Posted on 09/26/2012 3:38:58 AM PDT by Sub-Driver
U.S. carbon tax could halve deficit in 10 years: report Reuters – 2 hrs 10 mins ago
WAHSINGTON, Sept 26 (Reuters Point Carbon) - Imposing a $20 per metric ton carbon tax in the U.S. could reduce the country's budget deficit by 50 percent over the next 10 years, a report by the Congressional Research Service said on Tuesday.
Such a tax would generate approximately $88 billion in 2012, rising to $144 billion by 2020, the report said, slashing U.S. debt by between 12 and 50 percent within a decade, depending on how high the deficit climbs
The U.S. budget deficit has exceeded $1 trillion annually in each fiscal year since 2009, and could rise to between $2.3 trillion and $10 trillion by 2020, according to the Congressional Budget Office (CBO).
Since deficits can lead to reduced savings, higher interest rates and higher levels of inflation, reducing them is a high-priority issue in Washington.
The concept of using a carbon tax to combat the problem has been floated in Congress this year, but it comes with many potential downsides, the report added.
For example, households would face higher energy bills because utilities forced to pay the tax would likely pass the costs onto consumers.
"Lower-income households, in particular, would face a disproportionate impact if revenues were not recycled back to them in some fashion," the report said.
(Excerpt) Read more at news.yahoo.com ...
The same lying sacks that said Obamacare would save money...
Revenue recycled back to them? I don’t want to talk to people who think like this anymore.
Oh, by the way, if you make something more expensive you’ll get less of it. What the recent recession did to revenue a carbon tax will do it better.
Sure it would... if you don’t count the corresponding drop in revenue when said tax kills the economy.
Note it’s also a redistribution plan.
Their math doesn’t even add up. Since when is $122 Billion half of $1 Trillion?
How could anyone be foolish enough to believe this nonsense?
Another thinly veiled wealth redistribution plan. I’ve got a better idea...
How ‘bout we cut all the BS, non-Constitutional crap the Feds have taken on, and we then pay down the debt with the surplus generated by that model?
Zero based budgeting in place of the sophistic baseline model in use today.
Cut the depts of Ag, Energy, Education, Labor, HHS.
Phase out Medicare and Social Security.
Get the Feds back within the confines of the Constitution and let the free market take care of the rest.
We see Europe crashing and burning from policies like this and STILL they want to take us down that road. Savage is right; liberalism is a mental disorder.
This wouldn't even reduce the annual deficit by half much less the national debt. The annual deficit has averaged 1.3 trillion a year in the era of Obama. This scheme would only reduce that by about one tenth. This debt would still be increasing by over a trillion dollars a year. What universe does this author live in?
The CBO lied like the Democrat lackeys they are when they said that ObamaCare would not cost a trillion taxpayer dollars. After it passed, they “revised” their estimate to almost TWO TRILLION dollars. This office should be eliminated because they have never given a correct estimate on any entitlement that Democrats wanted.
And kill the economy with higher energy prices, while enabling the Statists.
No thanks. Get spending under control.
So will compounded inflation at roughly 7%.
The inflation process is pretty much already in place and will play out as it has before for hundreds of years
Why don’t these insane just shut up and go away? Lack of taxation is NOT the country’s problem
A Carbon Tax would fund the Global Elite Government and only that.
Not a chance in h... Given more money, the jerks in Washington would just find more unconstitutional xxxxx to squander it on. No more money, work with what you get, or less.
Liberals believe in this claptrap.
Liberals believe that if you raise taxes by a certain amount, that you end up with that amount of additional revenue in taxes. They don’t or won’t understand that a tax will change people’s behavior.
They also don’t understand how things are related. For example, this carbon tax could cause people to use less energy, which would mean less tax is collected than predicted. Also, consumers paying higher energy bills have less money to spend on other things, so that there is less economic activity in retailing, etc. If new taxes are imposed. But liberals who want a carbon tax to fight global warming don’t understand how these things work.
Unfortunately we have liberals in charge right now.
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