From Planet Gore, this has to be the poop de grace of bureaucratic achievement in the climate and ecology category.
Not a Square to Spare [Chris Horner]
Where are the Beatles when you need them? Someone inside EPA has brought to my attention how Oregon Rep. Earl Blumenauer has proposed legislation calling on a federal agency to define toilet paper.
Really. It says it right in the bill, the “Water Resources Protection Act” (I know, I know — you were expecting it to be called the Protecting Infrastructure and Sewer Systems Act):
‘‘SEC. 4172. DEFINITIONS AND SPECIAL RULE.
‘(b) WATER DISPOSAL PRODUCT. — For purposes of this subchapter —
(4) TOILET TISSUE. — The term ‘toilet tissue’ means toilet tissue, as determined under regulations prescribed by the Secretary.”
No, it’s not as silly as it sounds. It’s sillier.
The rulemaking to define what rises to the level of a bottom-wipe is in the name of a good cause: to tax the stuff. The current band of feds don’t think you’ve paid enough tax — this has been established ad nauseum — and now want a dedicated revenue, er, stream, to pay to replace corroded pipes and overburdened sewer sytems nationwide.
We know what else is involved in the confines of the rest room so, naturally, there’s a “climate change mitigation” section as well though, upon initial scrutiny, it isn’t as invasive as the context indicates should be the case.
It actually gets even more inane: in addition to adding a “3% excise tax on items disposed of in wastewater, such as toothpaste, cosmetics, toilet paper and cooking oil [because these] products wind up in the water stream and require clean up by sewage treatment plants,” according to Blumenauer’s Fact Sheet, water-based beverages, which actually hit the infrastructure both coming and, ah, going (as anyone who’s ever stood in line at a sporting event knows). So, those are hit with a four-cent per-container excise tax. Feeling flush yet?
This is a nice addendum to the dossier that, I believe, we will look back on as having been rolled up by a congressional majority (and indeed, entire political class) that soon found itself circling the drain.
Worst plumbing related public policy since Roman’s made all their water utilities out of lead…
This may become the alternative: http://www.seniorark.com/Humor/Good%20Friends,&%20Toilet%20Paper/leaves.gif
I see this “emissions tax” as being the mother of all consumption taxes. If you think about it, and to it’s logical conclusion, it’ll be applied to everything as everything we do, produce and consume, is linked to energy use (Fossil fuels).
If you recall my mentioning GST in New Zealand previously. I nicknamed this the Get Shafted Tax, as it appearded to me I *was* being shafted. I ran a business in NZ for a few years, charged my clients fees for my services which GST of 12.5% was added. The client duely paid and every quarter I paid IRD my bsuiness taxes, my income taxes and the quarterly GST I collected which was usually quite a lot in good quarters. So basically, the Govn’t was paid this GST without doing a single thing (Apart from introducing the legislation of course).
This is what Cap and Trade, Emissions Trading etc etc, is.
Allan M R MacRae (15:18:29)
‘new border industry – the smuggling of toilet paper into America.’
A scene from Alison’s restaurant flashed in my head. LOL
“mark fuggle (04:25:10) :
At the risk of being a bit anal, the roll in the cartoon is the wrong way round for viable down-step travel.”
C’mon Mark, you know facts aren’t required in the environmental/climate debate don’t you?
Crickey!!! This is something new I’ve discovered about “The Bottom Inspectors” from the UK comic VIZ.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_Viz_comic_strips
“a parody of Hitler’s SS, or perhaps the Stasi. A fascist organisation who knock on people’s doors in the middle of the night and inspect their bottoms. Any transgression is dealt with arbitrarily and cruelly. It has been revealed that the bottom inspectors are actually based on the ticket inspectors of the Newcastle Metro system (Chris Donald in a Picture of Tyneside, BBC 4, June 2005).”
Spooky!
What’s next, regulating the size of our toilets? Ahaha….oh, wait. 🙁
Kirk W. Hanneman (21:18:56) :
What’s next, regulating the size of our toilets? Ahaha….oh, wait. 🙁
**************
Even worse KWH.
They are going to standardize US toilets according to International METRIC Sizes.
Then, using eugenics and stomach staples, they are going to downsize and standardize the American bottom to fit the metric toilet.
This is One World Government at its worst.
“We will not stand for it!”
crosspatch (22:03:19) :
You see, we are infested with a class of idiots……………..
Got that right – the bureucrats & politicians will ruin us all unless stopped.
When will they propose to tax the air we breath?
” … water-based beverages,”
“Maybe its me. Maybe I’m an idiot. Perhaps I’m overlooking the obvious.”
“I’ve spent the last half hour trying to think of a beverage that isn’t water based. Does anybody have any examples of one?”
I was once forced to drink several glasses of cod liver oil before a medical procedure. It isn’t something I would do for fun or enjoyment, though. The taste lingered for weeks. I think it would be an appropriate beverage for convicted serial killers.
“At the risk of being a bit anal, the roll in the cartoon is the wrong way round for viable down-step travel.”
As the roll fell onto the ground, the person stepped forward to try and recover it. In the process, they delivered a firm kick to the bottom of the roll, thus placing a reverse or “english” spin on it. This could enable to roll to bounce several times, while still unrolling itself with the momentum delivered by the kick.
This was modeled and proven by one of my children, who happens to be as clumsy as I am.
This also illustrates the fact that you should never ever ask an engineer a hypothetical question, as they promptly try to answer it.
I am all for helping to improve the environment we live in. There is nothing wrong with that. None the less I don’t think taxing us into oblivion is the way to do it. Not all methods work either. Take my low flush toilet for instance. Sounded like a good idea at the time but in practice it’s not working out too well. It uses about half the water per flush as my old toilet but problem is you have to flush three times to get everything to go down. With liquid waste it only takes one flush so it probably works out to be the same water usage but hanging around waiting for it to refill two more times is really annoying. In the end I save nothing but have a considerable inconvenience. What I would really like is for our exalted rulers to do a reality check before shoving things down our throats. What will the TP tax really solve? Nothing that I can see other than a new way to take our money.
Really
Here in the UK the double flush toilet is commonplace, push down lightly for a small flush and hard down and hold for a large one.
All very trendy but I cannot see why it is really necessary, the only fresh water shortages that sometimes occur in England are due to the failure of governments from the 1970’s onward to invest in the infrastructure.
The current excuse is that water is heavy and hard to transport.
What Tosh.
By 100 AD Rome had a fresh water supply delivering about five times as much water per day than is currently used by the whole of South East England. If their engineers could do it then then why not ours now?
In Kielder water England has the largest man made lake in Europe buitl by fool politicians to supply the steel industry which had vanished by the time it was completed. It can supply all the water South East and West England needs, you simply require a pipeline or aqueduct some 300 miles long and a pumping station or two. In fact you don’t even need the pipes, there is a perfectly good canal network that could do the job.
And then we could go back to proper flushes. My favourite when I was small being the aptly named Thunderer whose cast iron tank at a height of eight feet could at the pull of the chain deliver five Imperial gallons with a truly impressive roar.
They don’t make ’em like that these days.
Kindest Regards
http://www.cnsnews.com/public/Content/Article.aspx?rsrcid=5615
we are on the road to waterless toilets. Amish lead us by a few years.
Isn’t too much government wonderful? I suggest writing a strongly worded letter on the subject to your congresscritters, whether they’re Demopublicans or Republicrats. Of course, you know what to use for paper, and the more uses you can get from it, the better. Renew, re-use, recycle!
See, coloradocelt, some of us are equal opportunity bashers.
a jones (11:46:23)
‘My favourite when I was small being the aptly named Thunderer whose cast iron tank at a height of eight feet could at the pull of the chain deliver five Imperial gallons with a truly impressive roar.’
I recall the ‘Niagara’ from childhood, requiring a double pull with slight hesitation and full effort on the second to work. But can vouch for the efficacy of the ‘Deluge No 2’ still available from a maker of impeccable quality ( although rather vulgar to mention price) at
http://www.crye.co.uk/product.asp?category=The%20High%20Level%20Cistern&product=High%20Level%20Cistern&category_code=0014-0001-&product_id=236
Is it required to have your brain deactivated to be a Democrat?
Not really, but it helps!
Is anyone hearing yet from their electric utility that they’re not selling enough electricity?
Yup, right here in SE Wisconsin. Our local gas/electric utility, WE Energies just asked for a 5% rate increase because of the slow-down in the economy! Not as much electriciy but gas is up a little because of (non-global cooling)
The bill is tremendous and still rising.
HOW YOUR TAX MONEY IS USED AGAINST YOU!:
http://scienceandpublicpolicy.org/originals/climate_money.html
More BS from Kerry:
http://www.boston.com/news/politics/politicalintelligence/2009/07/kerry_panel_loo.html
Via drudgereport.com
I have a Japanese Robot to clean my butt (A Toto Washlet S-300), so finally there’s one tax that won’t get me!
A non-water-based beverage?
Well, there’s nothing I enjoy more than a big mug full of igneous rocks! Natural, low-calorie, quartz or basalt. Mmmmmmm.
And when my supply of rocks runs low, it’s not a problem. There is an unlimited supply of rocks in the heads of most politicians and AGW alarmists.
Cheers!