Posted By Marc Morano – 6:25 PM ET – Marc_Morano@EPW.Senate.Gov

 Democrats Call Largest Tax Increase -- A ‘Big Tax Cut!’  

Read More About the Impacts of Lieberman-Warner: www.epw.senate.gov/lieberman-warnerbillexposed  

The Lieberman-Warner global warming cap-and-trade bill has been called many things, but this appears to be the first time it has been called a “huge tax cut.”  The reference to the bill as a “big tax cut” was made by Senator Barbara Boxer (D-CA), despite the bill’s being considered the largest tax increase in American history.   

“The biggest pieces of this bill, is funds for the American people, a big tax cut. If my [colleague] opposes a tax cut, he ought to say it. It is a huge tax cut for the American people,” Boxer said on the Senate floor on June 3. Boxer also said on Monday, “This bill has one of the largest tax cuts in it that we've seen around this place in a very long time.”  

But the Lieberman-Warner bill does not have a tax cut provision in it.  Boxer’s claim of “tax relief” in the bill is based on a non-binding Sense of the Senate resolution that says some funds “should be” used to protect consumers from the coming “increases in energy and other costs” caused by the bill (Section 585, page 204 of substitute version, Sense of the Senate on Tax Initiative to Protect Consumers). 

Assuming Congress does devote those funds to the tax relief as intended, families and workers will still have to pay $6.735 trillion into the new bureaucratic system over the next 50 years in the form of higher energy costs to get back $802 billion in tax relief.  That’s a return of only $1.00 for every $8.38 paid. Boxer is essentially claiming that taking $6.7 trillion from the American people and giving back only $838 billion is somehow a “big tax cut.”  

In reality, the bill represents the largest tax increase in American history. The Congressional Budget Office (CBO) says the bill would effectively raise taxes on American families by a trillion dollars just over the next 10 years. CBO says “most of that cost would ultimately be passed on to consumers in the form of higher prices for energy and energy-intensive goods and services.”  

The Wall Street Journal said on May 27 that the bill “would impose the most extensive government reorganization of the American economy since the 1930s.” (LINK) The Cleveland Plain Dealer said the bill “will just bore new holes into an already battered economy. It also doesn't have a prayer of becoming law.” (LINK) On June 2, the Wall Street Journal further opined: “This is easily the largest income redistribution scheme since the income tax.” (LINK)  

Boxer’s claim that the Lieberman-Warner global warming cap-and-trade bill is a “huge tax cut” follows her claim Monday that a “recession is the precise time to" enact the Lieberman-Warner global warming cap-and-trade bill because it “brings us hope.” (LINK)  

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