why does obama support the regressive cap-and-trade

As the ruling class spends "our money" to get us out of their economic and ecological messes, it's important for people to know the difference between progressive and regressive taxation--and to not be lulled into believing that the rich actually pay their "share" of taxes.

It's equally, if painfully important to remember that all sides of the ruling class are down with regressive taxation, including your hero Barack Obama, who has long sounded the theme of America needing disciplinary measures to "fix" the environment and the economy. This includes policies like a carbon "cap-and-trade" that will kill consumers and impose no price ceilings on producers. McCain found cap-and-trade attractive precisely because it allows producers to pass their costs downward. Obama presumably likes it because it sounds progressive to those who don't listen very carefully.

"Class traitor" Warran Buffet agrees:

Warren Buffett has waded into the debate about a cap-and-trade system for slowing greenhouse gas emissions in the United States — something for which President Obama is pushing hard.
Interviewed today on CNBC (transcript), Mr. Buffett responded to a question about cap-and-trade by saying that regulated utilities would pass the costs on to customers, effectively resulting in a carbon tax.
“In the utility business, it’s going to be borne by customers. And it’s a tax like anything else,” he said.
Mr. Buffett, the chief executive of the conglomerate holding company Berkshire Hathaway, also said that the “tax is probably going to be pretty regressive,” and that public utility commissions in various states would determine “what customers it gets passed through to.”
While cap-and-trade legislation has not been enacted in the United States, as Mr. Buffett noted, projected revenues from the system are built into President Obama’s budget, which was unveiled last month.

It gets better: If you think my criticism of Obama above is unfair, listen to Robert Gibbs' vacuous (I mean completely, totally vacuous) response to Buffet:

Robert Gibbs, the White House press secretary, was asked about Mr. Buffett’s remarks in his press briefing today.
Mr. Gibbs responded:
In terms of cap-and-trade, the President and the administration look forward to working with Congress to put a solution together — a market-based solution that will drive us to energy independence and create a market for — an even more robust market for alternative fuels and, as I said, the steps that we need to become energy-independent.
This is a process that rewards the innovation of the market, a principle that many previously have espoused.

Gibbs is asked a specific question about the class imbalances of cap and trade, and says nothing. Nothing.

Obama's notion of shared sacrifice is a lot different than mine. It would be one thing if Democrats merely sought to NOT hurt the wealthy (they're not revolutionaries after all). But why proactively hurt the working class and not even attempt to justify it?


"Why are you hurting the working class--Why?"