When those fools try to levy such, they will likely find an outright revolt upon their hands.

Its nothing more than Democratic politicians coming up with new ways to separate money from wallets and bank accounts. It will be interesting to see how the Republicans go along in the face of widespread constituency clamor.

We can talk about about such, but getting it passed is something else altogether.

That's a tough one.

Many companies will decide that it no longer makes sense to do business in the US, as other countries are offering an environment which is more conducive to business. Unemployment will shoot up and government revenues will plummet. The carbon tax will get diverted to unemployment checks, to make sure that the unemployed reelect the Democrats who put them out of work. Of course, the unemployment check will be of little value because the cost of everything will skyrocket due to the carbon tax.

The Democrats will then respond with massive income taxes on the rich (i.e. over $75,000) in order to pay more welfare to keep their voting base happy.

Co-Presidents Obama/Clinton/Clinton/Gore will start a new WPA and TVA so that they can later take credit for pulling the US out of depression. Meanwhile pollution will get much worse because people won't be willing to pay for pollution control and Hugo Chavez will come bail out the US with cheap oil.

I always thought that these BHDG's (bleeding heart do gooders) were dangerous ......e.g. forcing a tax first and dreaming up how to use the money only later ........Boy, have I got some neat waterfront property that I'd sell to Komanoff .... as soon as the tide went out !

Re-distribution of wealth under the guise of saving the world. I'm sure he feels warm and fuzzy already ! LOL

Bravo Bob Lutz! Its about time reality strikes back ! REAL pollution should be our target not CO2 ! Make vehicles that don't pollute and everone wins ! !

Will anyone ever come up with real numbers to support the pseudo solutions for CO2 ?

Take a look at the current fiasco surrounding bio-fuels.....Public policy is starting to be enforced while the science is now back peddling with respect to its efficiency of CO2 reduction

But I guess its better to do everything wrong that to do nothing right ? ? ?

Yet another way to drain the people of thier personal power economically speaking. Does anyone honestly think the Government will be responcible and give us anything back in the way of Taxes? Be real, we average folks are being deliberately driven off the cliff by those with power and wealth of unimaginable scale. Our slavemasters if you will. With the trillions of tax dollars gone unaccounted for, W and Rummy got away with theft of our national wealth and blood of our youth and genocide in Iraq and Afganistan. I try not to voice political opinions here as I think we need to stay on the topic of truth and science and climate. But this interview (thanks again Katie!) was over the top, truly indicating just how much more criminal taxation of our people is in store for us. Changing infrastructure and technolgies will not be accomplished by punishing end users ( us) with more taxes that have no specific purpose other than make us drive less, eat less and heat less. These Carbon Taxes will go down the same Black Budget rabit holes as does most of our current taxes. The sky had beautifull Cirrus clouds today, being relentlessly chemtrailed by the sprayer planes. Weather Modification, Geo Engineering folks, go out and LOOK at the sky.

the dollar is falling, jobs going overseas, gas prices are rising, government waste, cost of everything is going up, housing market, etc etc

I have a great idea

Let's create a new tax

I'll be interested to see what kind of tax rebates they have in mind. To focus on transportation: as it stands, though it IS a user tax (kind of like tolls), it's heavily biased against rural populations that have significantly less access to public transit. We're lucky here in the greater Seattle area to have a pretty good public transit system; I only use my car a couple times a week. Most rural areas don't have that option.

I don't have a problem with a carbon tax in principle if they're going to balance the increase by cutting social security or income taxes, but if they do levy a carbon tax, they need to make sure it's equitable.

Is this AlGore facts or satire?

http://www.scoop.co.nz/stories/PO0802/S00344.htm

I'm sorry, what a bunch of bull cakes. I went on their web site and read their FAQs and their so called myths. There is not enough room on this blog to point out all the holes and fallacies in their reasoning for why they think this carbon tax will work.

Basically, the carbon tax they envision is a way to micromanage every American's way of living. They want to tax the wealthy (the ones buying all the Prius's and solar panels and energy efficient appliances and such) and give the money as dividends to the low income who can't afford to buy energy efficient stuff. Shoot, maybe I will just cut back on my consulting work, qualify as low income and rake in all the dividends (i.e., carbon tax taken from the wealthy)

The carbon tax will rise year after year until there is an acceptable level of *appropriate living* by Americans, determined by those in power in the government. Why does the book *1984" come to mind right now.

Do they think that the Middle East and all those countries that have all the oil, will just go, oh well, Americans aren't buying oil anymore, I guess we won't use pump it anymore and we won't sell it to anyone else. Good grief, the sheiks will be laying by their pools in their air-conditioned cabanas eating lobster, laughing at the stupid Americans.

I'll be riding a bicycle dressed like an eskimo generating my own electricity so I can heat up my can of soup for dinner.

Bottom line - control by the elite over the masses through carbon taxes.

Last week:

(Canadian province) introduces carbon tax in 'green' budget:
http://www.ctv.ca/servlet/ArticleNews/story/CTVNews/20080219/bc_tax_080219/20080219

(Canadian Federal Gov't) won't follow B.C. lead on carbon tax:
http://www.ctv.ca/servlet/ArticleNews/story/CTVNews/20080220/carbon_tax_080220/20080220

How will a carbon tax impact me? I will be utterly infuriated! Infuriated that my hard earned money is fraudulently being taken away from me for NO GOOD REASON! I'm very irate that this religion has gone so far that it's now just a tax on the stupid. Irate that any politician would buy into it with no evidence whatsoever and pass laws that will do NOTHING to affect the temperature, but will restrict my freedom that my uncle died in WW2 for!
The sane people that are still among us have to get more vocal and promise to defeat any politician who is pro-AGW.

Absolute drivel! Since when did imposing one tax result in some other department or local government reducing a tax. In Canada, income tax was introduced as a 'temporary measure' in 1917 and it's still here; the Goods and Services Tax was to reduce the deficit and all it did was line pockets and get fed into general revenue. This is the usual nonsense about protecting the climate from a non-existent threat. Do these people only ever listen to the one-sided rhetoric from the ecowarriors and not think or research for themselves?

Who is this guy? Carbon tax? Here it comes folks. Big brother will control your entire life. Carbon tax.....food tax.....sin tax......whatever tax........even when you die, inheritance tax. They want money. It's a money grab. Who does this guy work for? Who's backing him? I notice that appears to be lacking the report.

These cowardly 'carbod dweebs' are the most pathetic people alive. To be so concerned about such a small and unimportant detail when there is the immediacy of the global terriorism is amazing. Grow up you yellow spined pin heads!!

STEP RIGHT UP! PURCHASE YOUR CARBON CALCULATOR! CALCULATE YOUR CARBON FOOTPRINT AND YOUR ASSOCIATED TAX!

after calculating your associated taxes, peruse the handy site underneath to check out some cool advice on how to decrease your money-grubbing footprint thus slightly alleviating your tax burden.....

http://www.carbonfootprint.com/calculator.aspx
http://w.plant-a-tree-today.org/NewQuickOffset.asp

"The average personal carbon dioxide emissions for an individual in the developed world is 9.675 metric tons.".....(oh, Lord, there goes that second bowel movement I've been working on in my quest for regularity.....)

geez, louise! these people say this stuff with a straight face......

Its nothing more than Democratic politicians coming up with new ways to separate money from wallets and bank accounts.

In the last year, we see Exxon/Mobil reporting the largest profits ever recorded in US history -- while the pump price continues to climb. It isn't very "new", but it surely is separating a LOT of money from "wallets and bank accounts".

The reason the subprime market collapsed is that major institutions have been writing high-interest loans to people who can't possibly pay them back -- and then creatively repackaging those into "innovative" credit instruments, labeling them as "high quality", and reselling them to investors at inflated prices. New, creative, and -- ultimately -- again separating a LOT of money from "wallets and bank accounts".

In the last eight years, the banking and credit industries had their Washington lackeys rewrite the personal bankruptcy laws to make it even easier to suck the blood out of working-class men and women with high-interest, high-fee credit cards -- at usurious rates -- and then make it impossible for any of them to get out from under the resulting crushing debt burdens. Separating still more money from "wallets and bank accounts".

I'd say the current party in power has demonstrated a wide variety of ingenious ways to separate astronomical amounts of money from wallets and bank accounts -- and put all of it into their own.

Anybody tried to buy health insurance for a family these days?

Got kids in college? Have you looked at what THAT is going to cost next fall?

You can rant at "Democratic politicians" if you want -- but, as Rush Limbaugh and Mitt Romney are figuring out, nobody is listening.

You guys had your chance, and all you have to do is look around to see what your guys have done for people's "wallets and bank accounts".

SUPER AMERICANS:
What we need to do are three things. Make the wealthy pay their fare share of taxes. Secondly by the year 2010 outlaw all suv's,and make carpooling into cities mandantory,the way they are doing it now in NYC. Thirdly teach conservation as we do science and math. This way Nature will become as important to people, as Walmart is to Wall Street. Other counties in Europe are socialist and if we don't want big brother on our backs than we must take personal responsilbility, and efficiency, an American story. There are obvious reasons for big business and technologies, to find energy solutions. We are running out of Oil.
KIPP
http://motls.blogspot.com/2007/03/skeptics-vs-alarmists-4642.html

KIPP

Have to agree with Steve. However, many politicians now go along with AGW just so they don't have to argue the point...... because they are unable, or uninterested.

However, if indeed the solar cycle has changed and a cooling trend is established and documented the carbon tax will be a moot point and the carbon traders left like a pack of winded wolves.

all the best

Aaron

I thought corporate apologists were in favor of consumption taxes over income taxes? Well, the carbon tax is a consumption tax. Lower the income tax and institute the carbon tax, and we have a system that is taxed more on consumption rather than income.

Of course, deniers and their right-wing ilk don't like the "carbon" word in front of tax. If it was called the FairTax, like Huckabee proposes, they'd support it.

Kipp, Kipp, Kipp:
You too BT.

Make the rich pay their fair share? And who decides what share that is Kipp? 30%? 40%? 50? You know the Beatles all moved to the U.S. when they found themselves in a 95% tax bracket in England. Where will OUR rich folks go..... or why should they even bother to try and be rich at all? That's the peril of tax brackets. At some point it doesn't make any sense to work harder or longer because you lose all the gain in taxes. I've seen people in this very fix: faced with the prospect of taking on additional responsibility and longer hours to get a raise in pay. But upon close examination they realized that the raise put them in a higher tax bracket so that in effect they are doing more for less.

Here's the deal: If you begrudge the rich, it's because you've been convinced or convinced yourself that there's no way you're ever going to be rich. How pathetic is that? You're never going to amount to anything Kipp. Face it. That's not true is it Kipp? I really hope that you get that picture of the year.

And what do you teach as conservation? Turn the light off when you leave the room? Along with science and math? They already indoctrinate kids with this AGW crap starting in Head Start for crying out loud. I'm having to make my 13 year old read oposing articles just to keep her from falling over, her course work is so slanted. She already thinks Al Gore is like Yoda, only less entertaining. It makes me sick, and it worrys me because she's one of the smart ones.

And this bit takes the cake:

""What we need to do are three things. Make the wealthy pay their fare share of taxes. Secondly by the year 2010 outlaw all suv's,and make carpooling into cities mandantory,the way they are doing it now in NYC. Thirdly teach conservation as we do science and math.""

If you don't call the redistribution of wealth, controling what can and can not be manufactured and purchased, controling how citizens can and can't travel, and the indoctrination of children halmarks of a socialistic, Big Brother type government, I would be curious to know what you DO call it.

We will run out of oil when we run out of oil. It's only a matter of time, and everyone knows it's true. The thing is, it won't happen over night. It will happen over time, and as it does, the supply will start to drop and the price to rise. As this happens, at some point, it will be more economical to use something else, and we will. Don't get you panties in a bunch Kipp. It'll be okay.

All the best,

Aaron

Brookline Tom:

I am not sure you realize this but congress is made up of both democrats and republicans. Also what is wrong today was started a very long time ago by both parties. The average citizen has believed for a very long time that once they vote they have done their civic duty and they stop being involved which is a HUGE mistake. The Washington system is very corrupt no matter who is in power because the people that put them there stop paying attention to them. If you believe anything different you are living in a dreamworld. The American dream is based on the premise that working hard means more dollars for that person with the reasonable expectation that the "rich" will pay more tax than those making less money. I don't know about you, but I do not for one minute begrudge those that make more money than I do. I also don't expect them to provide for me. Equally I am not the least interested in providing for others for the simple reason that I have absolutely no control over other people's decision making process. If you want to look at people's wallets and bank accounts, let's start with notable figures such as Gore, Edwards, Clinton. The Bush years have been great for these guys. In fact the past 7 years have been tremendous for them. Clinton started in the hole and is now worth 40 million. Most property owners up until very recently have seen their property values increase substantially. The market until recently was showing some decent returns. During the past 7 years the government took in record revenue. Please it was not all bad at least not for many. Not that I agree with her politics, but recently a well known celeb named Whoopie took great offense at the notion that somehow rich people should be made to feel bad about their wealth and somehow they just plain didn't deserve that wealth. Every time elected officials want to create another entitlement they immediately descend on those awful rich people that need to pay more. It is rich people that often give generous donations that keep many community programs alive. They become benefactors for many worthwhile organizations. We need their generosity and we should be thankful. Whether the dems realize it or not, the rich people are the ones that create jobs. Rich of course is a relative term because those of us that are willing to take a chance and start new companies give jobs to those that otherwise would be jobless. If the corporate tax rate was cut tomorrow, I absolutely assure you that many programs sitting on the sidelines waiting for more capital money would immediately get approval and thus create more jobs. But of course we wouldn't want to encourage those power hungry corporations with any sort of incentives, but instead tax them more so that they take all the jobs out of the US because they will find cheaper labor and they will find more friendly terms elsewhere. It is not necessary every 4 years to completely change course. Every administration has done some things pretty good with other issues getting no attention at all. It would be nice to see each newly elected president acknowledge what is working fairly well and build on that and then focus on issues that perhaps were largely ignored.

I Couldn't even bring myself to watch the video. [Sorry Miss Katie] This has definitley replaced the Whale in my Nightmares !!! Now if you'll all please excuse me while I step outside to go HANG myself !!!!!!! Oh yeh , BTW what IS UP with that article Steve Rowland Linked to ? This can't possibly be for real ........... Can It ?

I suppose that dang Bush administration was responsible for the clouds here today too right?

How come all of the statements have nothing to do with taxes? Isn't that what we're chatting about?

Beyond that, I kinda think that some of the issues were created well before Bush showed up.

I do have to ask though, how come the people wanting to tax the batcrap out of us all look like they belong in a grateful dead concert?

Kipp:

Seriously, what is fair for the wealthy? I believe they pay a whole lot more in both percentage and actual money than I do, and I make pretty good money. How is that fair? Shouldn't I pay the same as they do percentage wise?

Our kids suck at science and math as I understand it. Why do you want them to suck at conservation too? Besides, they get lots of enviro training now. So much so that they are as annoying as hell about it. I had some little brat tell me that I needed to buy a CFL bulb instead of the standard bulbs I was holding in the checkout line. I leaned over and told him that the CFLs give you a nasty rash and can cause you to go blind so I wanted none of it. He seemed confused but said he would check that out when he got home. Then his mom gave me the evil eye. I paid for the devil lights and left. With a big smile.

And I ain't even gonna comment on the crazy talk about SUVs. What do you have against keeping our kids safe anyway?

Oh and we ain't running out of oil, at least for us and kids' kids time. Or more. Except I do recall that I was told that in elementary school. Of course they did say that it would be by 1990 or so.

Better on the post though, keep it simple and short 'k?

Hi Kipp,

The top 50% of wage earners pay 96% of the taxes in this country.

In 1915 the highest tax bracket was 7%. Now it is 35% base + 9% Social Security + 4% Medicare + 8% AMT + 10% State + 4% Property Tax + 9% sales tax + Capital Gains + gasoline tax.....

In California, many high wage earners spend in excess of 60% of their income on taxes. You, like many in Congress, have no idea what you are talking about.

Steve,my carbon tax is $151.50 which I'm not willing to pay.Oh I'm able,just not willing to pay for nonsense reasons.If I want to plant 14 trees in the U.K. at $336.80 that's another option but I'm still not willing to pay,.But since I've already planted about 30,000 trees in my lifetime so I figure I've got about a $700,000 credit so I should not have to pay during my lifetime,correct? Yeah right! What a bunch of garbage.