Republican Rep. Thaddeus McCotter tells Newsmax that the Obama administration’s cap-and-trade plan to curb carbon emissions would amount to “a death sentence on American manufacturing.”
The Michigan legislator, who represents a Detroit-area district, also said Obama is imposing a double standard regarding the auto industry and Wall Street, and insisted that the “failed” bailout of financial institutions must be stopped.
[Editor's Note: Watch Rep. Thaddeus McCotter discuss Obama’s huge cap-and-trade tax - Go Here Now]
Newsmax TV’s Ashley Martella noted that Rep. McCotter had criticized the Obama administration for forcing out General Motors CEO Rick Wagoner, and asked about the significance of that move for his state.
“There are two things we are seeing in Detroit,” said McCotter.
“One is the continuation of the disparate treatment between the auto industry and Wall Street.
“And secondly, the injurious nature of asking Mr. Wagoner to resign when you’re giving GM 60 days to complete a restructuring project or face the prospect of bankruptcy. We don’t quite understand why it was necessary to do or how it was going to be helpful…
“The question now is the Wall Street bailout, which has failed and has put hundreds upon hundreds of billions of dollars of taxpayer money into these failed financial institutions that once claimed they were too big to fail.
“It has to end, in my opinion, and I think what Republicans should focus on is getting back to a more entrepreneurial-based, community-based opportunity society rather than see the centralization of power and economic opportunity in the institutions which, again, claim to be too big to fail, and by their very nature are rife for too much of an incestuous relationship with big government.”
Martella pointed out that the Obama administration has also threatened to force out the heads of some big banks, and asked if McCotter was disturbed that the president is firing the heads of private corporations.
“Obviously from Detroit we were very unhappy with the intrusion into the private sector, and we think that the fundamental flaw in the entire strategy from the beginning has been the Wall Street bailout, where the government became so active within what were perceived to be pillars of the financial industry,” McCotter responded.
“We have to go back to the root cause of the problem. I believe, as the first member to oppose the Wall Street bailout in Congress publicly, [we must] stop it or we are going to continue to find ourselves with an ever expanding government.”
Martella asked what Obama’s cap-and-trade plan — referred to derisively as cap-and-tax — would mean for the auto industry.
“It would be a death sentence on American manufacturing,” McCotter declared.
“It would amount to not only a home energy tax for people, it would amount to a tax on any goods made in the United States. The cost would then try to be passed on.
“You had the president and his budget advisor Mr. [Peter] Orszag talk about how they expect the cost of cap-and-tax to be passed on to consumers and how they hope it alters their behavior. I don’t think that’s the role of government, to use the tax code for social engineering, and certainly not to cost Americans jobs in the middle of a recession.”
Can Congress stop cap-and-trade, Martella asked.
“I hope we can,” McCotter said. “I know there are Democrats who are opposed to cap-and-trade, especially those from manufacturing states and those states that rely on natural resources for a large part of their economy, and hopefully we can have enough bipartisan sanity shown in this institution to stop it.
“Another thing looming on the horizon is the U.N.’s attempt, through the Copenhagen Treaty, to try to internationalize cap-and-trade. Now this, I don’t think I have to tell very many Americans, would be a disastrous intrusion upon and an erosion of our sovereignty as well as our prosperity.”
[Editor's Note: Watch Rep. Thaddeus McCotter discuss Obama’s huge cap-and-trade tax - Go Here Now]
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