The Waterboarding O The English Language

clipped from justoneminute.typepad.com creates large incentives for politicians to try to do things through regulatory mandates rather than taxes. One of the major sources of the political appeal of cap and trade is that it’s not a tax. Conversely, one of the major elements of the campaign against cap and trade is to try to insist that it should be called “cap and tax.” As to cap and trade proposals on carbon, the same objectives can be achieved by way of an administratively simpler carbon tax.  Briefly, with cap and trade the regulating authority sets an allowable quantity and lets the market determine the price; with a tax, the authority sets the price and lets the market determine the quantity. But Obama can't pursue the carbon tax because of his campaign promise.  And he has to waterboard the English language to pretend that even though the government is forcing people's dollars into other people's pockets, it's not a tax.