ZAKARIA: Would you bail out the carmakers?
GORE: Whatever assistance might be forthcoming should be focused on speeding the changes that are absolutely essential to ensure that our companies are competitive in the global marketplace. When I was vice president, I initiated a program called the Partnership for a New Generation of Vehicles. The federal government invested over a billion dollars in partnership with the Big Three to focus on the accelerated development of advanced high-efficiency vehicles. But as soon as they felt they were off the hook at the end of 2000, they pulled the plug and walked away.
Given where the automakers are these days I'd say that the billion dollar "investment" was about as sound as building an entire retirement portfolio out of stock in Citibank. The fact that automakers walked away in 2000 shows that the program probably didn't deserve to exist in the first place.
Later, however, Gore says this:
Later, however, Gore says this:
That's...exactly right. Come up with a revenue-neutral tax that accounts for the externality imposed by gas and then let the market figure out the solution. I am pleasantly surprised.You tried to raise the gasoline tax when you were vice president.
...So you would put a tax on carbon, complemented by a tax cut for poor people?
When I came in as vice president in 1993, I proposed a very large CO2 tax that would be offset completely by reductions in payroll taxes and an increase in the earned income tax credit. In terms of the total [government] revenue raised, it would be neutral. It wasn't a tax increase. But it would send a price signal that would help us get off our dependence on oil. It passed one house of Congress and then narrowly failed by one vote in the other house. It ended up, unfortunately, being only a small increase in the gasoline tax, which just made people mad and didn't really have any impact on the problem.
Not only for poor people, but middle income people. We should tax what we burn, not what we earn...
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