In the budget negotiations, conservative Republicans are fighting against letting the Bush tax cuts for the wealthy expire. These politicians claim this is a principled stand. They claim letting a tax cut expire on schedule would break their pledge never to raise taxes.
Why then are many Republicans in Congress willing to let the Wind Energy Production Tax Credit expire? This tax credit gives support to a growing industry and creates American jobs. Isn’t this how Reagan’s supply-side economics is supposed to work? Why is there no passionate fight by Reagan’s ideological heirs to save this tax cut?
The answer is money—dirty money. The coal industry donates more than $13 million to political candidates and PACs each year, and more than 70% goes to Republicans (1).
Wind energy is clean. Coal is dirty. Politicians who sell out their principles for money are filthy.