Cap and Trade, Pollution and Politics

Cap and Trade is meant to be a complex subject. That way, the public will let politicians who love to dispense pork and tax their way to power, to operate at will.

The idea is to cut down on carbon emission pollution,the type you get from using fossil fuels. So the politicos in charge get to designate which industries get quotas for emissions with which they can befoul the air. If the figure you are stuck with is too high for officialdom, you can buy a credit from someone who is fortunate to have a credit, so you can conform with the quota you got from the government.

Then there are fees involved and penalties. That’s where the hidden taxation arises, and accumulates as one giant tax gimmick that will hit industry and the consumer, both directly and indirectly

It is a taxpayer and consumer nightmare. And the answer to any entrenched statist politician's dream.

The Chinese and India want nothing to do with it because it destroys economies. New Zealand tried it for a couple of years and just quit. The Australians put it on hold after some sober thought. But the current American administration seems to be gungho about bullying us into accepting the fiasco, supposedly for its ambitious and controversial global warming theories.