also extremely expensive. The net result of the Waxman-Markey energy bill would be to vastly expand power in Washington, D.C., while functioning as a tax on the American people by raising the cost of energy and the price paid for all goods and services.
This came out the day after the CBO’s report. It ignores the CBO’s findings and, more importantly, ignores the fact that there are actually economic benefits that were not addressed in the CBO report that would make the financial impact even less.
Paul Krugman weighs in the cap-and-trade bill on his blog The Conscious of a Liberal:
A while back … I cited Robert Samuelson, who ridiculed the Environmental Defense Fund for suggesting that major action on greenhouse gases would only cost a dime a day per person.
Now comes the Congressional Budget Office, which estimates the cost to households of Waxman-Markey in 2020 at $22 billion — which, given a projected population of 335 million, comes to 18 cents a day. Hah! EDH was being over-optimistic. Seriously, EDF was essentially right: the costs of cap-and-trade are very, very low.
So not only are they launching a completely childish and pathetic PR campaign to smear Cap-and-Trade (which they call “Cap-and-Tax”, of course.) They are also, as usual, completely wrong and are pushing an “idea” that is based on false premise.
What a surprise.
Gonna have to see if I can get me one of those candles now.
I’m just sayin’…
