Worse off than what? Not worse off fiscally: the PBO is clear that most households and all below the top quintile get back more in rebates than they pay in tax. Which is all that was ever promised. So unlike most taxes, this tax is fully rebated, and then some. But, like all taxes, it still has an economic impact, and in that sense makes people “worse off.” So: worse off than what? Worse off than if we did nothing on climate change? That option isn’t on the table — but in any case you’d have to look at the costs of climate change, at least so far as our failure to do anything affects it. Worse off than other ways of cutting emissions? But that is demonstrably not true. Other methods are much costlier, and don’t come with a rebate. It’s just that the PBO didn’t bother to include those, which makes this study fairly pointless.