Cap&Trade: We Are All Socialists Now

by pgl

Chris Horner of the National Review pleads with Senator John Sununu to vote against the Boxer-Lieberman-Warner cap & trade proposal:

All pols casting a calculating political eye at this bill ought to remember that the noisy green groups who are agitating for this bill are trying to pressure GOP senators into doing the wrong thing, with the false promise of later political support. Their support is something you can do without. Address this bill on its merits, Senators, and you’ll keep the conservative support that you can’t do without.

Say what? The merits would have one voting for this legislation. OK, maybe a carbon tax would be preferable to cap & trade – see Brad DeLong for a nice summary of this debate. Horner never bothers to discuss the merits preferring to hurl this silly line:

Such winking assent will also give political cover to alarmists and others enamored with their agenda: “Hey, John Sununu supported it; are you saying he supports socialism? Hmm?”

I guess the economic know-nothings of the National Review think A. C. Pigou was a Marxist!