Barrasso blasts Waxman-Markey Bill as Job Killer

Aug 03 2009

Senator John Barrasso (R-Wyo.) Chairman of the Senate Western Caucus issued the following statement on jobs in the West:

A recent poll found that 87% of Americans were worried about the rising unemployment rate. There are currently over 14.7 million Americans out of work.

Congress needs to adopt sound policies that reverse that course and create jobs and wealth for all Americans.  Unfortunately this Administration’s policies fail to do that.  In fact, they are making the situation worse by advocating Congress pass the Waxman-Markey Cap and Trade bill.

Last Friday, Vice President Biden’s Chief of Staff was quoted in the Washington Post defending the President’ $787 billion dollar economic stimulus proposal by saying “the point of these programs on the jobs front is to cushion the blow.”  The blow being the economic downturn with the housing and credit market collapses.

This statement ignores the fact that the President’ bill was supposed to create or save 3.5 million jobs and keep unemployment no higher that 8 percent.  But that hasn’t turned out as the Administration expected. 

Since the President’s $787 billion dollar stimulus package was signed into law, 2 million American jobs have been lost.  Unemployment has soared to 9.5 percent. 

Vice President Biden has stated that the Administration has “misread the economy.”  He’s correct.  Now the Administration and the majority in Congress are saying that the Waxman-Markey bill is a jobs bill.

This is despite the fact that this “jobs package” supports workers who lose their jobs because of this bill.  This implicitly acknowledges that cap-and-trade is a job killer.

The authors of the bill, and the Administration, want to deal another blow to the American taxpayer.  This means stripping red white and blue jobs, and then subsidizing a few green jobs in their place.  This is the Waxman-Markey approach.

In Wyoming and the West, we can not afford to take our prosperity for granted.   If we pass Waxman-Markey, or a bill like it, that prosperity will erode further.