Alexander the Not-So-Great
Last week, Tennessee Senator Lamar Alexander claimed that cap-and-trade will cost consumer $1,761 a year – a little tidbit of info he got from Beck who got it from Drudge who got it from lyin’ right wing blogger who got it from a fuzzy-math fueled right-wing “think tank.”
Politifact took a look at the claim the Senator sent out in a press release and said, “you lie!”
His [Alexander's] statement that households will pay $1,761 in new taxes every year is based on a blogger’s incorrect assumptions and overly simple math. The estimate does not account for revenue that will be returned to consumers in the form of rebates and other efficiency measures. Furthermore, the number is based on old numbers; the Treasury estimate was written on the premise that all permits would be sold, which, ultimately, is not the form that the Waxman-Markey legislation has taken. Finally, both Alexander and McCullagh portray money raised by selling these permits as a tax. We rate Alexander’s claim False.
And while doing so, they also note that Alexander “is relying not on a study by an economist, but on an estimate from a blogger.”
Which makes me wonder, does Senator Alexander have staff that can fact-check his assertions before they are sent out in a press release or is he so caught up in taking his marching orders from radical right-wing cable news hosts and bloggers that he can’t be bothered with silly concepts like “truth?”
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