“I can make a firm pledge. Under my plan, no family making less than $250,000 a year will see any form of tax increase. Not your income tax, not your payroll tax, not your capital gains taxes, not any of your taxes.“ - Barack Obama during campaign

We are all familiar with Obama constantly promising Americans that he would not raise taxes on those making less than a quarter million per year. Turns out, unsurprisingly, that was a lie. It is impossible to quadruple the national debt and pay for it all by raising taxes on just 1-2% of the taxpayers. So the Democrats are using a less obvious method to tax your money away called cap-and-trade.

Cap-and-trade is a deception cloaked in the language of saving the environment. The ostensible goal is to steadily reduce carbon dioxide and other greenhouse gas emissions. This assumes that CO₂ is harmful for the environment, which is not proven and highly suspect, especially when you consider it’s a natural gas given off by animals, and plants use it to grow and produce oxygen. The debate is far from over on anthropogenic global warming, and many prominent scientists have turned from believers to skeptics and the list is growing. Cap-and-trade will not have a significant impact on the environment, but it will destroy jobs and greatly increase the cost of energy.

Who will be most affected by cap-and-trade? The unemployed, the poor, and senior citizens. It will increase the energy bills for Americans by an estimated average of $1500-$3,000 per year. President Obama even admitted: “Under my plan of a cap and trade system, electricity rates would necessarily skyrocket.”

Prior to the election when gasoline prices were soaring during the summer, Obama only expressed concern that prices were rising too fast. It was not the fact that prices were rising that bothered him, but the rate at which they increased. Obama and environmental extremists would like to see all our energy bills “skyrocket.”

Democrats know that businesses really do not pay taxes. So when taxes are increased on energy producers, it is the consumers who ultimately pay those higher taxes through higher prices. So when Democrats attack businesses it really serves a dual purpose - they get to act like they are the party of the ‘little guy’, and they get to raise our taxes in a more indirect way.

The value-added tax (VAT) is another scheme by the Democrats floating around Washington to steal more of our money. The VAT would be used to pay for government-controlled national health insurance, and would be a type of national sales tax. A VAT is among the most regressive taxes that can be imposed. All consumers would pay this tax, and since the poor and working class consume more as a percentage of their income, they will be hurt the most by it (like most liberal policies).

Could Obama and the Democrats have picked a worse time to raise taxes on America? Here we are in a recession with increasing unemployment and people struggling to pay their bills, and what do they decide is best for the country - raise natural gas prices 55%, gasoline prices 74%, and electricity rates 90% after adjusting for inflation. Not only did Obama lie to us, but he simply does not care that he is hurting Americans at a time when they need the most relief.