With the Kerry-Boxer energy tax on life support due to growing taxpayer resistance to additional federal spending, a new analysis of the economic impact of this bill might just kill it outright.The Heritage Foundation estimates that, in addition to adding a massive tax burden to the entire U.S. economy, the Kerry-Boxer cap and trade energy tax would kill an astonishing 1.4 million American jobs per year. In 2032 alone, job losses would exceed 2.5 million.
In addition, Heritage finds that the cost to the average family would be more than $4,500 per year. Electricity prices would rise more than 70%, and gasoline prices would rise by almost 50%, translating to an increase of more than $1,000 in energy costs for each American family.
As for the national debt, which the Senate recently approved to rise by an addition $1.9 trillion, Kerry-Boxer would increase the average family's share of the debt by an additional $27,000.
These new facts indicate that Kerry-Boxer would be even more of a burden on the U.S. economy than the House-passed Waxman-Markey bill, which, as written, would destroy about 1.1 million jobs per year.
Given this new information, it will be difficult for Senators Kerry and Boxer to muscle this through an already wary group of Senators who are concerned about the costs of cap and trade.
And it will likely take a lot more than phony new messaging to sell this job-killing bill to the American public.
