THEY FINALLY PUT BATTERIES IN THE CALCULATOR - AT 10:57 P.M. ET:  Certain statistical truths are coming out about Obama economic programs.  Not good, not good.  From CBS:

The Obama administration has privately concluded that a cap and trade law would cost American taxpayers up to $200 billion a year, the equivalent of hiking personal income taxes by about 15 percent.

A previously unreleased analysis prepared by the U.S. Department of Treasury says the total in new taxes would be between $100 billion to $200 billion a year. At the upper end of the administration's estimate, the cost per American household would be an extra $1,761 a year.

A second memorandum, which was prepared for Obama's transition team after the November election, says this about climate change policies: "Economic costs will likely be on the order of 1 percent of GDP, making them equal in scale to all existing environmental regulation."

The documents (PDF) were obtained under the Freedom of Information Act by the free-market Competitive Enterprise Institute and released on Tuesday.

COMMENT:  I suspect that this kills cap 'n trade in the Senate.  While some Democrats, who really don't care about the costs borne by the average household, will still vote for it out of party loyalty and ideological serenity, most senators will want to file this one under LOSER.

September 16, 2009