What’s up with these Republicans?

Is it RINO season in Washington? A couple of interesting stories out this week reveal that the GOP is full of folks taking their cues from progressives and globalists.

First there was the report from Breitbart, discussing how tens of thousands in campaign donations flowed from a fund linked to billionaire progressive George Soros into the coffers of prominent Republicans in 2016.

The story relies on donation records from the Center for Responsive politics which show that executives at the liberal billionaire’s hedge fund, Soros Fund Management, donated around $36,800 in total to “top anti-Trump Republicans” over the past year.

From the report:

The biggest recipient of Soros-connected cash in the GOP was none other than House Speaker Paul Ryan, who repeatedly attempted to undermine Trump over the course of the election. According to the records available online, the Soros firm’s workers gave $10,800 to Ryan. Included in that are two separate May 2, 2016, donations from David Rogers, a then-employee of Soros Fund Management who lives in New York City. Rogers left the Soros Fund Management firm right around that time.

Other GOP recipients of the Soros-linked money included:

• Lindsey Graham, $3,500
• Marco Rubio, $2,700
• John Kasich, $2,700
• Jeb Bush, $2,700
• John McCain, $2,500

And the list goes on…

It’s important to point out that these Republicans didn’t receive money from Soros himself but from people who worked for him who usually only donate to Democrats. Maybe it’s a coincidence—but Breitbart appears to be suggesting that they took the money in return for their anti-Trump rhetoric throughout the 2016 election.

It’s also worth noting that Republicans contacted for the story by the outlet really didn’t like the idea of being linked to Soros— a Rubio lackey even accused Breitbart of spreading “fake news.”

In other news, Bloomberg is reporting that support for carbon tax legislation to address climate change is building in Washington—and it’s being led by “old guard” Republicans.

From the report:

A group of prominent Republicans and business leaders backing a tax on carbon dioxide were taking their case Wednesday to top White House aides, including chief economic adviser Gary Cohn.

The group, including former Treasury Secretaries Hank Paulson and James Baker, is pressing President Donald Trump to tax carbon dioxide in exchange for abolishing a slew of environmental regulations. They unveiled their plan with a press conference in Washington and an op-ed in the Wall Street Journal.

“We know we have an uphill slog to get Republicans interested in this,” Baker said before heading to the White House. But “a conservative, free-market approach is a very Republican way of approaching the problem.”

Other possible attendees at the meeting include the president’s daughter, Ivanka Trump, who weighed climate change policy during the campaign, and Vice President Mike Pence.

The Republican and business leaders, calling themselves the Climate Leadership Council, lend their stature to an approach for addressing climate change that mirrors an idea already advanced by Exxon Mobil Corp. Supporters say the tax is a conservative solution to climate change that replaces a regulatory regime with a free-market approach for addressing the greenhouse gas emissions.

The individuals wishing for a carbon tax are arguing that the Trump administration promise to cut environmental regulations mean the new tax would be less of a burden on businesses and consumers.

But why have a tax in the first place if Trump already wants to cut the regs?

That’s what people at free-market groups like the American Energy Alliance are wondering.

“This is not a climate proposal; it’s a tax proposal,” said Thomas Pyle, head of the free-market advocacy group American Energy Alliance, told Bloomberg. “There’s no need to trade Obama’s climate regulations for a carbon tax.”

But, there may be a bit of cronyism at play. As the newspaper reports: “…Exxon Mobil is just one of several large integrated companies that favor a carbon tax, the idea is opposed by many independent producers that do not own pipeline and refining operations.”

Guess who the tax would hit the hardest.

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