Jim Martin, “Taxing carbon is like taxing gravity, it will make everything we buy more expensive, and the burden will be felt hardest by the poor and elderly.”

(Alexandria, Virginia) – With Democrats in Congress perpetually seeking new revenue sources via higher taxes, Congressman Jim McDermott (D-WA) has introduced new legislation reviving the idea of a carbon tax that would levy substantial and continually rising fees on the use of oil, coal and natural gas.  This brought a sharp rebuke from 60 Plus Chairman Jim Martin, leader of the nation’s largest conservative seniors organization with over 7 million senior supporters.

“If one wanted to find a way to financially ruin America’s poor and elderly, then look no further than the carbon tax.  Not only will this cause gas prices and electricity costs to skyrocket, but it will make the cost of everything from food, clothing, medicine and nearly anything else we purchase much more expensive.  This is a terrible idea that will absolutely devastate poor and middle-class Americans, and be catastrophic to seniors on fixed incomes.

“Surely somebody needs to talk with this most-liberal member of the House.  McDermott, a so-called ‘champion of the oppressed,’ is oppressing the oppressed with this proposal.

“The poor and middle-class elderly  already pay a disproportionate share of their income for utilities like energy, often up to 40% of what they make.  A carbon tax would be cruel and unusual punishment that could very well lead to a repeat of past tragedies; seniors dying in their homes, because they could not afford to pay their heating or air conditioning bills.”

Some have pointed out that despite the preference for alternative fuels, the carbon tax would sting working Americans by draining more of their income to pay for necessities such as electricity, food,  and medicine, as well as everything that is produced or brought to market via fossil fuels.  A recent blog by Brad Plummer in the Washington Post admitted that, “modern economies are so heavily dependent on fossil fuels that there’s only so much we can reasonably cut back. Alternatives aren’t readily available yet.”

Martin emphasized that point that with no current alternatives, in the end the carbon tax is a punitive fee levied on the most vulnerable Americans.

“We already have politicians re-designing our cars, our light bulbs, our toilets, and dozens of other things they regulate and control, we don’t need them dictating how we pull energy out of molecules.  America will move to alternative fuels when those options are viable and cost-effective.  That day right now is far away, and passing laws to punish energy consumption will accomplish nothing other than to hurt the middle-class, the working poor and seniors on vanishing incomes.”

-30-