That a boy Earl!
Congressman Earl Blumenauer of Oregon went on the offensive on the House floor yesterday, calling out the outright lies House and Senate Republicans have been repeating about the costs to consumers of potential climate legislation.
Senators Mitch McConnell (R-KY and the Senate Minority Leader) and John Thune (R-SD), as well as House Minority Leader John Boehner (R-OH) have repeatedly made the false assertion that climate legislation would cost the average American $3,100 in additional energy costs. That number it turns out, is entirely fabricated, a "canard," as Rep. Blumenauer calls it, that comes from a blatant and outright incorrect misinterpretation of the MIT study it is supposedly based on.
All this prompted Rep. Blumenauer to give the Republicans a direct dose of richly deserved truth on the House floor yesterday:
PolitiFact called up John Rielly, one of the authors of the MIT study, who issued this clear statement: "It's just wrong ... It's wrong in so many ways it's hard to begin."
It continues to float, of course, both spewing out along with the rest of the hot air coming from Republicans on the floor of Congress and bouncing dutifully throughout the mainstream media (who apparently don't bother to fact check these kinds of claims) and rightwing blogosphere (who are happy to repeat their "leaders" lies and misstatements ad nausea).
Not only is it wrong, but he told the House Republicans it was wrong when they asked him.
"Someone from the House Republicans had called me (March 20) and asked about this," Reilly said. "I had explained why the estimate they had was probably incorrect and what they should do to correct it, but I think this wrong number was already floating around by that time."
About time someone let the Republicans have it on the House floor. Go get 'em Earl!
See also this wonderful series of posts from the team at DeSmogBlog:
Friday, April 03, 2009
Rep. Earl Blumenauer Smacks Down Republican Lies on Climate Bill
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2 comments:
Rep-re-zentin'! I love Earl Blumenauer.
Indeed! Bow tie, bike pin and all! Gotta love him. And is it just me, or is he becoming all the more forceful as a member during the 111th Congress?
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