Abraham Maslow once suggested that if your only tool is a hammer, everything looks like a nail. If a carbon tax isn't the only tool on Thomas Friedman's belt, it's perhaps the most prominent one. So sure enough, when Friedman, as per his New York Times column of yesterday, looks at the dual threat to the United States posed by ISIS and Putin, his solution is—you guessed it—a carbon tax, coupled with freeing up US oil exports.
On today's Morning Joe, commenting on Friedman's proposal, Joe Scarborough struggled to stay respectful, but wound up citing Zbigniew Brzezinski's sarcastic response in a similar situation: "I remember a couple of years ago we had a Pulitzer Prize winner on here saying it's so horrible that the Bush administration is doing this and that because the Pakistanis, they just want to be like us. And Dr. Brzezinski started laughing that sort of Dr. No laugh and he said 'you are a fool. They do not want to be like us. They want to be the opposite of us.'" Scarborough went on to observe that the only thing that will solve ISIS is killing them and blowing up their equipment.
What is it with Friedman's willful naivete? How can he imagine that freeing up US oil exports or imposing a carbon tax will bring ISIS or Putin to their knees?
WILLIE GEIST: On the subject of ISIS I have Tom Friedman writing yesterday in the New York Times, in part, "the most effective leadership abroad starts with respect earned from others seeing us commit to doing great and difficult things at home. That is how America inspires others to action. And the necessary impactful thing that America should do at home now is for the President and Congress to lift our self-imposed ban on U.S. oil exports which would significantly dent the global high price of crude oil. And combine that with long overdue comprehensive tax reform that finally values our environment and security [editor's note: that's a euphemism for a carbon tax, which Friedman later makes explicit]. Nothing would make us stronger and Putin and ISIS weaker, all at the same time." Joe, I guess he's saying, build up domestically, scare ISIS and Putin abroad.
JOE SCARBOROUGH: I mean, I totally agree with that. But right now, Mark McKinnon, we're talking about ISIS. ISIS ain't looking at our tax policy. ISIS don't care about our oil export policy. If you want to stop Isis there's only one way to stop ISIS. I remember a couple of years ago we had a Pulitzer Prize winner on here saying: 'it's so horrible that the Bush administration's doing this and that because the Pakistanis, they just want to be like us.' And Dr. Brzezinski started laughing that sort of Dr. No laugh and he said "you are a fool. They do not want to be like us. They want to be the opposite of us. I mean, come on. I understand what Tom's saying. We need to get our house in order. But getting our house in order is not going to face down the ISIS crisis. Killing bad guys and blowing up their equipment is.
