Some conservatives say that using a carbon tax to cut the income tax is a net plus for the economy. Robert Murphy wrote on NRO the other day about the economics of this idea. I’ve always been skeptical of it as a matter of political economy. Over how long a time frame do we expect this deal to hold? It seems like it would be easier for people who want higher taxes to raise an existing tax — either the carbon tax that would now be in place or the income tax that would still be in existence — than to create a whole new revenue source. So I would expect that over time the effect of an apparently revenue-neutral carbon-tax-for-tax-cut deal would be higher taxes.