In Germany, for example, an initial VAT rate of 10% has climbed to 19%, and in France the rate is 19.6%, up from 13.6% initially. Several European countries have VAT rates above 20%.
What’s more, the climate-change justification for a carbon tax is bogus. Greenhouse-gas emissions are rising in China and other emerging economies, not in the United States. Carbon-dioxide emissions in the U.S. have been declining and by 2035 will return to 2005 levels, the Energy Information Administration projects.
