John Collins Rudolf of The New York Times notes several differences between the fire that occurred last week on Mariner’s production platform and the drilling rig explosion that occurred at the Macondo well on April 20th. The fire at the Mariner production platform (Vermilion 380-A) did not kill or injure anyone and the workers shut all the wells before fleeing the platform to ensure no oil leaked into the ocean. But Rudolf creates a false assumption that what happened at the Mariner platform could have been just like the BP oil spill and twice refers to the … Continue Reading

In the August 26th issue of Time, Michael Grunwald has a lengthy article titled How the Stimulus Is Changing America which is filled with half-truths about President Barack Obama’s failed economic stimulus. First, Grunwald gets the cost of the stimulus wrong reporting: “The American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009 — President Obama’s $787 billion stimulus — has been marketed as a jobs bill, and that’s how it’s been judged.” As the Congressional Budget Office (CBO) has recently confirmed, since the stimulus failed to create jobs the cost of the unemployment measures has risen and the estimated ten … Continue Reading

In The Washington Post August 29th, David A. Fahrenthold had a good report on the environmental movement and its inability to pass comprehensive climate change legislation - even with a left-leaning Congress, a Democratic President and a record oil spill. The article nicely demonstrates how the public does not have an appetite for cap and trade or any other bill that will increase the cost of energy. Fahrenthold misleads readers when he says it was industry and the oil groups that stopped cap and trade in its tracks. Writing about the environmentalists, he says, “A … Continue Reading

Carol E. Lee, covering President Barack Obama’s trip to New Orleans to commemorate Hurricane Katrina, reported for the August 29th Politico:

Diners literally embraced the president, who apologized to a handful of people for cutting in line to order a shrimp po’ boy and gumbo.
…
The Katrina anniversary presented Obama with an opportunity to accentuate his positive accomplishments and involvement in the region, particularly compared with his predecessor, George W. Bush. And the president didn’t hesitate.

Obama waded heavily into the details of his administration’s efforts in post-Katrina New Orleans. Long passages of his read inexplicitly like a juxtaposition of his actions

… Continue Reading

The August 30th USA Today carried a story by David Lynch headed: “Economists agree: Stimulus created nearly 3 million jobs.” In paragraph two we learn that: “A recent study by two prominent economists generally agrees, crediting the pump-priming with averting ‘what could have been called Great Depression 2.0.’” It is not immediately obvious which two economist’s Lynch is referring to, but two paragraphs later Lynch reports: “‘We have played our policy hand. Now we’ve got to hope it’s good enough,” said Mark Zandi, chief economist for Moody’s Analytics and co-author of the recent study.”

The study Lynch is referring to, … Continue Reading

The August 29th New York Times Week in Review featured an article entitled, “Policy Options Dwindle as Economic Fear Grows,” by Peter S. Goodman. As Goodman recounts the drumbeat of bad economic data released in recent days and the obstacles to using traditional “stimulus,” he offers this explanation for why Congress is reluctant to add more to the national debt:

The dramatic expansion of the national debt — which began in the Bush administration, via hefty tax cuts and two wars — has ratcheted up fears that, one day, creditors like China and Japan might demand sharply

… Continue Reading

The amount of oil remaining in the Gulf has been subject to debate with conflicting reports suggesting that either much of the oil is gone or much of it remains. The two major studies came from the federal government’s The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) and from researchers at the University of Georgia. NOAA reported that only about a quarter the oil was left in the Gulf while UGA found that seventy to eighty percent remained. In a recent Washington Post article, David A. Fahrenthold and Kimberly Kindy reported that a study from the … Continue Reading

Pakistan’s foreign minister, Makhdoom Shah Mahmood Qureshi, appealed for aid from the international community telling reporters: “Climate change, with all its severity and unpredictability, has become a reality for 170 million Pakistanis. The present situation in Pakistan reconfirms our extreme vulnerability to the adverse impacts of climate change.” The New York Times Nathanial Gronewold then added on August 20th:

Both Qureshi and U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon hinted that they would use the Pakistan crisis to spur the now-stalled international climate talks. At the very least, the disaster shows that massive funding is needed to make the developing world more resilient

… Continue Reading

Reporting on the $26.1 billion government union bailout for the Associated Press on August 13th, Steven Paulson wrote:

U.S. Rep. Jared Polis told his colleagues in the House on Tuesday that the bill will provide Colorado school districts with $160 million and save the jobs of 2,600 teachers in Colorado.

Paulson did go on to add:

State Sen. Nancy Spence, a Republican from Centennial, said an unofficial survey by the Colorado School Finance Project, a joint venture by teachers, educators and school executives to track school finances, raises serious questions about the number of jobs that will be saved.

But this makes the … Continue Reading

When President Barack Obama stopped in Columbus, Ohio to raise campaign cash on August 18th, Dispath reporters Mark Niquette and Joe Hallett reported:

Later, at a Downtown luncheon fundraiser for Gov. Ted Strickland and the Ohio Democratic Party, Obama said the recession already had swept away 8million jobs before “we had any opportunity to put in our economic policies.” Those policies - the $787billion stimulus package, health-care overhaul, domestic auto industry bailout and tighter regulations on Wall Street - are helping to rebuild the economy, Obama said.

If Niquette and Hallett are just repeating what the President said, then they should … Continue Reading

Covering the General Motors bailout for the August 19th Washington Post, Peter Whoriskey writes, “While the government rescue of GM began under the George W. Bush administration, it was the Obama administration that pumped the larger share of federal money into the automaker in exchange for a majority stake. The Obama administration also forced the company to restructure and pushed out then-chief executive G. Richard “Rick” Wagoner Jr., who is now a board member of The Washington Post Co.”

The message is not that the bailout worked but restructuring worked, which would have been done under bankruptcy regardless. … Continue Reading

Covering the release of the annual Medicare and Social Security trustees report for The Washington Post, Amy Goldstein wrote on August 6th:

Specifically, the new report says Medicare’s hospital trust fund will be able to pay all its bills until 2029, compared with last year’s forecast of 2017.
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The report predicts that the Social Security trust fund will have enough money until 2037, the same date as in last year’s forecast.

The Post’s economic reporters need to convey to readers that the Medicare and Social Security “trust funds” contain zero funds. This is not up for dispute. When those programs’ revenues … Continue Reading

On January 1, 2011, every American who pays taxes is set to see their tax bill rise. The lowest personal income bracket will see their taxes rise from 10% - 15%. the 25% bracket will rise to 28%, the old 28% bracket will rise to 31%, the 33% bracket will rise to 36%, and the old 35% bracket will rise to 39.6%. But son’t look for the words “hike”, “rise”, or “raise” any where near the word “tax” in Jackie Calmes coverage of the issue for the August 10th New York Times.

Instead of informing readers about who’s taxes are … Continue Reading

Jim Kirk argues in the August 13th New York Times that since Congress is not moving forward with cap and trade legislation, the Chicago Climate Exchange, the nation’s only buyer and seller of carbon credits, is suffering. Kirk says, “Although carbon trading is robust in Europe, Intercontinental Exchange, the owner of the Chicago Climate Exchange, painted a gloomy outlook for a robust cap-and-trade market in the United States.”

While is true absent a cap and trade policy, the future of the Chicago Climate Change is gloomy, Kirk is simply wrong to say that carbon trading is robust in … Continue Reading

The August 6th New York Times included a lengthy Michael Cooper article titled “Governments Go to Extremes as the Downturn Wears On” recounting cutbacks in government programs in Hawaii, Georgia, and Colorado. In 2,632 words we do find out that Hawaii owns “billions of dollars to a pension system that has only 68.8 percent of the money it needs to cover its promises” and that Clayton County Georgia spends $8 million a year on its bus system, and that Colorado Springs saved $1.2 million by shutting off streetlights this winter, but no where are we told just how big … Continue Reading

David Cho writes in the August 8th Washington Post that businesses are willing to incur enormous sums of debt because of incentives in the tax code, primarily the way businesses can deduct interest expense. Cho says:

Like other U.S. corporations, it also has had a uniquely American incentive for its borrowing habits: the nation’s tax laws. These rules offer extensive tax breaks to companies that borrow money and penalize those that raise cash in safer ways, such as issuing stock. Yet despite the recent financial crash, which exposed the perils of excessive borrowing, the rules are likely to

… Continue Reading

In a report comparing the costs of nuclear energy and solar energy, New York Times reporter Diana Powers gives an unfair critique of nuclear power and glorifies solar energy by ignoring the challenges of bringing it online. Powers points to a study that says electricity produced from solar photovoltaic cells could be cheaper than nuclear and that nuclear’s costs are on the rise while solar’s costs are on the decline. The Times later amended the article to say, “In raising several questions about this issue and the economics of nuclear power, the article failed to point out, … Continue Reading

The headline over Amy Goldstein’s August 5th article on the Medicare Trustees Report reads “Health-care law strengthens Medicare outlook, report finds” but the facts contradict this conclusion. The Washington Post reports:

The federal law intended to spur broad changes to the nation’s health-care system has strengthened Medicare’s financial condition, with the fund that pays for older Americans’ hospital care predicted to last a dozen years longer than expected a year ago, according to a new government forecast.

But here is what the Medicare Chief Actuary actually writes about Obamacare:

Further, while the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act, as amended, makes

… Continue Reading

On August 2 in NPR, David Welna writes on the scaled-back energy bill in the Senate proposed by Senator Harry Reid (D-NV). Welna’s description of the bill is mostly accurate but his report has two fundamental flaws. First, when noting that Reid’s bill does not contain a system to price carbon dioxide, he wrongly asserts that businesses responded negatively towards proposals like cap and trade. He writes, “It’s been more than a year since the House narrowly passed its energy bill. That was a tough vote for a lot of Democrats because the bill included … Continue Reading

On August 1st, The Los Angeles Times asked: “Arizona was once tolerant of illegal immigrants. What happened?” Authors Anna Gorman and Nicholas Riccardi go on to report:

Arizona has made a name for itself as the state with the harshest policies against illegal immigration. But as few as six years ago, this border state was among the nation’s most welcoming of illegal immigrants.
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Since 2004, Arizona legislators have passed measures that restricted illegal immigrants from receiving in-state tuition, made English the official language and dissolved any business that repeatedly hired illegal immigrants.
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But one factor influencing the state in profound ways was

… Continue Reading

In his July 27th report on the success or failure of the stimulus bill, the AP’s Bruce Schreiner lays out the pros and cons of the stimulus bill, predominately voiced by Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi and Senate GOP leader Mitch McConnell. What Schreiner misrepresents, however, was the true cost of the stimulus package signed into law last year by President Obama. Schreiner writes, “Pelosi credited last year’s $787 billion stimulus package, passed over deep Republican objections, with creating or saving as many as 3.6 million jobs so far.”

As it’s been pointed out several times on … Continue Reading

Reporting for The Hill, Walter Alarkon, in his July 13th article “Democrats and AARP want to make IRA enrollment automatic,” implies that the automatic investment retirement accounts (IRAs) is a Democratically controlled plan with support only from the White House and the Association for the Advancement of Retired Persons (AARP). But The Heritage Foundation’s Senior Research Fellow in Retirement Security and Financial Markets David John refutes Alarkon’s assertion that the Automatic IRA is a partisan idea:

The Automatic IRA has enjoyed wide bipartisan and cross-ideological support since it was first unveiled at The Heritage Foundation in

… Continue Reading

CNN reporter Lateef Mungin leads off a July 22 piece entitled “Arizona Immigration Law Faces Federal Challenge Thursday,” by writing:

The Obama administration’s challenge to the controversial Arizona immigration law goes before a federal judge Thursday.

That seems straight enough. But is it really fair that the media constantly characterizes the immigration law as “controversial”?

A poll conducted by Quinnipac last week found that 50 percent of Americans back Arizona’s law compared to 30 percent who opposed it. Other polls have found even higher levels of support for Arizona’s efforts. The Quinnipac poll also found that, by … Continue Reading

In his July 21st article, Carbon-control bill faces steep hill in Senate, Associated Press reporter Charles Babington makes it sound like nothing but good will come from a bill that prices carbon dioxide. Discussing last year’s Waxman-Markey bill Babington writes, “The House voted 219-212 last year for a “cap and trade” energy plan. It would create economic incentives to limit heat-trapping gases from power plants, vehicles and other sources.”

These economic incentives are nothing more than crony capitalist handouts given to large corporations. The incentives are subsidies, loan guarantees, tax credits, and regulations. In the free … Continue Reading

Reporting on the Obama administration’s failure to convince voters the stimulus worked, The Washington Post’s Michael Shear reported on July 14th:

On that Friday, Gibbs was upbeat, expressing confidence in Obama’s ability to make his case for what eventually became an $850 billion stimulus plan.

Shear’s $850 billion number is an improvement over the $787 billion number the Post used to use but it is still not correct.

President Obama’s stimulus may have only totaled $787 billion when Congressional critics first voted against it, but its costs have increased since then. According to revised … Continue Reading

On July 12th Coral Davenport reported for Politico:
Congress may or may not pass a serious climate bill this year, but one thing is certain: It won’t be business as usual.

Congress may or may not pass a serious climate bill this year, but one thing is certain: It won’t be business as usual.

While Republicans and polluting industries will celebrate, most know their victory will be fleeting…
Over the past year, the Environmental Protection Agency rolled out four rules that, in the absence of climate change legislation, eventually would give the executive branch command-and-control power to limit carbon pollution from power plants, factories

… Continue Reading

Krissah Thompson reported on the controversy surrounding the Obama Justice Department’s handling of the New Black Panther Party case for the July 15th Washington Post. Thompson writes:

The suit was focused on the party and two of its members, who stood out front of a polling place in Philadelphia on Election Day 2008 wearing military gear. They were captured on video and were accused of trying to discourage some people from voting. One carried a nightstick.

Conservatives complained last year when Justice officials narrowed the case, dropping the party and one of the men and focusing only the bearer of the

… Continue Reading

Surprised by the fact that unions, not corporations, have spent the most money since the Supreme Court’s Citizens United free speech decision, The Washington Post’s T.W. Farnam reported on July 7th:

“We would be very pleasantly surprised if there’s not a gusher of special interest money,” Rep. Chris Van Hollen (D-Md.) said in an interview. “Very few people play in the primaries — most of this money is almost always spent in the general election.”

Van Hollen is pushing a bill the House recently passed that would require funding sources for advertising to be disclosed.

This is just plain false. Van Hollen’s … Continue Reading

Reporting on the New Black Panther Party controversy, Politico’s Ben Smith recounted the facts of the case for a July 16th article:

The facts of the case are relatively simple. Two men were captured on a video standing outside a polling place in a black Philadelphia neighborhood on Election Day in 2008. One of the men had a nightstick, if an unclear agenda — though a member of the black nationalist New Black Panther Party, he had earlier professed loathing for the Democratic “puppet” candidate, Barack Obama, who went on to overwhelmingly carry that precinct.

Three Republican poll monitors filed complaints

… Continue Reading

In the course of a July 13th Washington Post column attacking Republicans, Katrina vanden Heuvel writes that “Missouri’s Roy Blunt, among others, stood with the insurance and drug companies against health-care reform.” Come again? The pharmaceutical industry favored the Democrats’ health-care legislation, and is even now coming to the aid of Senator Harry Reid (D-NV) to thank him for his role in passing it. The insurers spent more than a year urging passage of an individual mandate coupled with insurance regulations. That wasn’t the Republican position in the debate.

So … Continue Reading