Why do these Republicans support a carbon tax?

Last Thursday, the Environment and Public Works Committee of the Senate reported legislation (Prove It Act) that sets the stage and lays the groundwork for imposing a carbon tax on American families, workers, and consumers.

This new energy tax was voted out of committee 14-5, with four Republicans: Sen. Kevin Cramer (of North Dakota, an energy-producing state), Sen. John Boozman (Arkansas), Sen. Graham (South Carolina) and, most inexplicably, Senator Cynthia Lummis (of Wyoming, another energy-producing state), joining ten Democrats to create this new tax.

Five Republicans, led by Senator Capito of West Virginia, voted against the new energy tax.

Like all energy taxes, this will fall more heavily on the poor, the elderly, those on fixed incomes and local institutions with limited budgets, such as schools and hospitals.

The sponsors of the legislation, including Senator Cramer, have tried to disguise the real intent of the legislation, which is to raise the price of energy and everything that is grown, made or transported with energy in an attempt to address global warming, with propaganda about being tough on our trade competitors, including China.

This farce is so shameful that even Politician he ignored it and declared in a headline: “Senate Committee Accepts Carbon Tariff.”

The legislation directs the Biden team at the Department of Energy to establish the infrastructure that would be needed to tax imported goods based on their carbon dioxide content. These taxes, called tariffs when levied on imported goods, could be imposed by the executive branch, without a vote in Congress.

Sponsors have tried to argue that those who sell these goods in the United States will pay the tax. This is nonsense.

The buyers, in this case those who import the goods, will pay the tax and the costs will be borne by the same people who ultimately bear all the costs: American families, consumers and businesses.

Also, once this Republican-backed carbon dioxide tax is imposed on imported goods, domestic suppliers of the same goods will be able to adjust their prices upward without facing any market pressure. Chances are they will.

Those who wrote and those who voted for this legislation know that it is a way to create a domestic tax on carbon dioxide without requiring Congress to vote and record one way or the other. They know this energy tax will hurt the poor, the elderly, those on fixed incomes and local institutions the most.

They also know that voters are not willing to pay such a tax.

Last month, our friends at the American Energy Alliance, in a poll conducted by MWR Strategies, of which this columnist is president, asked 1,600 likely voters in eight swing states how much they would be willing to pay to address the climate change. The average the answer was only $10 a year. More than a third of respondents, including 17 percent of Democrats, said they were unwilling to pay anything to address climate change.

When we asked about this particular tax, voters opposed it by almost a 2-1 margin.

This new tax on carbon dioxide is very unpopular; that is why his backers have wrapped him in a verbal smokescreen about Communist China.

The simple truth is that the legislation will not affect Communist China at all. American families, American businesses, and American workers will pay this carbon tax on imported goods. Energy, and everything that is made, grown or transported with energy, will become more expensive. Congress's accountability to voters will continue to erode.

Republicans in Congress should oppose this legislation.

Michael McKenna was a deputy assistant to President Trump. He is the co-host of The Unregulated podcast.

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