GOP Delegation Propagating Cap & Trade Lie

As reverentandfree pointed out in an earlier diary, Mike Pence is traveling around the country spreading lies (or, in reverentandfree’s gentler terms, “discredited claims”) about the costs of Cap & Trade legislation. However, the problem isn’t limited to Rep. Pence, but includes the entire Republican Congressional delegation.

Rep. Dan Burton posted a blog entry today claiming the bill would cost taxpayers “between $3,000 and $4,000 in additional expenses every single year”. (He also adds a line about $8/gallon gas, apparently a new addition to the GOP talking points.)

According to a report by Brian Howey, “U.S. Rep. Steve Buyer said that a variety of studies show the increased cost of energy on a family of four would be between $2,500 and $3,100 annually with electric utility rates increasing 40 to 50 percent.”

According to WIBC, Rep. Mark Souder did not personally attend the panel today. However, in an audio commentary dated May 26 on his Congressional website, Souder repeats the same discredited talking point about the “indirect costs” of $3500/year, in addition to the $600/year in “direct taxes”.

Each of Indiana’s GOP reps has repeated this lie – months after it was definitively discredited by the study’s author – in the last few days. As Masson writes, “It’s almost as if they were bending the facts to fit the policy. That worked out pretty well with Iraq, so I guess it’s o.k.”

h/t Masson and others…