Why the Hell is the Right so Obsessed with Stupid Pledges?

I [undersigned] pledge to

ONE, oppose any and all efforts to increase the marginal income tax rates for individuals and/or businesses; and

TWO, oppose any net reduction or elimination of deductions and credits, unless matched dollar for dollar by further reducing tax rates.

First it was Grover Norquist’s No Tax Pledge, above.  There’s another one, courtesy of right-wing billionaires David and Charles Koch.

I, ______________________, pledge to the taxpayers of the state of _______________ and to the American people that I will oppose any legislation relating to climate change that includes a net increase in government revenue.

There is a common theme here.  They are not pledging to support building bridges, repair roads or create jobs.  As a matter of fact, they are pledging just the opposite: to stop change and prevent America from becoming better.

Congressional inaction has become a theme of the 113th Congress to the point that Barack Obama’s climate change package was mad up entirely of things that could be accomplished solely with executive power.  In other words,  Obama knew that Congress wouldn’t do a thing about this issue, so his emissions reductions plan focused solely on things he can do without Congress’s help.  And although Rush Limbaugh doesn’t know it, there are limits on the president’s power.

The most important thing this pledge is stopping would be a Carbon Tax, a tax with benefits I could write a whole post about, most notably that it would encourage innovation that would grow the economy and create jobs.

Although the Koch brothers have an apparently limited knowledge of science (David once said about climate change that “The Earth will be able to support enormously more people because a far greater land area will be available to produce food.”), they will also benefit monetarily from a lack of legislation.  Only one percenters will.  The rest of America will be crippled as the effects of pollution and global warming become clear.  Yet Republicans in Congress do not seem to care about the fate of working America (and not surprisingly, as they tend to be rich themselves with a poor knowledge of science).  That, my friends, is extremism.