Letters to the Editor
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Self-Fulfilling
In effect, a high price of oil acts as a de facto carbon tax that will inevitably drive investment into exactly those alternative technologies that the Democratic senators want the government to subsidize. Without a doubt, it's a regressive tax that disproportionately hits poor and working-class people. But it might make more long-term strategic sense for congressional Democrats to look for ways to cushion that blow that don't involve pushing down the price of oil. Because actually enacting a carbon tax or cap-and-trade mechanism with teeth is going to be an extremely arduous undertaking, fought every step of the way by energy industry lobbyists.
As was already pointed out on the first page of comments, this isn't even close to right. The fact that the tax hits the wrong people is precisely why the effects are counter-productive. Making the tiny number of speculators richer is paying the very people in the best position to stop buying oil for not doing so.
In other words--it's the same guys getting rich who are buying and flying private jets, maintaining their heated outdoor pools in Connecticut, and buying their kids Humvees.
The poor bastards who Leonard cites as bearing the disproportionate share of this "regressive tax" can't afford to do much about the energy policies of the country.
Oops.
I guess it's indicative, though. The liberal independent media can occasionally miss the point of the rich feeding on the poor because of the current political facts on the ground. Our government is so completely out of step with American sentiment that the policies most informed Americans support would be politically arduous and bitterly opposed by lobbyists.
There's a progressive view. I'm confident we'll continue to run the US into the dirt, too.