Republicans: Like Democrats, Just Don’t Get It

I don’t support tax-increases, ever. I hold a special level of hate for taxes which bribe consumers into stealing from producers. I am thankful that President Trump doesn’t believe in Anthropogenic Global Warming. The science is politicized and goal-oriented, driven by federal research grants that produce desired outcomes.

These idiot Republicans just don’t understand why we have a President Trump, to begin with. Like the Democrats, they can’t fix their faults, because they refuse to see them.

A group of prominent Republicans and business leaders, including former Treasury Secretaries Hank Paulson and James Baker, will meet with some of President Donald Trump’s top advisers at the White House Wednesday to push a plan to tax carbon dioxide in exchange for lifting a slew of environmental regulations.

“Unlike the current cumbersome regulatory approach, a levy on emissions would free companies to find the most efficient way to reduce their carbon footprint,” Baker and former Secretary of State George Shultz wrote in a Wall Street Journal opinion article posted online late Tuesday. “A sensibly priced, gradually rising tax would send a powerful market signal to businesses that want certainty when planning for the future.”[…]

The plan faces strong political headwinds; both Trump and a majority of the House of Representatives have come out against a carbon tax in the past year. Trump also has pledged to do away with environmental regulations limiting emissions of carbon dioxide and other greenhouse gases that exacerbate climate change[…]

The blueprint involves a $40 tax on every metric ton of carbon dioxide released by burning fossil fuels, with the price climbing over time. To avoid an undue burden on the poor from the higher energy bills that would result, the projected $200 billion to $300 billion in annual revenue would be redistributed to households in the form of quarterly checks from the Social Security Administration. Families of four would see an average annual payout of $2,000 under the plan.

The proposal also calls for border adjustments that would act to hike the costs of products imported from countries that do not put a price on carbon.

Former Republican presidential candidate Mitt Romney described the proposal in a tweet as a “thought-provoking plan from highly respected conservatives to both strengthen the economy and confront climate risks.