60 Plus Jim Martin: “230,000 new federal employees? Absurd!”
(Alexandria, Virginia) – 60 Plus Association Chairman Jim Martin, leader of the largest conservative seniors advocacy group in the nation, today responded to a court filing by the Environmental Protection Agency in which the agency admitted it would need to hire 230,000 new federal bureaucrats and spend an additional $21 billion per year to meet a 2016 timetable on carbon emission standards as part of the Clean Air Act.
“This sets a new standard for insanity, even in Washington,” said Martin. “Here we are, in the midst of a total economic meltdown that threatens nearly every family in America, and President Obama’s EPA continues at every turn to crush as many American jobs as possible and regulate us all to death. Everyone should hold a vivid picture of the EPA in their mind when they see the President stand on a soap box and talk about creating jobs, because that’s his real agenda; adding employees to the government payroll, killing coal and energy, and shutting down U.S. industry. EPA regulations result in high energy prices at every turn, and this hurts seniors on fixed incomes most of all.
“The agency, which currently employs 18,000, admitted that meeting this requirement would be ‘absurd’ and ‘impossible’ in a September 16th court brief that is part of larger litigation, but is moving forward regardless in order to comply with the statute.
“I rarely agree with the EPA, but in this case they have hit the nail on the head by recognizing that compliance with the rules they themselves wrote would be ‘absurd’ and ‘impossible.’ Yet still they plow forward in a maniacal crusade to shackle all of us with these ridiculous regulations.
“When will the far left big spenders wake up to the fact that this is ‘exhibit A’ in what is killing American jobs and destroying our economy? The EPA has fully confessed they are out of control and imposing impossible standards on our nation. Whether attacking coal, imposing new standards on ozone or carbon, or redesigning cars and light bulbs, if ever there was a time to call a moratorium on the EPA issuing further rules and regulations, it can’t come a moment too soon. Let’s stop the EPA NOW, while some of our country and our economy still remains.”
Under the EPA 2016 emissions timetable, the number of businesses and organizations required to seek a permit would rise from the current number of 14,000 to 6.1 million. “Unbelievable,” Martin concluded.
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