With his singular style, Tom Toles tackles the complex issues of the day. This Pulitzer Prize-winning cartoonist skillfully targets political, economic and social concerns — in particular complicated environmental issues — with a clear-eyed precision that hits the mark every time.
© The Washington Post - All Rights Reserved.
Mike Thompson by Mike Thompson
Gary Varvel by Gary Varvel
Comments (56) (Please sign in to comment)
Clark Kent said, 6 months ago
Things have gotten so bad after 40+ years of far “right” misrule that we need a time machine to prevent nixon, reagan, bush 1 and cheney/shrub from ever being president.
MortyForTyrant said, 6 months ago
A warning from Germany: do NOT use carbon tax revenue for anything but migration to alternative energy. Our “Öko-Steuer” (tax on ecologically bad things, like gasoline) was originally intended that way but later got mixed up in the “big pot” where all the other taxes go. People didn’t like that…
braindead08 said, 6 months ago
The first idea is to change the Senate rules so that filibustering is highly visible and those filibustering are known and accountable. No more secret holds. No more fiilbustering of debate.
-
There are often good and valid reasons to filibuster legislation, but there is no good reason for secrecy, no good reason to filibuster debate, and no good reason to make it so easy as to be trivial.
Night-Gaunt49 said, 6 months ago
Yes the carbon tax must only be for renewable and non-carbon types of energy. Nothing else.
Tigger
said, 6 months ago
@Clark Kent
For fairness. add FDR, Carter, LBJ, and Obama to the mix
Tigger
said, 6 months ago
@braindead08
You did not have a problem with Democrats Filibustering the Senate when the Republicans held the Majority in the Senate.
Tigger
said, 6 months ago
@Mr. King
It was LBJ who stole money from the SS Fund to fund his ‘War on Poverty’ Odd how the Liberals on this Board are not screaming how horrible a President LBJ was to steal money from The Middle Class Senior Citizens to give to people who do nothing at all.
saywhatwhat said, 6 months ago
@braindead08
A filibuster should only happen when someone is willing to actually stand up and talk about the issue… or at least pretend what they are saying is about the issue, but in any case, a real person really taking.
mikefive said, 6 months ago
@MortyForTyrant
That is the main reason I’m opposed to the carbon. tax. I see it as becoming like the lottery where the monies collected were supposed to go to education but wound up in the general fund with some (but hardly all) of it then given back to education. The same happens to the National Highway Trust Fund. The Social Security money that is in excess of current need is “borrowed” by the Treasury. The Treasury then gives the Social Security Administration a non-transferable treasury bond. The multi-billion dollar settlement with the tobacco industry was supposed to fund the treatment of tobacco related illnesses but wound up in the general fund.
ARodney said, 6 months ago
I wouldn’t mind seeing the carbon tax to go to extending the reduction in the payroll tax. For all of it’s benefits, the carbon tax would be a regressive tax (like payroll, sales, and property taxes) falling hardest on the poor, who pay out a larger share of their incomes on those items. This is something that British Columbia is already doing, and it’s working well—though it’ll work better if other states and provinces jump on board.
Respectful Troll said, 6 months ago
There are myriad methods of dealing with the issues presented in this cartoon. Mr. Toles offers only one of the many, equally controversial, choices, and turns focus and argument on that one point. It will take a multifaceted approach to fix our problems. Total elimination of taxes/fees/services/etc are probably less needed than making common sense and balanced adjustments to the existing legal structure. The key to reducing costs is to locate those ‘loopholes’ lobbyists installed in bills that weakened the bills while increasing costs overall.
Respectfully,
C.
Nos Nevets said, 6 months ago
You know the idea behind the carbon tax is a libertarian one. The argument isn’t about the method (i.e., polluters of the Commons paying the Commons for damage, or the right to do damage. The tax rate should reflect the best guess of the monetary value to society of that damage. The revenues collected must go toward making people & society whole & mitigating against the cost of the damage. Imperfect, yes, but it lets the market can make rational decisions of whether to pollute & how much to pollute at the margin.)
The argument is mainly about the reality of this particular pollutant. (I’m not arguing either side of that here.) But in reading comments here, confusion reigns over divorcing revenue or tax rates from pollution damage. Acting on ideas expressed above would diminish rational decisions about polluting.
Ms. Ima said, 6 months ago
@Night-Gaunt49
LOL!!!!!!!!!!!!!! A confiscatory tax that goes for what was originally levied for? THAT WILL NEVER HAPPEN!!!!!!!!
See how far the ‘carbon tax’ in Germany has stopped the ‘global warming hoax’.
It’s all legal theft of wages. Nothing else.
Ms. Ima said, 6 months ago
Toles actually left out the real reasons for the fiscal cliff ‘fire’: overspending, entitlement programs, democrats unlimited credit card…
Take everything from everyone and the spending will be paid for a week or so (a ‘week’ to avert the libs crying about some 8 day crap).
Nos Nevets said, 6 months ago
@Nos Nevets
MortyForTyrant, MikeFive, Night-Gaunt49 have it right.