NEWS

It’s a price, not a tax

04/06/2009

Republican tax rhetoric veered in a perilous new direction recently when party leaders began attacking efforts to address climate change as an “energy tax” on American families and businesses.I am sure some messaging wonk thought characterizing climate legislation as a tax increase would score political points in a bad economy, but it is exactly this kind of shortsighted thinking that has eroded public faith in Republicans’ ability to recognize and solve the nation’s problems.

By framing the costs associated with reducing greenhouse gas emissions and lowering America’s dangerous dependence on oil as a tax, Republicans are boxing themselves firmly into the corner of climate change skeptics and forgoing any role in—or credit for—solving the problem.