If the original statement wasn't dated March 24, 2009, it could easily be construed as an April Fool's joke. Last week, the National Republican Campaign Committee sent out a press release claiming:
The administration raises revenue for nationalized health care through a series of new taxes, including a light switch tax that would cost every American household $3,128 a year.
The "light switch tax," of course, refers to cap and trade. That's a flat out misrepresentation, but it could at least be defended as a cutesy marketing gimmick. The claim that the administration would like to fund health care through climate legislation, on the other hand, is flat out wrong. The "$3,128" figure is in a different league altogether. It's "nearly 10 times the correct estimate which is approximately $340," according to a letter published today by John Reilly, one of the authors of the MIT study misquoted in the press-release.
Even more disturbing, Alexander Lane at PolitiFact caught the NRCC in a flat out lie. He checked with Reilly directly:
"It's just wrong," said John Reilly, an energy, environmental and agricultural economist at M.I.T. and one of the authors of the report. "It's wrong in so many ways it's hard to begin."
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."
If that isn't enough, the NRCC repeated the $3000 lie in another press release sent out yesterday.
Get the full story from Think Progress (HT: Climate Progress) or EDF's Truth Squad.
