At Least 11 Republicans In Congress Advance False Claim That Green Economy Bill Imposes $3,100 Tax On Families
At Least 11 Republicans In Congress Advance False Claim That Green Economy Bill Imposes $3,100 Tax On Families
Yesterday, the Wonk Room’s Ben Furnas noted that House Minority Leader John Boehner (R-OH) and Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-KY) have been attacking a cap-and-trade proposal before Congress, falsely claiming that the measure would cost American families over $3,000 per year in extra taxes.
They base their claim on a 2007 MIT study. However, after interviewing one of the study’s researchers, MIT professor John Reilly, PolitiFact reported on Monday that the GOP claim is false, giving it a “pants on fire” rating on the website’s “Truth-O-Meter.” According to Reilly, the report actually finds that any tax burden resulting from the bill’s enactment wouldn’t be felt until 2015 — at $31 per person and $79 per family per year, not $3,100.
Regardless of the facts, at least nine other Republican members of Congress have made this false claim since PolitiFact’s report. However, some haven’t exactly nailed down the talking point. Sen. Judd Gregg (R-NH) said the tax would be levied on “every living American,” not tax-paying families, while Rep. Cynthia Lummis (R-WY) upped the tax to $4,560 per family. Watch the compilation:
Congressional Republicans haven’t been the only ones advancing this myth. As Fox News usually does with GOP talking points, the network ran with the false claim. Chief Washington correspondent Jim Angle reported last night that the MIT study says the price on taxpayers for the cap-and-trade measure “will be substantial.” He then quoted — without challenge — Gregg’s false claim:
GREGG: And their estimate is it will generate over, over $300 billion in new taxes every year. It works out to about $3,000 per household.
ANGLE: Some say less, some say more. And in states relying the most on coal, it could be a lot more.
Gregg continued to repeat the $3,000 false claim this afternoon on Fox, saying that “every time you turn on your light switch, you’re going to be paying a tax.”
Reilly told PolitiFact that some House Republicans had contacted him two weeks ago about the study but he “had explained why the estimate they had was probably incorrect and what they should do to correct it.” Clearly, the GOP did not take his advice and Reilly has now written a letter to Boehner and the Select Committee on Energy Independence and Global Warming to denounce the GOP’s distortion of his study.
Transcripts:
MARCH 30 –
SEN JOHN THUNE (R-SD): In other words, President Obama’s cap-and-trade proposal is even more stringent than the one that was analyzed by researchers at MIT who concluded, again, it would cost the average household in this country over $3,100 per year.
SEN. JUDD GREGG (R-NH): Everybody living in America today who has an electric bill or other energy bills as a result of this new national sales tax – if the president gets what he wants – is going to pay $3,000 more in taxes a year, on average, for their energy bills.
MARCH 31 –
REP. STEVE SCALISE (R-LA): that entrepreneurial spirit is still out there but people don’t want to take it away by government literally coming in and trying to control all of these areas of our life [sic] with this cap and trade energy tax which would put a $600 billion tax on the production of energy in the United States, which would equate by most estimates to more than $3,000 per American family in higher energy costs.
SEN. MIKE JOHANNS (R-NE): Climate change legislation is really about tax policy. If you have a light switch in your home and you hit that light switch, you will be impacted by climate change legislation. In fact, we estimate that the average family will pay about $3,000 a year more as a result of climate change legislation. In my state, the state of Nebraska, farmers will pay about $40 to $80 an acre more to produce an acre of corn. Why? Because fertilizer costs go up as a result of this legislation.
REP. TODD AKIN (R-MO): Because what is this cap and tax? This is a tax on electricity and heating fuel, propane, natural gas, things like that. And what’s that going to mean? Well, some economists took a look at what they thought that was going to cost and this is a very credible organization, I believe it was MIT, I forget which university it was, their estimate was $3,100 for every household in America.
REP. CYNTHIA LUMMIS (R-WY): MIT as was referred to earlier by Mr. Henserling, estimates that the cost of a family of four, on a family of four would be $4,560.
SEN. SAM BROWNBACK (R-KS): And then there’s the talk of, well we’ll do cap and trade and we’ll have an energy tax. That’ll help pay for some of this and consumers might not pay it directly but they will certainly pay it at a rate of more than $3,000 per American family on an energy tax.
APRIL 1 –
SEN. MITCH MCCONNELL (R-KY): At a time when many are struggling just to get by Democrats in Congress want to enact the largest tax increase in recent history, including a national energy tax that could cost every American household up to $3,100 a year.
SEN. JOHN ENSIGN (R-NV): A recent MIT study which modeled a national energy tax regime similar to President Obama’s budget proposal estimated that annual revenues as high as $366 billion that would come to the federal government. This equals tax increases of over $3,100 per family in the United States.
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“We are the Republican Party and we have NOTHING for you, America.”
April 1st, 2009 at 5:37 pmNew motto for the GOP:
The opposite of truth.
April 1st, 2009 at 5:53 pmIt should read ‘House Minority Leader’ and ‘Senate Minority Leader’…not majority as you have accidentally posted above…just thought you would want to fix that. Think how scary it would be if they really were the majority…
April 1st, 2009 at 5:53 pm“At Least 11 Republicans In Congress Advance False Claim That Green Economy Bill Imposes $3,100 Tax On Families”
The daily Republican Talking Points Memo must not have been corrected yet.
LMAO
April 1st, 2009 at 5:53 pmREPUBLICANS ARE AMERICA’S ENEMY WITHIN
Republicans ARE practicing seditious DEMAGOGUERY and insurrectionary OBSTRUCTIONISM intended to destabilize our economy for purposes of political exploitation.
Republicans AREN’T making a sincere effort to STOP the bleeding THEIR incompetent leadership and failed policies created. Instead, they’re using conflicting economic theories as a smokescreen to conceal their subversive agenda, which is to cause President Obama and America to fail so they can blame Democrats for the consequences of THEIR calamitous mismanagement.
Republicans ARE preposterously professing that THEIR disgraceful political WHORING had nothing to do with the banking, real estate, stock market and employment catastrophes that resulted.
Republicans ARE trying to hamstring Democrats to prevent them from exposing the damage caused during a Republican presidency.
Republicans ARE offering controversial arguments they know no one can agree on to disrupt and prevent progressive change. They’d rather divide America and create political gridlock than endure the political consequences of effective Democratic governance. That’s how they gained power and that’s how they’re trying to retain it.
Republicans AREN’T the LOYAL OPPOSITION. They ARE the ENEMY WITHIN whose personal priorities have eroded their moral and ethical standards to the point that treachery and betrayal are their preferred modus operandi.
It’s one thing to advocate their conservative beliefs; it’s another thing entirely to willfully sabotage America’s government because a successful Democratic presidency would not be vulnerable to the greed, fears and hatreds that have produced and sustained the radical Republican corporatism and extremism that have poisoned and crippled America.
April 1st, 2009 at 5:58 pmIf in a public debate, someone makes a claim and their opponent produces evidence that shows that not only is the claim false, but the person making the claim should have known it to be false, what is the effect ????
I often laugh about the repubs not figuring out the tubes of the internet and the youtubes.
But it looks like the repubs haven’t figured out paper and pencil yet either.
April 1st, 2009 at 6:02 pmIf they weren’t lying, Rush wouldn’t let them stay in the party.
April 1st, 2009 at 6:04 pmLying fcks. Why do you think they’re called Repugnicunts?
April 1st, 2009 at 6:13 pmWhat is so sad is that so many sheeple buy this garbage. All the Repugs have to shout is “Taxes!” And these morons fall for ot everytime. They are so unintelligent. It reminds me of Joe the Plumber going on a tour against the Unions, and he has no idea what the f**k he is talking about.
April 1st, 2009 at 6:17 pmgrick Says: It should read ‘House Minority Leader’ and ‘Senate Minority Leader’…not majority as you have accidentally posted above…
Doh! This happened yesterday as well in one post. I think it’s due to ‘muscle memory’
April 1st, 2009 at 6:27 pmAnd the rethug tax cut plan will saddle the average american with $7,500 extra tax bill and the rethgs say that under the bush admin they saved the world from aleins from outter space and that if you dont vote for them they will hold there breath till they turn blu
well the first two things may not be tru well not the second one anyway but as for the third please do I would love to see what boner would look like witha blu tan
April 1st, 2009 at 6:45 pmHas anyone ever known a republican politician who would let a good lie go to waste, just because it was a lie? WMD. Trickle Down Economics, Star Wars, etc., etc., ad nauseum. It’s their stock-in-trade.
April 1st, 2009 at 6:55 pmRepublicans continue to expose themselves (!!) as hateful, uninformed, useless liars. Yes, you lying REpubs, we are sick of you & are finally demanding facts, truth, & patriotism, none of which you apparently possess.
April 1st, 2009 at 7:03 pmI think Michelle Bachmann even has fans and supporters among the repug party — it just goes to show – you can’t fix stupid.
April 1st, 2009 at 7:48 pmOther repugs are not quite so stupid, but they are devious liars.
Between the two descriptions, I think that takes care of 98% of repugs.
I didn’t know these people were now using Nancy Reagan’s fortune teller for policy purposes.
April 1st, 2009 at 8:30 pmFacts? We don’t need no stinkin’ facts. Besides, hyperbole gets so much more press coverage than does reality.
April 1st, 2009 at 9:42 pmI can’t even begin to understand how these despicable LIARS can look at themselves in the mirror every morning; they have a totally disgusting lack of any sort of honesty and decency.
April 1st, 2009 at 9:52 pmJust another case of pandering yo the low information voters. Preaching to the choir that Gop. pols know DON’T CHECK FACTS!
April 1st, 2009 at 9:56 pmI am shock, shock I tell ya! The boys missed a decimal point on the calculator. A decimal point here, a decimal there, whats the difference? The Democrats always blow things out of proportion.
These guys got to get their act together. I am running out of adjectives. What baffoons!
April 1st, 2009 at 11:29 pm.
No facts…
No budget…
No truth…
No faith…
… The G(no)P!
.
April 2nd, 2009 at 1:06 amIt is quite amusing to watch how Mr. Boehner (pronounced bayn’or) make himself look so silly in the public’s view of late. He should legally remove the third and fourth letters of his name to adequately describe his public image.
April 2nd, 2009 at 3:50 am“At Least 11 Republicans In Congress Advance False Claim That Green Economy Bill Imposes $3,100 Tax On Families”
And that claim will continue, even if it’s “probably incorrect”, as long as the opposition continues to claim that the cost to consumers will be $79 per family per year and that not until 2015. It’s going to cost people money, but most people know it’s necessary. Be honest about it and accept that it may be necessary to delay reaching some of the desired limits due to the economy. It’s just as wrong to lie to people to achieve an ultimate good as it is to lie to them to keep from paying higher taxes. ;)
April 2nd, 2009 at 9:55 amFacts…we don’t need no stinking facts!!!
April 2nd, 2009 at 10:22 amWhats news hear the republicans have always used their own math
April 2nd, 2009 at 3:28 pmremember this figures don’t lie but lairs figure
Yes, clearly the GOPs lied!
Does that bother them? NO!
Will they do worse than this? Of course! They did in the past.
So….
Assume that you had to pay (and could pay) $3,000 in either health care or to stop all Carbon Emissions!
April 4th, 2009 at 7:28 pmDo we have a choice? NO!
To survive we will pay whatever it takes and
if we are too poor to pay, we will not survive
and the Human Race will end.
What is their implied plan?
April 4th, 2009 at 7:36 pmDo nothing and ignore the island in the Pacific that will disappear, ignore the glaciers gone from Glacier Park, ignore that the World’s Second larges lake, the Aral Sea, lost, not half but two thirds of its water and farmers have dust storms instead of crops. Who will feed the 1.5 Billion that will be at risk in Central Asia down to Bangladesh?
If the US, which has the largest number of college graduates in the world does not accept the reality of Global Warming, we are, indeed, doomed.
On the other hand, the UN Reported that by 2050 there may be five million our of food, water or land every year. Should we just wait and see if it is true?
OK Pat obviously senile dementia has set in. Time to see the nice young men that will need to take care of you soon.burun estetigi rent a car arac kiralama
April 18th, 2009 at 6:17 amsac ekimi
(knock knock) Is this thing on? Ehhhemmmm. Embrace that tree. It’s going to cost you an arm. That other tree is worth a leg. Obama will take both.
April 23rd, 2009 at 3:01 pm