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.
