Pollution Nationwide In Shock Over New Tax Proposal...

You gotta love Al Gore. You really do. This guy is genuinely concerned about the environment. Always has been. Hell, he probably could have swayed a few votes his way if he had let the American Public know about this during the 2000 Presidential Election cycle.

He may have now jumped the shark. According to an article on Reuters here, Gore has presented an idea that we tax carbon dioxide emissions instead of employee payrolls. The only reason I say he may have jumped the shark here is because there are so many holes in a tax plan like this, that to present this as a serious idea cannot be real.

Gore claims it will replace all payroll taxes, including Social Security and Unemployment. He also claims that the overall level of taxation will remain the same. Alright... What happens if companies reduce levels of pollution to a point that the tax revenue from them in almost null and void. Where do you recoup the revenue from? What about companies that have huge payrolls, but small emissions already. Where is that revenue made up? You cannot base a tax plan on an idea that can eventually lead to the taxes reducing to a point that there is not enough money to run the country. I am assuming here(I know I shouldn't, but it's my blog), but I would gather that the only companies would get a break on taxes, not people. I assume that we would still pay out the behind on our checks. So in a backwards way it looks like Gore is telling big companies if they spend some money they can get out of paying some big taxes, while the common man will get no relief. Actually if the companies got their act together our taxes would probably go up to cover the difference.

I know he means well and is admittedly thinking outside the box. This might not be the best way to go about this.