Gilet Jaune Wins Reprieve from Gas Tax

For now, the French government is backing down on the punitive fuel taxes that ignited the gilet jaune uprising. The tax has been suspended for at least 6 months in hopes anger will subside:

In announcing the decision, Prime Minister Edouard Philippe said anyone would have “to be deaf or blind” not to see or hear the roiling anger on the streets over a policy that Macron has defended as critical to combating climate change.

Says Philippe,

“No tax is worth jeopardizing the unity of the nation.”

Au contraire, Macron’s gas tax has unified France. Rural, urban, right-wing, left-wing — all have joined in the protests/rioting. No one but out of touch elitists seems to like Macron or his gas tax. As noted at the Wall Street Journal,

Nothing reveals the disconnect between ordinary voters and an aloof political class more than carbon taxation.

Ordinary voters pay the price for the lunatic ideology and sanctimonious posturing of the delusional weenies who dominate government and media.

Carbon crapola is especially absurd in France, which has low carbon emissions because it generates so much of its electricity the sensible way: with nuclear generators. Supposedly Macron’s gas tax would improve global weather. In reality,

French road-transport emissions were a mere 0.4% of global carbon emissions in 2016…

Even if climate change really is caused by carbon emissions, there is no chance the tax would have a perceptible effect on it. Yet Macron has decided that French people must stop driving so much, because this pose is fashionable in his circles. Thus the punitive tax. Of course, Big Government is always happy to find an excuse to confiscate more money.

Increasingly radicalized Democrats will gladly impose a carbon tax on the USA when given the chance. Let France be a lesson. Pushback works if you push back hard.

On tips from Varla and 1-Bodhisattva.

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