According to Emily Douglas, editor of The Nation, a leftwing magazine, Americans need to reduce consumption to save the planet, and the way to do that is to make things more expensive. Douglas toldCNSNews.com, “Yeah, I think things should be more expensive… If goods are more expensive, it stands to reason that Americans will buy less of them.”

To any rational person, Douglas’ idea is economic insanity. What she fails to appreciate is that there are jobs and families attached to the goods and services that people buy. But to many liberals, what is bad for the economy and your job is good for the environment. Unbelievably, her “logic” has become mainstream thinking in Washington.

According to the Heritage Foundation, in introducing his cap and trade bill in the Senate, John Kerry (D-MA) made this astounding statement: “The United States has already this year alone achieved a six percent reduction in emissions simply because of the downturn in the economy, so we are effectively saying we need to go another 14 percent.”

Kerry is conceding that a strong economy means increased carbon emissions. But, remember, consumption (economic activity) is bad. So, to meet the goal of his cap and trade bill – a 20% reduction in carbon emissions – we should make the recession three times as bad. How can government raise prices to stop consumption? Tax energy.

America’s struggling economy does not need one more tax, but that’s exactly what cap and trade is. You can read more about cap and trade in my weekly Human Events column.