Obama policies compare unfavorably to France

The Hill:

President Obama has created higher deficits and a worse energy situation than exists in France, Sen. Lamar Alexander (R-Tenn.) said in the Republican address Saturday morning.

"[W]e don’t want to be in the European Union. We’re the United States of America," Alexander said. "But French deficits are lower than ours, and their president has been running around sounding like a Republican -- lecturing our president about spending so much."

Alexander criticized the president for what the Republican said would be a massive tax hike under Obama's cap-and-trade program.

The Tennessee Republican, chairman of the Senate GOP conference, used his party's weekly response to compare Obama's spending and taxation plans unfavorably to those of France, usually a country Republicans love to hate.

"We Republicans didn’t like it when Democrats passed a budget that gave the French bragging rights on deficits," Alexander said. "So we’re not about to let the French also outdo us on electric and gasoline bills, clean air and climate change."

France is a major producer of nuclear power, a source of energy Republicans would like to increase and that Democrats have resisted. Nuclear power provides about 20 percent of American electricity, Alexander said, about a quarter of the amount it provides France.

Alexander's focus on energy comes as Congress prepares to tackle major energy legislation. Reps. Henry Waxman (D-Calif.) and Ed Markey (D-Mass.) are crafting legislation that would impose a limit on carbon-based emissions, a so-called "cap-and-trade" system. The measure would be the first of its kind and a source of what Republicans are characterizing as a major tax hike.

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The cap and trade bill would be a disaster for the US economy. It would drive up the cost of energy so high it would put us in a permanent recession. The cost estimates the Democrats are using are based on the false premise that the US will match France in the production of nuclear energy, about 80 percent of electrical supplies at this time. The Democrats actual oppose growing nuclear energy and they are placing all their bets on wind solar and magic. None of the three are currently competitive.