Washington using Russia and inflation to push green agenda and raise taxes

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Big Oil Russia inflation green agenda

Washington is using Russia and inflation to push green agenda and raise taxes

With Americans facing record-breaking inflation on food, gasoline, and other essentials, Republicans and Democrats in Washington are blaming the situation on Russia, and they are leveraging it to push a Marxist green agenda and raise taxes.

Last week, a group of Senators introduced the “Big Oil Windfall Profits Tax Act,” a bill they say will lower gasoline prices by raising taxes on oil companies. Yes, they really did. But not to worry, the billions in new taxes will be given back to a select number of Americans in the form of quarterly rebates (via BusinessInsider.com):

Democrats introduced a bill on Thursday to tax the largest oil companies, which are recording their biggest profits in years — and use the money to provide quarterly checks to Americans facing sticker shock just about everywhere they look.

The legislation would apply only to large firms like Exxon Mobil that produce or import over 300,000 oil barrels a day and exempt smaller companies. The 50% tax would be imposed on the difference between the current price of a barrel and the average price between 2015 to 2019.

The income thresholds in the bill are similar to those of the third stimulus check issued last year: Individual tax filers making under $75,000 and couples making $150,000 would receive the payments. At $120 a barrel, single filers would receive $240 a year and joint filers would get $360.

Redistribute-the-wealth Marxists of the world, unite!

In the early days of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, Joe Biden released a plan to fight inflation by essentially making it a crime to earn a profit. According to Biden, inflation was the result of the “illicit profit” being made by big businesses — an idea embraced by Marxists like Bernie Sanders to explain skyrocketing prices at the pump:

Biden also blames Big Oil for higher gas prices, but for additional cover he also blames Russia.

The obvious motivation behind Biden’s plan to criminalize making a profit is twofold: to deflect attention away from government’s role in creating the ongoing inflationary spiral — such as the $1.9 trillion America Rescue Act that economists warned was far too large and would likely overheat the economy — and to advance the Democratic Socialist agenda that dominates the Democrat Party.

Unfortunately, pushing the green agenda and raising taxes isn’t exclusive to Democrats. Donald Trump and the formerly conservative Republican Party love the green agenda just as much as Democrats do; they just want it done in the name of Nationalist Conservatism. It’s the same agenda, only Republicanized.

A few weeks after Trump’s inauguration, he met with a group of Republican has-beens to discuss a similar redistribute-the-wealth scheme where a national carbon tax — they called it a “fee” — would be created to raise revenue for the feds. A portion of this windfall would be rebated to Americans in the form of a “dividend check” from the Social Security Administration with the remaining funds used to address so-called climate change.

The “carbon fee and dividend” proposal was offered by the Climate Leadership Council and its leader, former Secretary-of-State James Baker.

You remember Mr. Baker, don’t you? His law firm once represented Exxon and Rex Tillerson, and he lobbied for Tillerson to get his old Secretary of State job. As ExxonMobil’s CEO, Tillerson formed a partnership with . . . are you ready . . . Vladimir Putin to help Russia develop its oil industry — a partnership so successful that it earned Tillerson the Order of Friendship, the highest honor Russia bestows on foreign citizens.

Tillerson is also a longtime advocate of using carbon taxes to fight the non-existent climate crisis.

The carbon tax scheme sat on the back burner until 2019 when Trump’s climate czar, Ivanka Trump, began orchestrating behind-closed-doors “bipartisan” negotiations on “meaningful” global warming legislation . . . legislation that included carbon taxes.

Also in 2019, a Republican-backed group called Americans for Carbon Dividends 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.”

In the months leading up to the 2020 election, House Republican Leader Kevin McCarthy released a package of global warming legislation that focused on carbon capture tax subsidies, planting trees, and funding clean energy innovation. Though he didn’t specifically address the carbon tax issue, his plan “put a price on carbon” that makes easier to monetize.

This is also when 18 business leaders of major corporations — aka campaign donors — met with senators from both parties to renew the push for the carbon tax scheme proposed by the Climate Leadership Council, now being led by two former Secretaries of State: James Baker and George Schultz.

Under the Baker Schultz Carbon Dividends Plan — “dividends” is code for tax — CO₂ emissions are allegedly cut in half by 2035 and collected dividends are redistributed in the form of a $2000 annual check to a family of four.

“Climate Envoy” John Kerry loves the idea of carbon taxes. As Joe Biden’s director of climate propaganda, Kerry’s been reintroducing many of the radical environmental policies of the Obama administration, including a push for a “bold” carbon tax on vehicle emissions to end global warming.

Sponsors of the Big Oil Windfall Profits Tax Act claim they are motivated by a desire to “level the playing field” between oil companies and consumers and “lower gas prices,” but in a statement by Sen. Sheldon Whitehouse (D-RI), we get some insight into their true motivation which has nothing to do with helping consumers and everything to do with the far-left’s redistribute-the-wealth Marxist ideology and the green agenda.

“While the U.S. severs economic ties with [Russian President Vladimir] Putin to protect our national security, I am committed to doing everything in my power to limit the fallout for Rhode Islanders who were already getting squeezed before this happened.

“We’ve seen this script before, and we cannot allow the fossil fuel industry to once again collect a massive windfall by taking advantage of an international crisis. I propose sending Big Oil’s big windfall back to the hardworking people who paid for it at the gas pump.

“Over the longer term, speeding up the transition to renewables will lower energy costs, insulate consumers from price spikes, and reduce Western nations’ dependence on foreign despots and greedy fossil fuel companies.” (emphasis mine)

Republicans like to make fun of the Marxism and Democratic Socialism of loony toons like Elizabeth Warren and Bernie Sanders, and they like to blame Joe Biden for inflation — even though Trump’s trade war and “protectionist policies” got the inflationary ball rolling — but when it comes to Russia and skyrocketing prices, they are willing allies in the plan use these events as a way to push the green agenda and raise taxes.

 

David Leach is the owner of the Strident Conservative. He holds people of every political stripe accountable for their failure to uphold conservative values, and he promotes those values instead of political parties.

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