Four New Members

Proving once again that the Pigou Club is bipartisan, Bill Frenzel, Isabel V. Sawhill, Charles Stenholm, and William Hoagland sign up:

To increase energy security and reduce global warming, we would impose a carbon fee or tax on energy producers of $15 per metric ton of carbon emissions, phased in over a three-year interval, which could raise about $35 billion a year. This fee could be collected by auctioning off permits to private companies under a cap-and-trade system, or levied as a direct tax on the businesses (which in turn, of course, would pass costs along to consumers).

Read their article for other proposals to tame the deficit.