Thursday, December 10, 2009

Palin on Cap-and-Tax?

The Washington Post let Sarah Palin have some of its oped space to once again make a fool out of herself – this time on the subject of global warming. Interestingly, she simultaneously claims global warming does not exist AND that it does exist but is not caused by human factors. But Ravi Somaiya has already done a fine job of debunking most of this oped so let me focus on this line:
Meeting such targets would require Congress to pass its cap-and-tax plans, which will result in job losses and higher energy costs

Whether we decide to pass a Pigovian tax, which would be the preference of Greg Mankiw, or we go with cap-and-trade, the change in the relative price of energy would not lead to the kind of massive job losses that the rightwing liars such as Sarah Palin are asserting. But could someone kindly explain to Ms. Palin that there is no cap-and-tax proposal? We are talking about choosing between a tax plan versus a cap-and-trade plan.

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