Considering how Congress stepped up to the plate and passed the appropriate legislation once they found out that 92% of gun owners and 86% of Republicans polled supported universal checks on the backgrounds of prospective buyers of weapons specifically designed to kill large numbers of human beings as quickly as possible, we can look forward to the same type of decisive action on this pesky climate issue, given all the support for such action Senator Whitehouse points to in this speech.
I for one favor revenue neutral universal background checks on prospective purchasers of lithium batteries and wind turbines , because I like David Lewis hat.
If that is what it takes to get effective carbon pricing up and functioning, sure, but I don't accept that being revenue neutral or tied to tax relief is a requirement for effective rather than 'acceptable' policy. Here in Australia I've seen the growth in policy tied with funding strings and I'm not convinced - I prefer to argue for the effective collection and allocation of use of government revenues, sure, but taxing carbon pollution is good long term climate and energy policy and spending the revenue on things other than tax relief may be better use for it. I will argue that low emissions energy R&D&D (and deployment) is worthwhile and hardship assistance for those unfairly disadvantaged by carbon pricing, but there are other uses, independent of climate and energy that may also be worthwhile and effective. Presumably it should be a revenue source that peaks early and, through choice, be a tax that can and should be successfully avoided.
Oversights of how revenues are raised and spent are essential but it's not necessarily smart to directly tie the one to the other and tie the hands of our representatives.
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Considering how Congress stepped up to the plate and passed the appropriate legislation once they found out that 92% of gun owners and 86% of Republicans polled supported universal checks on the backgrounds of prospective buyers of weapons specifically designed to kill large numbers of human beings as quickly as possible, we can look forward to the same type of decisive action on this pesky climate issue, given all the support for such action Senator Whitehouse points to in this speech.
ReplyDeleteI'm glad Senator Whitehouse is advocating something I have been pushing for for seven years.
ReplyDeleteRevenue neutral carbon tax with monies rebated to the people through reduced payroll taxes.
Hooray for the Senator! Hooray for you for putting it up! Hooray for the world for getting to see a reasonable option that can work!
I for one favor revenue neutral universal background checks on prospective purchasers of lithium batteries and wind turbines , because I like David Lewis hat.
ReplyDeleteIf that is what it takes to get effective carbon pricing up and functioning, sure, but I don't accept that being revenue neutral or tied to tax relief is a requirement for effective rather than 'acceptable' policy. Here in Australia I've seen the growth in policy tied with funding strings and I'm not convinced - I prefer to argue for the effective collection and allocation of use of government revenues, sure, but taxing carbon pollution is good long term climate and energy policy and spending the revenue on things other than tax relief may be better use for it. I will argue that low emissions energy R&D&D (and deployment) is worthwhile and hardship assistance for those unfairly disadvantaged by carbon pricing, but there are other uses, independent of climate and energy that may also be worthwhile and effective. Presumably it should be a revenue source that peaks early and, through choice, be a tax that can and should be successfully avoided.
ReplyDeleteOversights of how revenues are raised and spent are essential but it's not necessarily smart to directly tie the one to the other and tie the hands of our representatives.