Jun 30 2009
Cross-Dressing Capitalism: Global Warming
The good folks at OpposingViews.com — a great site you must check out — have taken some of our thoughts on where our nation is going with respect to capitalism. We argue “Democrats are dressing up socialism in free market clothes” and relate it to last week’s global warming bill:
This climate bill hides its extensive costs behind the veneer of free market rhetoric. The scheme’s proponents have long known Americans are unlikely to support a massive new energy tax – especially in this hard economic time — so they claim this government-imposed cap on greenhouse gas emissions isn’t a tax. Instead, backers argue, it’s a system through which credits can be bought or sold in a market function.
But the emissions market wouldn’t be free at all; lawmakers have already begun to rig the program, picking winners and losers and earmarking favored industries who would, in the case of the House bill, get their emission credits free of charge.
New York Times columnist Thomas Friedman lifted the veil on the political strategy behind cap-and-trade, explaining that legislators’ affinity for the bill was derived from the fact that it “doesn’t use the word ‘tax’ — even though it amounts to one.”
Thanks to OpposingViews.com for the chance to share our thoughts with a sizable audience.




Thank YOU for sharing your views and your website with the community.
Russell Fine
CEO
Opposing Views Inc.