Here we go again, with a Warmist espousing that carbon taxes are totes Conservative, this time, Bob Inglas, who was a Republican congressman from South Carolina from 1993-99 and 2005-11
Column: A carbon tax is a conservative answer to climate change
When 21 Florida mayors from Miami to Tampa and St. Petersburg beseeched debate moderators to make the presidential candidates talk about climate change, I was cheering for my favorite question: “Can free enterprise solve it?”
And, by free enterprise, he means “government dictates” and taxes.
Too often the question is, “Do you believe in climate change?” What’s there to believe? Climate change is just data. The question is what to do about the data. The question is whether we can rise to full citizenship, full humanity. The question is whether we can own up to full accountability.
I believe in that kind of accountability. I believe that we are the stewards of creation and that accountability brings blessings. I believe that accountability drives the free enterprise system to deliver innovation.
First, Bob, you have to prove that it is caused mostly/solely by the actions of Humanity. Second, government dictates are not part of free enterprise
The mayors’ open letter got right to the heart of the leadership required. They asked what investments candidates will make to protect coastal assets and coastal economies from the growing impacts of sea level rise and climate change; what specific policies they would put in place to reduce greenhouse gas emissions; and what policies they would advance to ensure that America delivers on its international commitments.
That’s not free enterprise, that’s a dictatorial government making demands.
Our atmosphere is the dump for emissions. If we allow people to dump there without paying for the harm their dumping causes, they’ll dump freely. If we make them accountable for the harm their dumping causes, they’ll clean up their smokestacks or lose out to a clean energy competitor who has a smaller smokestack or no smokestack at all.
A carbon tax is a tipping fee for the atmosphere. At republicEn.org we don’t want just any kind of carbon tax, though. We want a carbon tax that’s paired with a dollar-for-dollar cut in existing taxes on income, so there is no growth of government. And we want the carbon tax applied to imports so that our trading partners have every incentive to join us in stopping the free dumping into the atmosphere.
Please explain how government instituting a tax is in any way related to the free market instituting a free market solution.
Of course, since he now directs republicEn, “a group of free enterprise believers committed to action on climate change”, he seems to be super thrilled with any government action that will increase the cash value of the company. Government action is not free enterprise.
Conservatives will soon be acknowledged as proto anarchists. I mean why stop at small government, let’s just eliminate it entirely and go to free markets
john seems to think that advocating for fewer regulations and making sure regulations make sense is the same thing as advocating for no regulations.
You can’t fix that type of logic in people.
LOL. Corporations; business licenses; patent and copyright protection; roadbuilding; clean air; clean water; enforcement of contracts; police, fire and military protection; drug laws; traffic laws; prostitution laws; who can pee where laws; etc…
If by free enterprise you mean lemonade stands, babysitting and lawn mowing, you may be right. But even lemonade stands have police protection. Do you advocate private armed guards for lemonade stands?
There is no evidence that would ever convince a far-right Denier. Why do you bother? “It” (the rapid increase in mean global surface temperature over the past century or so) is caused by humans adding CO2 to the atmosphere. The supporting evidence is overwhelming to everyone except the American far-right. What would prove to you that human activities are causing the Earth to warm?
Do they teach any economics in NC? I know they don’t at UNC where students aren’t required to attend class or hand in assignments, but what about the less prestigious schools. Anyway, a tax makes the damaging act (polluting the atmosphere) more expensive to the culprits, and makes the less damaging competition (renewables) competitive!
Do you really think that polluting is an acceptable activity? What keeps a corporation from dumping all its offal into the river or air? Libertarianists/market fetishists think that public pressure will drive customers to pay more at a socially-conscious competitor who doesn’t pollute or exploit its workers.
How do you suggest a society rein in polluting corporations? Or are you just making a semantics argument, like about the word “subsidy”?
In ancient history, starting in the 1980s, when all Republicans were free marketeers, the GOPers supported all manner of cap-and-trade systems to reduce pollutants. Ronald Reagan signed off on a cap and trade system to reduce lead in gasoline. George H.W. Bush pushed through cap and trade to reduce power plants emitting sulfur derivatives into the air. In 2005, W’s EPA issued antipollution cap and trade rules. It was Congressional Republicans who submitted bills in 2003, 2005 and 2007 for cap and trade systems to limit CO2 pollution.
That was back when environmental pollution was considered deleterious.
But then, almost like a plague, the GOP stopped believing in science and market mechanisms and became cult-like Deniers. Weird. Remember the PSA’s with Bob Dole and Newt Gingrich asking us to get on board with trying to slow global warming? In 2007 John McCain supported a carbon cap and trade system but by 2008 he thought that global warming was a hoax. This swept through conservative circles like the flu.
So it’s possible that teabaggery is an actual transmissible disease. Perhaps a virus or a CNS-active prion like Kuru or Creutzfeldt-Jacob. It’s bizarre how it swept through conservative circles in 2008. Fortunately, it’s been largely confined to the US, and exclusively to individuals that describe themselves as conservative. Perhaps Sarah Palin was patient zero. Clearly her very public deterioration over the past 8 years has been tragic to watch, so the course of the disease is moderately fast. Before 2008 she didn’t get around much, but in 2008 she circulated widely in Republican circles, especially in the lower 48. It’s unlikely that she left any prominent Republican untouched.
Are there other hypotheses to explain this rapid turnaround in conservathought and the attendant amnesia that accompanies it? Clearly the evidence supporting the theory of AGW has strengthened significantly since 2008, so that’s not a viable alternative. Investment in Denialism certainly has increased since then, so it could be just a form of “money-induced hypnosis”. That can’t be ruled out. Nor can we rule out that it’s political calculation on the part of the RNC – much as they decided to attack Blacks as political strategy in the 60s.
That’s right GC I like GOVERNMENT I like the will of the people regulating for the benefit of ALL If you don’t like government than go somewhere else somewhere you can live a life free of regulation
You know it sure is funny when the anarchist/free marketeers/ conservatives talk about reducing governments, they are the ones who scream loudest when government doesn’t solve all their perceived ills
When the ship of state is holed and going down THEN they scream WHY DIDNT THE GOVERNMENT DEMAND MORE LIFEBOATS
There is your logical fallacy again. You think that wanting less regulation means wanting no regulations. I can’t help you fix that disconnect in your brain.
You know it sure is funny when the anarchist/free marketeers/ conservatives talk about reducing governments, they are the ones who scream loudest when government doesn’t solve all their perceived ills
Really? I haven’t seen that in action at all. What I have seen is that when government follow through with passed laws, conservatives scream. It is always the left who wants more regulations. How much more?
In case you missed it, the people creating these rules aren’t elected and doing “the will of the people.”
But once again, that ligic escapes you.
Of course, you miss the point that the ship is holed because of regulations, but no one can make you see what is out there in front of your face.
So go to another country where people can take the hard earned rewards of others. That is really what you and liberals support.
John-“I like the will of the people regulating for the benefit of all.” Tell me, how does the will of the people fit in to the fact that so many of the regulations we face today come from un-elected bureaucrats from HUD, EPA, OSHA, USDA, ATF, BLM, FAA, TSA, ect.?