Last Wednesday, Rep. John Dingell (D., Mich.), chairman of the House Energy and Commerce Committee, released his plan to fight global warming: a 50 cent gas tax increase and elimination of the mortgage deduction for homes over 3,000 square feet (the average American home is 2,400 sq. ft).
The proposal was met by a deafening silence from the climate jihad.
Though the proposal came from one of the most powerful Democrats on Capitol Hill and was blasted across the front page of the Detroit Free Press, the Detroit bureau of The New York Times completely ignored the story. Not a single MSM outlet ran the news. Not the Washington Post, not the networks. Not a word was uttered by Al Gore, Nancy Pelosi, John Kerry, or any other politician who has been clamoring for “meaningful” measures to address climate change.
Dingell’s proposal is the green nightmare: Legislation that brings the global warming debate out into the sunlight, forcing voters to consider the real costs of GW rhetoric. Greens – and their press parrots – know that there is no public stomach for gas taxes or home size mandates which is precisely why they have been legislating back-door diktats like CAFE increases.
Dingell, a genuine climate alarmist, wants government action but is blowing the whistle on his blue state colleagues who want to preen green while his auto constituency bears all the economic pain. Dingell’s proposal would have no effect on global CO2 levels, yet it sets the parameters for a real public debate on whether global warming is a concern that needs to be addressed.
It’s a debate The Left does not want to have.