Krugman - Corporate America Wants Climate Breakdown, Because Anything's Better Than Higher Taxes

[hatrack]

EDIT

What might be politically feasible — just — is a set of more targeted measures, in particular an effort to decarbonize electricity generation. Generation is, in economic terms, a relatively soft target, because near-miraculous declines in the cost of renewable energy mean that we already have the technology needed to move away from fossil fuels fairly cheaply. And electricity generation isn’t just directly responsible for about a quarter of U.S. greenhouse gas emissions; if electricity becomes a clean power source, that would open the door to large reductions in emissions from vehicles, buildings and industry via widespread electrification.

The good news is that Biden’s proposals would provide a big push toward decarbonization. As the climate journalist David Roberts points out, there are two major climate-related elements in these proposals: a set of fines and subsidies that would give power companies strong incentives to stop burning fossil fuels, and expanded tax credits for various forms of clean energy. These policies would fill only part of environmentalists’ wish lists, but they would be a very big deal. The bad news is that if these proposals aren’t enacted, it will probably be a very long time — quite possibly a decade or more — before we get another chance at significant climate policy.

EDIT

Let’s face it: There’s a good chance that Republicans will control one or both houses of Congress after the midterm elections. And at this point climate denialism has a deathlike grip on the G.O.P. — a grip unlikely to loosen until complete catastrophe is upon us, and maybe not even then. Look at the way anti-mask-mandate, anti-vaccine-mandate Republican governors are doubling down in the face of soaring Covid-19 hospitalizations and deaths. So the Democratic reconciliation bill that will either succeed or fail in the next few weeks may well be, in effect, our last chance to do something meaningful to limit climate change.

Why, then, is corporate America mobilizing against the bill? Because Democrats are proposing to offset new spending partly with higher taxes on corporate profits, and to a lesser extent by using the government’s bargaining power to negotiate lower prices for prescription drugs. This approach is necessary as a political matter: If taxes must be raised, the public wants to see them raised on corporations. But corporations, not surprisingly, don’t want to pay. So corporate opposition to the Biden plan is understandable. It’s also unforgivable.

EDIT

https://www.nytimes.com/2021/09/02/opinion/corporate-taxes-biden-spending-bill.html

[stamperman]

1. Well corporate taxes are baked into the price.

So ultimately, the consumer pays the tax increase or so the RW says...so why they bitchin?