![unicorn_463.jpg](http://grist.org/wp-content/uploads/2010/04/unicorn_463.jpg?w=250)
The proposal is strongly endorsed by this guy.
From Reuters:
Imposing a $20 per metric ton carbon tax in the U.S. could reduce the country’s budget deficit by 50 percent over the next 10 years, a report by the Congressional Research Service said on Tuesday.
Such a tax would generate approximately $88 billion in 2012, rising to $144 billion by 2020, the report said, slashing U.S. debt by between 12 and 50 percent within a decade, depending on how high the deficit climbs.
Please print this article out and throw it on top of the giant pile you keep of policy proposals that could dramatically reduce the deficit but will never, ever make it into law.
You can add these other great ideas for reducing the budget deficit:
- Enacting a 100 percent tax on oil company profits
- Making a dollar worth 50 cents
- No longer maintaining any federal roads or bridges
- Cutting Medicare and Social Security in their entirety
- Charging people money for air
All equally feasible strategies.
![](https://grist.org/wp-content/uploads/2012/09/markey-tim-mcdonnell.jpg?quality=75&strip=all&w=768)