Cap-and-trade will take 3.5% off of GDP by 2050

(By Ed Morrissey, Hot Air) - If the Senate ever does finish with a health-care overhaul bill, the next item on their agenda looks like an even bigger loser. The Congressional Budget Office, whose analyses exposed ObamaCare as a deficit-busting boondoggle, has now reviewed the cap-and-trade bill passed by the House over two months ago. The analysis confirms that cap-and-trade will seriously hamper the American economy and create joblessness by the millions over the next 40 years:

The climate change bill approved by the U.S. House of Representatives would reduce the gross domestic product of the United States by as much as 3.5 percent in 2050, the Congressional Budget Office estimates.

The Democratic-controlled House passed landmark legislation in June aimed at slashing industrial pollution that is blamed for global warming.

“Reducing the risk of climate change would come at some cost to the economy,” the CBO said in a reported posted on its website on Thursday.

The report concludes that if cap and trade provisions of the bill are implemented, the measure would reduce the gross domestic product by between 1 percent and 3.5 percent below what it otherwise would have been in 2050.