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Good question. Republicans in particular need to worry about primary challenges in their science-illiterate districts, and many may be wary of attaching their n
by skosch 7y ago
Good question. Republicans in particular need to worry about primary challenges in their science-illiterate districts, and many may be wary of attaching their name to this directly. But there are a good handful of deep red congresspeople who are happy to discuss policy details around carbon pricing, even if they can't politically afford cosponsorship [0]. I imagine that several of those may be willing to vote for such a bill. This is why it's particularly important to write to conservative lawmakers – most of them understand that this makes economic sense, but citizens have to demonstrate to them that they won't lose votes over this kind of legislation.
Also, consider that if Democrats gain control of the Senate in 2020, they can pass this easily, and once such a fee-and-dividend scheme is around for a few years, it will likely become very popular with citizens (because of the dividends [1]) and big business (because of the predictability, compared to regulations/bans/subsidies/political favoritism [2]), so it won't be easy to get rid of it again. Instead, the battleground will shift, as we currently see in Canada, to "how fast do we increase the price per ton?" and "which industries get special treatment?".
[0] https://citizensclimatelobby.org/climate-solutions-caucus/ https://citizensclimatelobby.org/climate-solutions-caucus/
[1] https://citizensclimatelobby.org/household-impact-study/ https://citizensclimatelobby.org/household-impact-study/
[2] https://www.clcouncil.org/ https://www.clcouncil.org/
- spullara 7y agoThe real question is why all government fines aren't structured this way.
- jtolmar 7y agoYou could restructure all externalities taxes to pay a dividend back out of what they raise, but you could instead skip a step and use the money to reduce the amount you need to raise via other taxes. Presumably your general-purpose tax is structured some way that's more efficient than having everyone to pay an equal share, so this is a more efficient option. But if externalities taxes + dividends are politically expedient then so be it. It sure beats never regulating externalities.
- xyzzyz 7y ago> Also, consider that if Democrats gain control of the Senate in 2020, they can pass this easily Yes, they can, which should really get people thinking if they don’t. Republicans don’t care about this stuff and readily admit it, but Democrats seem to only care a lot if they don’t have power to do anything. Once they are in control, this kind of heavy impact bills don’t get passed either, and best we get is something like plastic straw ban.
- jfnixon 7y agoRepublicans aren't science-illiterate. Spreading that myth is a great way to have people immediately tune out from listening to your remaining arguments. https://www.pewresearch.org/science/2019/03/28/what-americans-know-about-science/ https://www.pewresearch.org/science/2019/03/28/what-american...