Let’s Just Call It ‘Cap and Tax’

Newsweek ^ | Jun 9, 2008 | Robert J. Samuelson

[Delacon]

The current plan for dealing with global warming would trigger a lobbying frenzy to win new subsidies and preferential treatment.

Robert J. Samuelson

NEWSWEEK

Updated: 12:42 PM ET May 31, 2008

We'll have to discard the adage "everyone talks about the weather, but no one does anything about it." In this era of global warming, it is inoperative, because the whole point of controlling greenhouse-gas emissions is to do something about the weather. This promises to be hard and perhaps futile, but there are good and bad ways of attempting it. One of the bad ways is "cap and trade." Unfortunately, it's the darling of environmental groups and their political allies.

The chief political virtue of cap-and-trade—a hugely complex scheme to reduce greenhouse gases—is its very complexity. This allows its environmental supporters to shape public perceptions in ways that are essentially deceptive. Cap-and-trade would act as a tax, but it's not described as a tax. It would directly regulate economic activity, but it is promoted as a "free market" mechanism. Finally, cap-and-trade would quickly become a bonanza for lobbyists, who would scramble to exploit the system for different industries, venture capitalists, localities and others. All the influence peddling would undermine the system's abstract advantages.

The Senate is scheduled to debate a cap-and-trade proposal this week, and although it's unlikely to pass, it will undoubtedly return because all the major presidential candidates support the concept. Cap-and-trade extends the long government tradition of proclaiming lofty goals that are, in practice, difficult or impossible to achieve. We've had "wars" against poverty, cancer and drugs to eradicate obvious societal ills, but poverty, cancer and drugs remain. President Bush called his landmark education law "No Child Left Behind" rather than the more plausible "Fewer Children Left Behind."

[stockstrader]

If you believe in a bigger, more authoritarian, more controlling, more intrusive, more expensive, more all-knowing, more benevolent, "government always knows what is best for us" type of government,,,,

the creation of a new level of bureaucracy with "CAP AND TRADE",,,

IS JUST THE WAY TO GO!!!

[ridesthemiles]

All this double talk reminds me again of “Atlas Shrugged”....

[steelyourfaith]

 

Beam me to Planet Gore !