In the first weeks of his presidency, Trump had already begun breaking his campaign promise to rein in spending and get America’s fiscal house in order by proposing trillions of dollars in new spending for infrastructure, the military, and funding for the border wall he promised Mexico would pay for.
Even the new GOP-controlled Congress pretended at the time to be concerned about how Trump’s tax-cuts and spending proposals were unsustainable. “I don’t think you can do infrastructure, raise defense spending, do a tax cut, keep Medicare, Medicaid, and Social Security just as they are, and balance the budget,” said Rep. Tom Cole (R-OK). “It’s just not possible.”
Sadly, for our children and grandchildren, this didn’t dissuade Trump and the GOP from record-breaking deficit spending, but that’s a topic for another time.
At the same time, a newly formed group of advisors called the Climate Leadership Council offered a “solution” to this fiscal problem that would not only finance Trump’s spending addiction, it would put money in every American’s pocket while fighting global warming. Calling it a “carbon fee and dividend” program, GOP leaders suggested creating an Obama-inspired carbon tax because “. . . the risk is sufficiently strong that we need an insurance policy, and this is a damn good [one].”
Unfortunately for the American people, the only thing insured in this plan was the unlimited revenue it would raise for Big Brother.
The carbon tax has been on the back burner since that time, but it’s getting new life in 2019 ahead of next year’s election.
Back in July, Republicans in the House joined their Democrat counterparts to come up with an “alternative” to Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez’s Green New Deal. Calling her plan too extreme, the duopoly authored several bills that, among other things, called for the implementation of carbon tax “fees.”
In August, we discovered that Trump’s climate czar and job creator, Ivanka Trump, was orchestrating behind-closed-doors “bipartisan” negotiations on “meaningful” global warming legislation . . . legislation that includes carbon taxes.
Earlier this week, I wrote an article about how Trump has allegedly decided to begin “softening” his global warming rhetoric in favor of adopting a more pro-environment message to help him save his re-election. I say “allegedly” because as I documented in the article, Trump and daughter Ivanka have always believed in the need for government intervention to “save” the planet from so-called climate change.
It looks like a push to make carbon taxes a “conservative” answer to global warming and redistribute the wealth will be a thing in 2020. A Republican-backed group called Americans for Carbon Dividends has just released a six-figure ad campaign advocating for a carbon tax to address global warming, finance government spending, and give a family of four $2,000 a year in “dividends.”
Did you notice how the word “tax” has been replaced with the word “dividends?”
When, not if, Congress passes carbon taxes and earmarks them to finance infrastructure, Ivanka will be able to check off three items off her Far-Left agenda bucket list: global warming legislation, shovel-ready government jobs, and wealth redistribution.
Barack Obama would be so proud.
David Leach is the owner of The Strident Conservative.
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