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Updated 3 hours ago
The timing couldn't be worse, making the claim all the more preposterous. We're referring to the latest pitch for a carbon-emissions tax and the suggestion that it presumably would be endorsed by President Reagan, according to a group of GOP elder statesmen.
Former Secretaries of State James A. Baker III and George P. Shultz, along with ex-Treasury Secretary Henry M. Paulson Jr., say a tax on emissions from burning fossil fuels — initially $40 per ton of carbon dioxide produced — is a conservative, free-market solution, according to The New York Times.
What's proposed is neither.
First, there's credible evidence from a high-level whistleblower that the leading source of world climate data — the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration — fudged its findings in a ham-handed attempt to dismiss the pause in global warming from 1998 to 2013, then rushed its flawed report to influence the United Nations' Paris accord on climate change.
Moreover, this latest variation of wealth redistribution slams headfirst into the skepticism of the Trump administration, which questions man-made climate influences.
As for suggesting that Mr. Reagan would support a carbon tax, the presumption is, at best, questionable. What's proposed would directly tax economic growth for an ambiguous government goal. And “the Gipper” was no blushing acolyte of Big Government solutions.
“The most terrifying words in the English language,” Reagan once reminded, “are: ‘I'm from the government and I'm here to help.'”
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