There is often some fairly muddled logic spouted by those who work in the corridors of power on Capitol Hill, but even by Washington’s standards this one takes the cake: Rep. Jared Polis (D-CO) referring to a carbon tax as a “tax cut.”

As E&E Daily reported recently, in response to the House taking up a resolution opposing a carbon tax, Rep. Polis said “this is the first sign of momentum for a carbon tax cut — and you’ll hear me referring to it as a carbon tax cut because that’s essentially what it is: using carbon tax revenues to cut taxes for the American people.” By his logic, the carbon tax is like Robin Hood: robbing from the rich, giving to the poor.

Except that’s not quite true. To begin, the notion that raising taxes and then giving it back is somehow a tax cut is the sort of fuzzy thinking that could only take place in Washington, DC.

Second, does anybody really believe that 100 percent of this tax will be given back to the people? And finally, even if it is given back, it is highly likely that it will go to the government’s preferred group of consumers – the kind of affluent consumer that can afford to install solar panels and drive around in expensive (and subsidized) electric vehicles.

Rep. Polis can keep referring to a carbon tax as a “tax cut,” but repeating the same fallacy over and over again does not somehow make it true.

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