Written by Mike McKenna
Daily Caller News Corporation
Last Thursday, the Senate Committee on Environment and Public Works announced legislation (the Proof It Act) that paves the way and lays the groundwork for a carbon dioxide tax on American families, workers, and consumers.
This new energy tax was voted 14 to 5, with four Republicans — Sen. Kevin Cramer (of North Dakota, an energy-producing state), Sen. John Boozman (Arkansas), and Sen. Graham (South Carolina), inexplicably , Senator Cynthia Lummis (from Wyoming, another energy-producing state) – joined ten Democrats to create this new tax.
Five Republicans, led by Senator Capito of West Virginia, voted against the new energy tax.
Like all energy taxes, this one would fall on the poor, the elderly, those on fixed incomes, and local institutions with limited budgets, such as schools and hospitals.
The legislation's sponsors, including Senator Cramer, have tried to obscure the legislation's actual intent — which is to increase the price of energy and everything grown, manufactured, or transported using energy in an effort to address global warming — with propaganda about being tough on our trade competitors, including China. .
This charade is so embarrassingly thin that even… POLITICO He ignored it and declared in a headline: “Senate Committee Approves Carbon Tariff.”
The legislation directs Biden's team at the Energy Department to create the infrastructure needed to tax imported goods based on their carbon dioxide content. These taxes, called tariffs when imposed on imported goods, can be imposed by the executive branch, without any vote in Congress.
Sponsors have tried to argue that those who sell these goods to the United States will pay the tax. This is nonsense.
Buyers – in this case those who import the goods – will pay the tax, and the costs will ultimately be borne by the same people who ultimately bear all the cost – American families, consumers and businesses.
Moreover, once the Republican-backed CO2 tax is imposed on imported goods, domestic suppliers of the same goods will be able to adjust their prices upward without facing any market pressures. And they are likely to do so.
Those who drafted this legislation and those who voted for it recognize that it is a way to impose a local carbon dioxide tax without requiring Congress to vote and register one way or the other. They realize that this energy tax will hurt the poor, the elderly, those on fixed incomes, and local businesses the most.
They also know that voters are not willing to pay this tax.
Last month, in a poll conducted by MWR Strategies—which this columnist chairs—our friends at the American Energy Alliance asked 1,600 likely voters in eight swing states how much they would be willing to pay to address climate change. The average response was only $10 per year. More than a third of survey respondents – including 17% of Democrats – said they were unwilling to pay anything at all to address climate change.
When we asked about this tax specifically, voters opposed it by a margin of about 2-1.
This new tax on carbon dioxide is not very popular; For this reason, its sponsors have shrouded it in a verbal smokescreen around Communist China.
The simple fact is that the legislation would not affect Communist China at all. American families, American companies, and American workers will pay a carbon dioxide tax on imported goods. Energy – and everything made, grown, or transported using energy – will become more expensive. Congress's accountability to voters will continue to erode.
Republicans in Congress should oppose this legislation.
Michael McKenna was a deputy assistant to President Trump. He is the co-host of the Unstructured Podcast.
The views and opinions expressed in this commentary are those of the author and do not reflect the official position of the Daily Caller News Foundation.
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