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Private jets are awful for the climate. It’s time to tax the rich who fly in them | US Senator Edward J Markey (www.theguardian.com)

submitted 1 year ago by silence7@slrpnk.net to c/usa@lemmy.ml

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[-] shiveyarbles@beehaw.org 1 points 1 year ago

But but.. politicians taxing their wealthy donors? I'll believe it when I see it.

[-] silence7@slrpnk.net 1 points 1 year ago

There's a chunk of the Democrats, notably 'progressives,' who are willing to do just that. Markey is one.

[-] shiveyarbles@beehaw.org 1 points 1 year ago

Yup I'd like to see it, but Dems tend to do a lot of virtue signaling without follow through

[-] silence7@slrpnk.net 2 points 1 year ago

The major issue blocking their action is that every Republican votes against it, and a handful of Democrats are bought off, so they vote with the Republicans. The Republicans hold a majority in the House of Representatives, so this means that no new climate legislation is going to pass before the 2024 election.

[-] shiveyarbles@beehaw.org 1 points 1 year ago

I get it, but isn't it strange that we're always chasing the dragon, it's always just within reach.

[-] silence7@slrpnk.net 1 points 1 year ago

I wouldn't say that.

In 1959, Teller spoke, but nothing happened
In 1988, we got congressional testimony from Hansen, but no legislation to speak of
In 2008 we had cap-and-trade legislation, but it didn't get a vote in the Senate because supporters counting votes saw it couldn't get even 40 votes
in 2022 the Inflation Reduction act passed, getting 50 + 1 votes in the Senate, after being converted in to an almost-all-carrots-no-stick type bill to appease the few Democrats who were being paid off by the fossil fuels industry.

We're on the right trajectory here, just not nearly fast enough

this post was submitted on 10 Aug 2023

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