Two Columbia researchers have documented just how toxic the word "tax" is to Republican voters. In a study, Eric Johnson and Elke Weber, co-directors of Columbia Business School's Center of Decision Sciences, asked 898 Americans if they would pay a voluntary fee when buying gas, electricity, computers or airline tickets to fund carbon reduction. Whether the fee was described as a "carbon tax" or a "carbon offset" about 65 of Democrats said they would pay it. A similar percentage of Republicans also said they would pay for a carbon offset. But only 27 of Republicans would pay a carbon tax.