Any climate change “tax” that environmental leftists hope to implement will face unified opposition in the Republican Party. All of the GOP leaders in the House are unanimous; Speaker John Boehner (R-Ohio), Majority Leader Eric Cantor (R-Va.) and Whip Kevin McCarthy (R-Calif.), new Republican Conference Chairwoman Rep. Cathy McMorris Rodgers (Wash.), and National Republican Congressional Committee Chairman Greg Walden (Ore.) agree that any climate legislation that raises taxes will be dead on arrival in the House.
The Tea Party group Americans for Prosperity has a “no climate tax” pledge that all the GOP leaders have signed. The pledge requires signers to “oppose any legislation relating to climate change that includes a net increase in government revenue.”
James Valvo, policy director for Americans for Prosperity stated:
“Carbon taxes are once again being floated as a way to raise revenue so that Washington can skip the hard work of actually getting runaway entitlement spending under control … Using a carbon tax to address the deficit would clearly be a violation of the pledge that the entire House leadership team for the 112th and now 113th Congress have already pledged not to do.
Americans for Tax Reform President Grover Norquist remarked that a carbon tax, even if it were offset by reductions in other taxes, would violate his groups’ anti-tax increase pledge.
The White House isn’t going to try to buck the opposition; White House spokesman Jay Carney said Thursday that a carbon tax isn’t on the White House to-do list: “We would never propose a carbon tax, and have no intention of proposing one.”
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