Democracy Has Prevailed.

May 27, 2009

Rep. Tim Murphy Needs A Fact Checker

Rep. Tim Murphy (R-PA-18) has an opinion piece in today's Pittsburgh Post-Gazette on "cap and trade" legislation. In it, Murphy makes the following claim:

Estimates show such a plan would increase taxes. According to a Massachusetts Institute of Technology study, cap and trade could add $3,100 in costs to each family's annual energy bill by 2016.
Wow! That's a pretty frightening number.

It's also FALSE.

From M.I.T.'s April 1, 2009 letter to Rep. John Boehner (R-OH):

“It has come to my attention that an analysis we conducted examining proposals to reduce greenhouse gas emissions, Report No., 146, Assessment of U.S. Cap-and-Trade Proposals, has been misrepresented in recent press releases distributed by the National Republican Congressional Committee. The press release claims our report estimates an average cost per family of a carbon cap and trade program that would meet targets now being discussed in Congress to be over $3,000, but that is nearly 10 times the correct estimate which is approximately $340. Since the issue of legislation to control greenhouse gases is now under consideration, I wanted to take an opportunity to clear up any misunderstanding created by this press release and to avoid further confusion.
Yes, Murphy's very scary number is off by a factor of almost 10.

And, just in case Boehner didn't pass that along to Murphy, Timmy could have found the same information at this very blog at the beginning of this month (see here).

If you click on that link, you'll see that David didn't just blog about this issue. He actually wrote to Murphy about it.

Guess Murphy's just been too busy to keep up with the FACTS...or something.
.

4 comments:

Clyde Wynant said...

Murphy could care less about accuracy. All he knows is that the "anti tax message" plays well to his constituents in the South Hills, particularly the plutocrats of Upper St. Clair.

Can the the Democrats PLEASE find a solid, well-funded candidate to take on this simpleton? I don't want a wonk (last cycle) or some party legacy; I want a glib politician who can take Murphy apart, hand him his hat and send him on his way. He's a boat anchor. And a nasty one.

fester said...

I doubt that there will be a strong challenger in 2010 --- the district last cycle went for McCain by a good margin and has a single session PVI of about R+9. That is a tough seat for a Dem to win.

Add onto the fact that if a Dem was to win that seat in 2010, they are going to be severely squeezed in 2012 as Harrisburg has to collapse the five Western PA Districts (3,4,12,14,18) into four districts. Smashing together either 4 and 18 or 18 and 12 with moderate adjustments to everyone else is the most likely incumbent protection redistricting plan possible. So the Dem challenger would be looking forward to one hell of a tough race in a neutral(ish) political environment year and then a fight to the death in the 2012 redistricting. I think Murphy is 98% safe for 2010.

Maria said...

By the way everyone, it was Fester who emailed me with the link to Murphy's op-ed.

Thanks, Fester.

Sherry Pasquarello said...

fear is the only card they have to play. it works with terrorism, immigration, gays and finances among others.

fear leads to bigotry and hate and the republicans just really know how to work it.