Obama had a terrible time explaining his Bail Out of Wall Street and the Health Care Debate has Congress so confused they will soon need their own Socialized Health Care …and now they are jumping into another fire fight…Cap and Trade.

So as Congress starts the debate on a Climate Bill, this years World Series would be a good time to explain the program before it gets confusing. So here we go.

The need for salary caps and player trades is a key part of both baseball and environmental matters. Here are the simple facts.

We as citizens should put a “cap” on a corporation’s CO2 emissions (pollution) just like we should put a cap of the amount of salary the Yankees can pay their players. If not they will always be in the playoffs and the rest of us will be waiting for basketball to start. So if the Yankees want to pay more for their players they should have to compensate the other teams. (As a White Sox Fan Obama should like this).

for reference, one ton of CO2 occupies about 16,000 cubic feet of space — that’s about the same as the amount of air in a 2,000 square foot house. So if your house or apartment is 2,000 square feet, each ton of CO2 emitted into the atmosphere would fill your house. In 2007, the U.S. emitted 6 billion tons of CO2 — enough to fill one house for every human on earth. And CO2 is heavier than air, so if a ton of CO2 filled your house directly, you’d suffocate, just like the Earth is doing.

This is similar to Obama’s plan for industry. Manufacturing plants could only pollute the air for the rest of the league (you and I) to a certain level. And if they want to pollute more (pay more salary) they would have to compensate the other teams. In this case they would just buy some of the CO2 savings from another “team” or company.

And “Trade” is similar to trading players. If you need a good left handed pitcher you might have to give up two great prospects to make the trade. You get the player you want but the other team gets compensated. The same is true in pollution. If you need to pollute more until  you can modernize your plant, you pay someone else for cutting their pollution.

So everyone is a winner: the polluter who gets to pollute, the enlightened manufacturer who gets paid for what he wants to do anyway (reduce pollution), the Chicago stock exchange, who loves to trade things they have never seen, make money and the rest of us get cleaner air.

Please pass on this explanation to your Congressman before they get all mixed up. If not, the Republicans will soon be talking about Obama wanting to sell us Air or some other nonsense. Unfortunately Congress’s creates a lot more CO2 (which they are not paying for) and they will never win the World Series of Government.