Monday, March 09, 2009

WSJ: Taxing the other 95%

Obama's hidden taxes getting some attention - 'bout time - Who Pays for Cap and Trade? ◼ Cap and trade is the tax that dare not speak its name, and Democrats are hoping in particular that no one notices who would pay for their climate ambitions. With President Obama depending on vast new carbon revenues in his budget and Congress promising a bill by May, perhaps Americans would like to know the deeply unequal ways that climate costs would be distributed across regions and income groups.

Politicians love cap and trade because they can claim to be taxing “polluters,” not workers. Hardly....

Hit hardest would be the “95% of working families” Mr. Obama keeps mentioning, usually omitting that his no-new-taxes pledge comes with the caveat “unless you use energy.” Putting a price on carbon is regressive by definition because poor and middle-income households spend more of their paychecks on things like gas to drive to work, groceries or home heating.

17 comments:

  1. Let's hear your spin on this one Rose

    http://www.nytimes.com/2009/03/10/us/politics/10stem.html?_r=1&hp

    Lemme guess-it's just a way to divert attention away from the economy.

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  2. Rose we are so totally fucked by all of this.

    9:53 - what the hell does lifting the ban on stem cell research have to do with this topic? ANSWER = nothing at all.

    I have an answer for you 9:53 and I am pro-choice and support stem cell research. But, you will probably not like my response as it raises some significant ethical and moral issues which many "duck-steppers" find uncomfortable to have to answer.

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  3. 680-1500 dollars sounds like a bargain compared to the average cost per person for the corporate bailouts and the stimulus package. If this is what it takes to clean our air, count me in.

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  4. Oh yeah - 1:16 do you leave your critical thinking skills at the door when you enter the room to blog on your computer. This thing has been tried in Europe and is a total failure...I repeat...A TOTAL FAILURE. It is another hype thats it.

    And btw, I was just told that the environmental elite says no more toilet paper...at least no more charmin....Guess I will plant more corn this year just in case!

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  5. I love how conservatives believe that speaking like an asshole help an argument

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  6. 4:21 - They have to speak like that so progressives will have a chance to understand them.

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  7. Hey 4:21 - who was speaking like an asshole? I've reread everything here and can't find it. Unless you are refering to anyone who posts an opinion contrary to yours. Now thats progressive!

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  8. This blog is the best. Angry conservatives who haven't had their daily does of metamucil!

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  9. If it is a world wide problem, the people, world wide will all have to pay for it. The program might be wrong but the concept is inescapable.

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  10. When I say we will all have to pay for it, I mean that if the problem is a global problem, the people of the world will suffer the consequences. And therefore, all will pay.

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  11. the higher one income, the MORE energy one uses.....its true on a macro and a micro scale.....

    the richest countries use the most energy, the poorest use the least....

    while i strongly disagree with the idea of a "carbon tax", to promote the lie that poor people use most of the energy is a joke...

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  12. Tom and Greg:

    This cap and trade doesn't work anywhere in Europe. It is a truly stupid idea.

    Sadly, from what I have read, Al Gore uses shitloads of energy. Jet-ing around, wasting it in a huge museum size non-green home.

    I truly get the concept of cap and trade and theoretically it sounds good. Just that practically speaking it flat out doesn't work. Leave things as they are. Don't pass this hidden tax on to americans when they can't afford it and start pushing and mandating research and development to get us off coal emmissions and middle-east oil.

    And for you closeminded jerks that think everyone who disagrees with you is a republican, go screw yourselves and get back to Heraldo. It is truly small minded and lame to be so dismissive. You really don't have to read this blog or post on it.

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  13. I think the problem may be taking care of it self. If the poorest use less energy and therefor produce the least greenhouse gas, and we are all getting poorer, we are all producing less which is lower than the cap in the first place.

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  14. Palin's daughter broke up with her Financee, the father of her child

    http://www.nytimes.com/aponline/2009/03/11/us/AP-BristolPalin.html?_r=1&hp

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  15. Greg you x-repub,go away you're a f#^*%#g idiot.

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  16. "This blog is the best. Angry conservatives that haven't had their daily dose of Metamucil!"

    Fifty percent of angry conservatives are over fifty. The other fifty percent are over seventy.

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  17. 2:01,
    a. i CLEARLY said that i disagree with the cap and trade policy...

    b. my name is not greg....

    if ignorance is bliss, why arent you happy?

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