Of Windfall and Elephants

Today, I dropped by TCS Daily and found a couple of interesting items....

First, there is a good summary with analysis by Ben Lieberman of the five worst energy policy ideas currently in circulation in Washington. Astoundingly (or maybe not), the Carter-era Windfall Profits Tax appears on the list.

If one were to pick an issue and an administration that exemplified Washington at its most inept, energy policy under the Carter administration would be a very good choice. Yet many Carter-era energy ideas are being resurrected. The windfall profits tax is perhaps the worst. It's a tax levied on oil producers when the price exceeds some predetermined level. A pending proposal would impose a 50 percent tax on the price of oil above $40 per barrel. This tax would be levied on top of the 35 percent federal corporate income tax and other taxes imposed on the industry.

I was mildly surprised to learn that Reagan waited until 1988 to repeal this one. But then, who said that Republicans really understand capitalism?

Also, readers of the Harry Binswanger List will recall his mention on September 6 of a review by Bruce Bartlett of Ryan H. Sager's The Elephant in the Room: Evangelicals, Libertarians, and the Battle to Control the Republican Party as well as Binswanger's own discussion of the fundamental contradiction between faith and capitalism that makes the Republican coalition so unstable. (I am not completely certain since he did not provide a link, but I think this is the review he mentions.)

Those whose interest in the book was piqued will find its first chapter at the TCS Daily site, which also makes it available in PDF format.

-- CAV