A Huge Regressive Tax for Americans

We had hoped to report on further FDIC closures, but there were none.

The "Waxman-Markey" bill winding through Congress has an ostensible purpose of capping carbon dioxide emissions. According to US News and World Report, if passed, it will cost the average household as much as $1600 per year, "with low-income households carrying a heavier burden."

A puny, $160 per person tax credit is being proposed to offset the cost, but that will do little to help the average citizen.

Whatever the merits or demerits of a 'carbon tax', it should be presented in a revenue-neutral fashion. The current proposal will have a decided, depressive effect on the economy at a time when such effects are most definitely not needed.

The share of the US economy managed by government is at an all-time high, and still growing fast. This ill-conceived 'energy plan' along with similarly ill-conceived mandatory health insurance programs may push the Nation, already burdened with bailouts and nationalisations, too far down the road of a command economy.

Central planning does not necessarily wreck an economy, of course. Many European nations have a fairly high level of government involvement with the economy and still enjoy a high standard of living. But there, better social welfare results have been and can be expected from the taxes and regulation. We believe that is because socialism, whatever its demerits, is a proactive and coherent movement to distribute public benefits. In the USA, socialism is ideologically extinct, and government intrusion is reactive and self-serving.

A European level of government economic control in the USA will not yield European-style benefits, but an economic catastrophe. Mark our words.