Joe Klein followed the live blogging over at Swampland.
Hard to tell just exactly what's going on, but it seems Gore has backed away from his prior support for a massive carbon tax-payroll tax swap...now he's limiting himself to a cap-and-trade system that will reduce co2 emissions by 90% in 2050. Which is an easier pill to sell than a tax (at least, front end), which may be an indication that Gore is...thinking politically? Hmm.
Two quick points. One, Gore didn't back away from the tax swap at all. Keep this in mind. His plan for a 90-percent reduction beats any of the bills in the Senate now and beats Edwards' new proposal. If anything I think this means it's LESS likely that Gore is thinking politically. His plan is sound, and the 80-percent number is sort of the magic number (at least as far as USCAP is concerned), but Edwards IS thinking politically. By definition. Gore, I'd argue, looks like he's thinking only about how to fix a huge, huge mess.
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