Some House and Senate Democrats are considering a new carbon tax after Sen. Joe Manchin (D-WV) shot down the crux of Democrats’ climate plan in the reconciliation bill, according to the New York Times.
People can defend Manchin as much as they want but he is no Democrat. Every single time we make progress he comes out with something else he ‘just can’t support’. He’s a moderate Republican. Period.
It’s perverse to call these two prostitutes “centrist” isn’t it? they are the height of immorality.
Aren’t we screwed? I mean one pivotal Democratic Senator makes $500k/yr from a coal brokerage business and the other one can’t overcome an urge to put on costumes and run away and join the circus.
I’m going to steal this. Sums Sinema up perfectly.
You can’t tell me that a huge chunk of his constituents will NOT have “issues” with his stance.
Manchin told some Democrats on a call that he has issues with the expansion of Medicare to cover vision, hearing and dental, opposes paid family leave and medical leave proposals
When is the last time he has met with his constituents, and not his donors? The same for each and every single Senator.
Well, Joe, this was your own goal. The EU had the same problems, with foot-draggers like Poland putting up all kinds of excuses. But as Janet Yellen has moved for a global source tax, the US can also easily support ending carbon leakage, or at least reducing it. Policy should reward industries for successes in reducing their carbon footprint, and this includes imports such as cement, steel, fertilizers and electricity.
Nevertheless, the politically easiest place to start is to tax the carbon embodied in imports. For countries like India, which has thumbed its nose at curbing coal emissions (and now finds itself with inadequate coal supplies), it shows that the pro-coal path decided 40 years ago has been a failure. China, the world’s largest coal-burner (65% of primary energy is coal-generated) has pushed its own, complete bullshit, definition of pollution (carbon intensity). A border-adjustment carbon tax would cause decision makers, particularly regional leaders in the export-focused eastern provinces, to wake up. China’s hyperpolluting mega-coal plants could be wound down over the next few years, eliminating over 10% of global coal emissions at one swoop, and really lowering the embodied carbon in Chinese exports. China’s population is aging, and anecdotal evidence suggests it may be shrinking. There is a general acceptance that exporting something like computer chips that go for $400 million a ton is probably a better business model than one where you export a million times larger volume of product that costs $400 a ton. Trump already used punitive tariffs on China with little blowback. In contrast a carbon adjustment would reward the planet. If the country exporting to the US reduces its embodied carbon, it is rewarded with a lower carbon tax.
For “centrist senators Manchin and Kyrsten Sinema” please subsitute “recalcitrant senators Manchin and Kyrsten Sinema”. And attach an Oppositional Disorder diagnosis while you’re at it.
WV is less than 1/2 of 1% of the population of the US.
And this ego-maniacal grifting prick can’t put aside his own bloated life for one vote that would actually help most of the people in his state.
There is nothing “moderate” about Joe Manchin. He is profiteering on the foulest, most polluting industry in the world, coal. He should be run out of the Senate on a rail.
A source told the Post that Manchin “doesn’t see a formulation that could get past his concerns with regard to rewarding utilities for behavior they’re already taking.”
Which of course is the purest unadulterated bullshit and he needs to be called out on it. He’s not worried about rewarding companies that are already doing the right thing. What he doesn’t like is the penalty side of the formula, because it would hit his beloved coal and natural gas interests.
ETA: He might go for a carbon tax, because coal-based companies could just buy offsets and pass that along to consumers as increased costs, hiding the fact that they’re being penalized for something.
I am getting really tired of this Manchin/Sinema bullshit.
My hope is that voters will see the light as to who cares about their direct personal well being and it ain’t the goobers. For some reason goober voters have no problem voting against their direct personal well being. Should two or three seats flip to the democrats we won’t hafta hear about shenanigans from WVa or AZ politicians.
Geeze, I wish they’d grow up.
“I just heard about that,” Manchin told reporters last month when asked about the new push for the carbon tax, according to The Hill. “Any type of a tax is going to be passed on to the people. Now if a tax is going to be beneficial to help something and give us more research and development and innovation and technology, it’s something to look at.”
Le’ssee if I get this: taxing companies to more accurately account for the costs they impose with their externalities is only OK if we find a way to give the money back to industry, albeit to another firm or department in the taxed company.
So, does Manchinema suppose the purpose of taxation is protecting the value of investments?
Manchin is also missing the point that imposing carbon tax on a polluter that they pass along as raised prices to consumers, is an opportunity for a competitor to supply an equivalent product that’s both cleaner and cheaper because they’re not paying that tax. It’s an incentive for the kind of R&D he says should be done.
Well, he’s not really missing it, he knows this but he wants to protect coal and natural gas companies at any cost to the truth or logic. A good reporter would challenge him on these statements.
They just might. People can be ridiculous about extending benefits. What if someone “undeserving” gets them?
This really needs to be the message going into 2022. Get what we can now and ACT to elect more senators.
I suspect Manchin will find a pretext to oppose this proposal too.
A carbon tax that comes back to people in terms of rebates or funds things like the CTC will be quite popular. It’s a question of whether the ‘you know who two’ will support it. Sinema has supported such stuff in the past, but she really doesn’t believe in anything so it’s really about what mood she is in and whether the WH has figured out how to ‘carrot and stick’ her to yes. Manchin will go for tax credits. Not sure about a carbon tax, but if that pays for the entire program it may work.
All of this talk suggests they are getting closer to ‘yes’. Not a lot of ultimatums being issued recently. It’s more substantive about what’s in and what’s out.
I’d imagine that it’s dead on arrival: without Manchinema or any reactionaries, there’s no way it passes.
It would have the effect of getting J. M. on record as opposing it; although, I expect he’ll try to hide his reasons with the kind of obfuscating blather we’re already getting so much of.