Thanks to Republican reforms like the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act, Americans across this country are keeping more of their hard-earned dollars and business is booming. Just this month, America was named the world’s most competitive economy. Clearly, keeping taxes low and empowering Americans and businesses works.
But as we head into Election Day, Democrats have been united in their calls for new tax hikes. Not only do they hope to take more from your hard-earned paychecks, Democrats have long looked at energy taxes as a way to fund their big-government agenda.
Not only would this raise the cost of energy for families across this country, it would place an incredible burden on small businesses and kill jobs in the energy sector.
This summer, I, Rep. Steve Scalise, introduced a resolution calling on all members of Congress to stand against a job-killing carbon tax. Most Republican members of Congress voted for this resolution, saying they would never, ever, ever, vote for carbon tax. Democrats flat-out voted against this resolution either in a sign of their support for such a tax or to publicly leave the door open.
This vote highlighted the contrast between the two parties on energy taxes. While the official Democratic platform endorses a carbon tax, the official Republican platform states unequivocally, “We oppose any carbon tax.” Voters now know where their elected representatives stand on an energy tax that would raise the cost of gasoline, home heating and air conditioning, and everyday goods at the grocery store.
Politically, the carbon tax has been viewed by many Democrats as a costless form of “oil and coal are bad” virtue signaling when they are in the minority. Under President Barack Obama and the Democratic-controlled House and Senate, there was no obvious attempt to pass a carbon tax. In 2009, House Democrats passed a more hidden energy tax, a “cap and trade” scheme. Sixty-three House Democrats lost their jobs in the 2010 election.
Democrats know the energy tax is a political loser and behind closed doors will acknowledge as much. In 2015, a carbon tax memo prepared for then-presidential candidate Hillary Clinton concluded that a carbon tax would be devastating to low-income households.
“As with the increase in energy costs, the increase in the cost of non-energy goods and services would disproportionately impact low income households,” the memo states. “The cost of other household goods and services would increase as well as companies pass forward the higher energy costs paid to produce those goods and services on to consumers.”
Hillary Clinton campaign manager Robby Mook wrote in an email, “to be clear: it’s lethal in the general, so I don’t want to support one.” John Podesta, Hillary Clinton’s campaign chairman, put things more bluntly, writing, “We have done extensive polling on a carbon tax. It all sucks.”
A $40 per ton carbon tax would immediately increase the price of gasoline by 38 cents per gallon. As the American Enterprise Institute recently pointed out, even a smaller $25 per ton carbon tax, at a low-ball estimate, would cost the average household hundreds of dollars per year, undoing a quarter of the average household tax cut in the GOP’s historic Tax Cuts and Jobs Act. Such an oppressive tax would come at a time when the United States is not only leading the world in reducing carbon dioxide emissions, but doing so at nearly twice the rate as the next closest country.
American voters can look to the examples of other nations that introduced a carbon tax and see the economic and political harm that resulted. Following Australia’s introduction of a national carbon tax in 2012, the cost of electricity rose by 15 percent in the first year and unemployment jumped by more than 10 percent. The revolt against the carbon tax cost two prime ministers their jobs, and the carbon tax was repealed in 2014.
In the U.S., proponents of the carbon tax have so far failed to enact legislation in a single state. Washington state saw a 2016 ballot initiative to implement the nation’s first carbon tax soundly defeated 59 percent to 41 percent.
In Vermont during the 2016 gubernatorial election, Republican then-candidate Phil Scott railed against his opponent Sue Minter’s support of the carbon tax as “a scheme to raise money through taxing gas and carbon fuels.” Scott won the election, becoming a Republican governor in the home state of Bernie Sanders.
It should not surprise anyone that the Scalise-McKinley resolution to condemn and repudiate any effort to enact a carbon or energy tax was organized and brought to the floor by Republicans. Every Democrat should be on record. Only seven Democrats voted for the resolution against energy taxes. Only six Republicans voted no.
Two parties with two very different policies. On one side, the Democrats supporting a major new energy tax — but won’t talk about it unless they have the presidency and Congress. On the other side, the Republican Party and President Trump firmly opposing efforts to increase the cost of energy through taxes or regulations.
Democrats hoping to win power and raise taxes should learn from shoplifters and pickpockets: It is best if you don’t telegraph your intentions.
Rep. Steve Scalise is Majority Whip in the House of Representatives. He represents Louisiana’s first congressional district. Grover Norquist is president of Americans for Tax Reform.
