Cap and Trade - Now?

I have to admit that I only know what what the news has reported about Cap and Trade. Not that I didn't want to find out more (I did find the bill on the Internet), but, for heaven's sake! It was over 1,000 pages huge! So, I heeded the little warning box on the computer that said the file was extremely large, and opted to forego the download. Anyway, Nancy Pelosi and the Democrats are doing everything they can to push the bill through and have called for a vote this Friday, just a couple of days away. It just seems so strange to me that such a large, important bill has to be processed on a "rush" basis. You would think that in putting such a bill together, you would want all the input that you could get, including some Republican ideas, and then take whatever time it needs to hash out any problems. Are we dealing with concrete facts? I have heard that bovine flatulence is a leading source of pollution, but I haven't seen any comparative analysis between, say, 100 cows and a coal-fired electrical plant. The next time I watch the National Geographic channel and see a vast herd of wildebeests thundering across the Serengeti, I won't be able to keep from thinking about their emissions output. And I'm wondering about the cost. The Congressional Budget Office estimates that the program would cost a family about $175 a year; the Republicans estimate $3100 a year. Since neither figure is definitive, we could use the rough average of about $1640, or about $136 per month. Supposedly, this is the additional amount we would have to add to our energy costs to keep our household running. I don't know about you, but adding that to the $230 per month that I pay now would seriously affect my lifestyle. And remember that every time you buy a product that has used energy in its manufacture or transport, you will be paying embedded costs that have been passed on to you. Our cost of living will shoot up dramatically.
I just don't think that our government should be laying such a large burden on us right now, while we are beaten down so bad with the recession. It may be that there is a real problem with the environment, but let's get the unemployment rate back to 5 % first; let's get a substantial part of our lost investment savings back, and let's get the economy back on its feet first. We can't take much more punishment. Surely you were joking about the 14 % value added tax, weren't you?