This is the issue with idolizing certain politicians simply over their supposed superior decorum.

While Mitt Romney may be a good, decent person, he’s a pretty bad Republican and has been his entire career. That’s continued with his ascent (descent?) to Senate, where he’s fancied himself Jeff Flake’s long lost twin brother. His reaction to the Mueller report was pretty much what you’d expect but he’s always up for trying to scuttle a GOP nominee to virtue signal for Barack Obama.

While he doesn’t know if he’ll support Trump in 2020, he knows that something must be done about climate change and a carbon tax might just be the ticket.

Romney recently told E&E News (an energy focused outlet) that he’s thinking about co-sponsoring a carbon tax bill.

Sen. Mitt Romney (R-Utah) said today he’s considering co-sponsoring a carbon tax bill amid shifting attitudes in the GOP and increasingly strong advocacy for carbon pricing programs in corporate America.

That last line may seem counter intuitive, but it’s actually a real shift going on within the oil and gas industry. They are scared to death of coming legal action regarding carbon emissions and “climate change.” Their response is to ask the government to start taxing them, along with giving them legal protections if they comply.

The logic goes something like this. Because the entire industry would be hit with the same taxes, they could all raise prices at uniform rates, passing the costs onto consumers. It then becomes a win-win for them. They get new legal protections and any increase in costs from the taxes aren’t paid by them anyway. It’s really a testament to just how incidious crony capitalism is among the U.S. government and large corporations.

Romney, being your typical establishment Republican, is willing to entertain the idea.

“Taxes have never been my intent, but we’ll see what he has to say,” Romney said. “I would very much like to see us reduce our carbon emissions globally, and we’ll see if this might help.”

The right answer is that higher taxes are never the right answer. Especially when they are obviously part of a scheme meant to protect big business while raising prices for consumers. This also stands in contrast to 2012, where Romney spent plenty of time rallying against a carbon tax and hitting Obama for his “war on coal.”

While such a bill would go nowhere, this episode is a reminder of why politicians like Romney can’t be counted on for anything. They may say the right stuff and do so in a way that gives certain portions of the right the warm and fuzzies, but he’s still your typical, squish Republican who’d just as well go along to get along than actually stand for anything.

His possible support for a carbon tax is so on brand, it’s scary.

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