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How Republicans should win the climate fight
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| Contributor | RP |
| Last Edited | RP Jul 16, 2009 01:23pm |
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| Category | Blog Entry |
| Author | Jon Henke |
| News Date | Thursday, July 16, 2009 04:00:00 PM UTC0:0 |
| Description | Republicans have fought cap and trade wrong, and they're going to lose because of it. If the bill passes, they've lost a policy fight; if the bill fails, Republicans will not get credit for lower prices, but they will be blamed (fairly or not) for obstructing progress on environmental problems.
Let's stipulate a few political realities: (a) the public generally agrees that something must be done about climate change, (b) cap-and-trade is expensive, complicated, inefficient, unpopular, subject to industry gaming and political manipulation, (c) cap and trade is widely regarded (including by environmentalists) as inferior to a carbon tax, but (d) Democrats are pushing for cap and trade anyway, because it is "politically possible."
What should Republicans do instead? Propose a carbon tax.
But, instead of a straight tax increase (as Democrats want), Republican should propose a carbon tax that replaces the payroll tax. That is revenue neutral, meaning there is no total tax increase. |
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