OPINION:
This week, the House of Representatives got on with the business of reforming the tax code. This effort is no doubt a precursor to what a Republican-controlled Congress, working in tandem with a Republican president, would do with respect to tax reform in 2025.
As part of the effort, House Republicans took the opportunity to seek a more accurate assessment (score) of the Inflation Reduction Act. The Joint Committee on Taxation now estimates it will cost more like $650 billion than the initial estimate of $350 billion. Eventually, they will tell the truth and acknowledge that the giveaways will cost taxpayers more than $1.2 trillion.
The good news is that House Republicans are going to try to reel in some of that spending and, ultimately, reduce taxes for most taxpayers.
We wish we could say the same about the Senate Republicans.
Over in the world’s greatest deliberative body, four Republican senators — Lindsey Graham of South Carolina, Lisa Murkowski of Alaska, Kevin Cramer of North Dakota and Bill Cassidy of Louisiana — are trying their best to ensure that your taxes will go up.
These four horsemen of the tax apocalypse recently signed onto legislation that would require the Biden administration to study the feasibility of an energy tax that would be collected at the gas pump and in electricity and heating bills.
Under the legislation, the Biden administration would determine the amount of energy used and carbon dioxide emitted by various countries in the production of everything that makes modern life possible (aluminum, iron, steel, plastic, crude oil, etc.). That determination would be used to impose tariffs on those countries that — in the view of the administration — emitted too much carbon dioxide while creating those products.
But before tariffs could be imposed, the federal government would need to set a price for carbon dioxide in the United States. That means only one thing: a nationwide tax on carbon dioxide, which is, of course, really a tax on energy in all its forms.
Such a tax would make everything grown, made, moved, heated or cooled more expensive. It would be intensely regressive, falling most heavily on the poor and working class. It would damage the entire economy and every family and business in the United States.
Surely, these Republican senators aren’t in favor of a national energy tax? Surely, they are. In introducing the legislation, Mr. Cramer told a local newspaper: “We spend so much time as Republicans saying ’hell no’ to people who want to tax carbon. … This is the low-hanging fruit of climate policy or trade policy or whatever you want to call it.”
Just in case you missed the point the first time, Mr. Cramer told the environmental trade press: “It’s easier to take a second step once you’ve taken a first step. It can create a little momentum … and it gets people thinking about it in a different context than ‘Oh, my God, it’s a carbon tax.’”
In other words, Mr. Cramer and his three co-conspirators know what they are doing will lead us directly to a nationwide tax on energy. To her credit, Ms. Murkowski at least tried to act clueless: “Whether it’s something that would move us in the direction [of] — whether it’s the price on carbon or the border adjustment … I think it’s going to be important to know a little bit more about of the impact of all this.”
Let us help, Senator: Alaskans will pay more for energy and more for everything made or moved with energy. The poorest Alaskans will suffer the worst.
If you are looking for any more confirmatory evidence that this is a terrible idea, look no further than the presence of Sen. Sheldon Whitehouse, Rhode Island Democrat, on the co-sponsor list. Mr. Whitehouse sets the far leftward post in the Senate with respect to climate change and has for years introduced legislation that would fasten a national energy tax on consumers.
Take a moment and think about the split screen that the House and the Senate have given us in the last few days. House Republicans are preparing the ground for the next Republican administration and working for taxpayers. These four Senate Republicans are preparing the ground for economic and electoral disaster and working for the several dozen voters nationwide who are demanding higher energy costs.
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