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Steve Everly responds to David Roberts’s call for a carbon tax to address global warming:

The last time we imposed a tax regime of this scale was when the Progressives convinced us we needed an income tax. Four years after the 16th Amendment, Congress raised the top rate from 7 percent to 67 percent, partially to pay for cost overruns in administering the tax itself.

This is what makes debating with conservatives such a pleasure. The federal income tax was introduced in 1913. Four years later was 1917. The legislation that raised the top rate to 67% was called the “War Revenue Act.” Anyone want to take a guess about just how big a factor “cost overruns in administering the tax itself” was to this measure?

The rest of the conversation isn’t much more edifying. Better conservatives, please.

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We’re falling behind our online fundraising goals and we can’t sustain coming up short on donations month after month. Perhaps you’ve heard? It is impossibly hard in the news business right now, with layoffs intensifying and fancy new startups and funding going kaput.

The crisis facing journalism and democracy isn’t going away anytime soon. And neither is Mother Jones, our readers, or our unique way of doing in-depth reporting that exists to bring about change.

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