Yes, money does distort policy
by David Atkins
Much has been made of the failure of Crossroads and other conservative Super PACs to achieve significant results in the 2012. This, we are supposed to be believe, proves that big spending in elections doesn’t matter and that our democracy isn’t actually the barely veiled legalized bribery our lying eyes tell us it is.
Well, stories like this don’t do much to dispel the notion:
Anti-tax crusader Grover Norquist raised a lot of eyebrows on Monday when he told National Journal that a carbon tax might be on the table if it were swapped with a cut to the income tax.
“It’s possible you could structure something that wasn’t an increase and didn’t violate the pledge,” he reportedly said.
As president of Americans for Tax Reform, Norquist has convinced hundreds of members of Congress to sign a pledge that they will never raise taxes. While his influence appears to be waning in Washington, Norquist’s tax pledge is still considered gospel for many Republicans. That’s why his willingness to consider a tax on global warming pollution is a big deal in political circles.
But one day later, after being criticized by the American Energy Alliance, the advocacy arm of a Koch-supported energy think tank devoted to promoting fossil fuel development, Norquist has completely reversed his statement, saying there virtually “no conceivable way” he could support a tax on carbon.
Koch money talks, and it talks big.
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