Climate Wire headline: “CLIMATE: House cap-and-trade bill would trim budget deficit — CBO”

Well, that’s a nice effort at recovery by the Congressional Budget Office to apologize to the Obama White House for years of admitting that its current pet scheme, CO2 cap-and-trade, operates as and has all of the attributes of an energy tax, and is inarguably the very same: productivity and real wages fall, prices rise, and other lovelies.

But I do recall one George H. W. Bush using the same fig leaf of deficit reduction to explain the abandonment of his “read my lips; no new taxes” pledge, akin to Brack Obama’s serial and unambiguous vow that no taxes would be increased on anyone making less than $250,000 per year . . . all of which taxpayers would take a hit in terms of state-directed higher costs for gas, electricity, food, cars, etc., with much and ultimately all of the increase being transferred to the state as revenue.

Admittedly, Bush 41 wasn’t getting daily mash notes disguised as establishment press reportage, but does anyone remember how the public received 41’s stab at such a stunt?