“We have done extensive polling on a carbon tax. It all sucks.”
– John Podesta (Clinton campaign manager), January 2015.
“[A carbon tax is] lethal in the general [election], so I don’t want to support one.”
– Robby Mook (Clinton campaign manager), June 2015.
Hillary Clinton’s campaign would not touch it. Neither would be Democratic Platform in 2016. “[Hillary] Clinton has no intention of being suckered into a political disaster by advocating a carbon tax,” stated Democrat consultant
Paul Bledsoe in July 2016.
If Republicans will come out for it and vote for it, that’s a different matter. But until that happens, the Democrats should have nothing to do with it, because it’s political poison.” –
So if attention-hungry, anti-Trump Republicans (such as Mitt Romney) want to make a carbon tax an issue, be careful.
That was the message sent yesterday by more than 75 conservative, libertarian, and classical liberal groups to Congress. The short-and-sweet letter stated:
Dear Members of Congress,
We oppose any carbon tax. A carbon tax raises the cost of heating your home in the winter and cooling your home in the summer. It raises the cost of filling your car. A carbon tax increases the cost of everything Americans buy and lowers Americans’ effective take home pay. A carbon tax increases the power, cost, and intrusiveness of the government in our lives.
Sincerely,
Grover Norquist
President, Americans for Tax Reform
James L. Martin, Founder/Chairman
Saulius “Saul” Anuzis, President
60 Plus Association
John Droz Jr.
Physicist and Founder, Alliance for Wise Energy Decisions (AWED)
Marty Connors
Chair, Alabama Center Right Coalition
Mead Treadwell
Former Lt. Governor, State of Alaska
Chair, Alaska Center-Right Meeting
Dick Patten
President, American Business Defense Council
Phil Kerpen
President, American Commitment
Thomas Pyle
President, American Energy Alliance
Brent Wm. Gardner
Chief Government Affairs Officer, Americans for Prosperity
Lisa B. Nelson
CEO, ALEC Action
Ted Tripp
Sr. Political Reporter, The Boston Broadside
Center-Right Leader, Massachusetts
Hayden Ludwig
Investigative Researcher, Capital Research Center
David T. Stevenson
Policy Director, Caesar Rodney Institute (Delaware)
Norm Singleton
Campaign for Liberty
Garrett Ballengee
Executive Director, Cardinal Institute for West Virginia Policy
Matthew Kandrach
President, Consumer Action for a Strong Economy
Ryan Ellis
Center for a Free Economy
Andrew F. Quinlan
President, Center for Freedom and Prosperity
Craig D. Idso, Ph.D.
Chairman, Center for the Study of Carbon Dioxide and Global Change
Olivia Grady
Senior Fellow, Center for Worker Freedom
Isaac Orr
Policy Fellow, Center of the American Experiment (Minnesota)
Tom Schatz
President, Citizens Against Government Waste
Chuck Muth
President, Citizen Outreach (Nevada)
David McIntosh
President, Club for Growth
Craig Rucker
President, Committee for a Constructive Tomorrow
Gordon Tomb
Sr. Fellow, Commonwealth Foundation (Pennsylvania)
Myron Ebell
Director, Center for Energy and Environment, Competitive Enterprise Institute
Katie McAuliffe
Executive Director, Digital Liberty
Robert Roper
President, Ethan Allen Institute (Vermont)
Mandy Gunasekara
Founder, Energy 45
Matt Patterson
Executive Director, Free California
Annette Meeks
CEO, Freedom Foundation of Minnesota
George Landrith
President, Frontiers of Freedom
Adam Brandon
President, FreedomWorks
Victor Riches
President & CEO, Goldwater Institute (Arizona)
Rodolfo E. Milani
Trustee, HACER.org
Founder, Miami Freedom Forum
Aaron Stover
Director of Federal Government/Corporate Relations, The Heartland Institute
Mario H. Lopez
President, Hispanic Leadership Fund
Jon Coupal
President, Howard Jarvis Taxpayers Association (California)
Amy Oliver Cooke
Executive Vice President, Independence Institute (Colorado)
Carrie Lukas
President, Independent Women’s Forum
Heather R. Higgins
CEO, Independent Women’s Voice
Chris Ingstad
President, Iowans for Tax Relief
Becky Norton Dunlop
Assistant Secretary of the Interior (88-89)
Sal Nuzzo
Vice President of Policy, James Madison Institute (Florida)
Brett Healy
President, The John K. MacIver Institute (Wisconsin)
Becki Gray
Senior Vice President, John Locke Foundation (North Carolina)
Dave Trabert
President, Kansas Policy Institute
Daniel Garza
President, The Libre Initiative
Hon. Mary Adams
Chair, Maine Center-Right Coalition
Heather Sirocki
Outreach Specialist, Maine First Project
Dr. Jameson Taylor
Mississippi Center for Public Policy
Brent Mead
CEO, Montana Policy Institute
Tim Jones
Chair, Missouri Center-Right Coalition
Former Speaker, Missouri House of Representatives
Deroy Murdock
Contributing Editor, National Review Online
Steven Stepanek
Former Chairman, New Hampshire Ways and Means Committee
Co-Chair, New Hampshire Center-Right Meeting
William O’Brien
Former Speaker, New Hampshire House of Representatives
Co-Chair, New Hampshire Center-Right Meeting
David Miller
Chair, Southwest Ohio Center Right
Representative Niraj J. Antani
The Ohio House of Representatives
Douglas Kellogg
Executive Director, Ohioans for Tax Reform
Jeff Kropf
President, Oregon Capitol Watch Foundation
Wayne Winegarden, Ph.D.
Sr. Fellow, Business & Economics, Pacific Research Institute (California)
Daniel Erspamer
President, Pelican Institute for Public Policy (Louisiana)
Lorenzo Montanari
Executive Director, Property Rights Alliance
Derrick Hollie
President, Reaching America
Mike Stenhouse
CEO, Rhode Island Center for Freedom and Prosperity
Paul Gessing
President, Rio Grande Foundation (New Mexico)
Bette Grande
CEO, Roughrider Policy Center (North Dakota)
Ralph Benko
Editor, Supply-Side Blog
Founder, The Prosperity Caucus
Hon. Paula G. Sutton
Former State Representative, Maine House of Representatives
Rick Watson
Chair, Tallahassee-Florida Center-Right Coalition
Jason Williams
Executive Director and Founder, Taxpayer Association of Oregon
David Williams
President, Taxpayers Protection Alliance
Judson Phillips
Founder, Tea Party Nation
Hon. Jason Isaac
Senior Manager and Distinguished Fellow of Life,
Texas Public Policy Foundation
Christian N. Braunlich
President, Thomas Jefferson Institute for Public Policy (Virginia)
Brian G. Valentine
Associate Professor of Engineering, University of Maryland