NY-23: Hoffman Tells GOP Clean Energy Bill Lie, Completely Botches it

This guy is dangerously out of touch:

Super nervous, very creepy, super crazy. This was only two weeks ago. Here is the first 42 seconds:

Cap and trade started out just like almost everything does, to have a good purpose. To save our environment. Unfortunately, by the time it was passed it ended up to be more of a hidden tax for all of us and only help the environment a minute amount. And this isn't Doug Hoffman talking, this is the GAO, the Government Accounting Office that has analyzed this and said that every household in America this bill will cost them something like seventeen-hundred and sixty dollars per year... in increased energy costs and compliance costs.

Three mistakes/lies in 92 words. One mistake/lie every 31 words, topping the one flaw per 42 word ratio in this USA Todaypiece piece by the Superfreakonomics authors.

1. The GAO is the Government Accountability Office, not the Government Accounting Office. Not a huge deal but something you should probably know before running for Congress.

2. The takedown of the completely fabricated $1,761 clean energy bill lie is extremely well documented. It was made up by a libertarian CBS blogger on September 15. At least 20 Republican politicians have repeated it anyway.

3. And my personal favorite: the lie Hoffman is trying to tell here is supposedly based on this Treasury Department document, not a GAO document.

Could Doug Hoffman be any more confused about all of this?

Here are the real cost estimates on the clean energy legislation currently moving through Congress:

• The Congressional Budget Office estimates the cost (PDF) per household at $160 per year.


• An EPA analysis (PDF) estimates the cost per household at $98-$140 per year.


• An EIA analysis (PDF) estimates the cost per household at $83 per year.

None of these analyses take into account the costs of inaction, which would be far greater.

 

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Comments

[DinkSinger]

The GAO name was changed in 2004, when Congress "reshaped" the GAO to make it more conservative and removed it from the Civil Service system.

[alewis14151]

I'm rooting for the Democrat, not because I lean that way, but because Sarah Palin endorsed Hoffman.