Writing up the Commerce Department’s July Personal Income and Outlays report, the Washington Post’s Annys Shin writes:

The “Cash for Clunkers” trade-in program, which gave consumers a subsidy to turn in older vehicles for new, fuel-efficient models, boosted consumer spending in July, the Commerce Department reported Friday … Consumer spending drives much of the economy, and the new data suggested people are willing to spend if given the right incentives. … To further stimulate spending, the federal government is working out the details of a similar program to start later this year that would allow consumers to purchase more

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You here or read the number all the time. Phil Stewart and Todd Eastham breathlessly reported for Reuters on August 19th that there are 46 million uninsured Americans and President Barack Obama routinely asserts the same number. But as Heritage fellow Dennis Smith points out, that number is just not true:

• According to AHRQ’s The Uninsured in American, 1996-2008: Estimates for the U.S. Civilian Nonstitutionalized Population under Age 65 (Statistical Brief #259) the number of non-elderly individuals for the full year in 2007 was 39.9 million.
• That 39.9 million includes 5.9 million children(see Statistical Brief #259) who are

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Would Obamacare cover abortions? The two main resources journalists use to check such claims disagree. PolitiFact’s Robert Farley wrote on August 7th:claims:

[W]e checked a claim by Rep. John Boehner that the plan would require Americans to “subsidize abortion with their hard-earned tax dollars.” While there are several versions of the health care plan floating around Congress, and it seems that full abortion coverage would be permitted in the government-sponsored program, we didn’t see anything in them that would put taxpayers on the hook for subsidizing abortions. In fact, we found an amendment in a key version of the House

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Under the header, “Holder begins review of detainee-abuse allegations,” the USA Today’s Peter Eisler reports:

Amid revelations that U.S. interrogators threatened terror suspects with handguns and an electric drill, Attorney General Eric Holder opened a preliminary review Monday to determine whether criminal prosecutions are warranted in some detainee abuse cases.

The threats against the detainees, who were hooded, shackled and, in some cases, naked, were among new details included in a series of documents released by the Justice Department.

This is sloppy reporting at best. It leaves the impression that Holder has just now discovered new information that justifies a new investigation … Continue Reading

The Associated Press’s Calvin Woodward published a FACT CHECK: Health overhaul myths taking root August 20th. In it he writes:

THE POLL: 45 percent said it’s likely the government will decide when to stop care for the elderly; 50 percent said it’s not likely.

THE FACTS: Nothing being debated in Washington would give the government such authority. Critics have twisted a provision in a House bill that would direct Medicare to pay for counseling sessions about end-of-life care, living wills, hospices and the like if a patient wants such consultations with a doctor. They have said, incorrectly, that the elderly would

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The Associated Press’s Calvin Woodward published a FACT CHECK: Health overhaul myths taking root August 20th. In it he writes:

THE POLL: 55 percent expect the overhaul will give coverage to illegal immigrants; 34 percent don’t.

THE FACTS: The proposals being negotiated do not provide coverage for illegal immigrants.

55% of Americans are right and Woodward is wrong. While it is true that H.R. 3200 does not explicitly provide health care for illegal immigrants, no one is arguing that it does. What Americans are concerned about is that the enforcement provisions in the bill are too weak to make sure that illegal … Continue Reading

James Oliphant’s August 20th Los Angeles Times article Healthcare co-ops emerging as viable alternative reports:

One of the six — Democrat Kent Conrad of North Dakota — is the leading Senate proponent of co-ops. He and others point to cooperatives in Seattle and Minnesota that employ doctors and own their own healthcare facilities, giving them more control over costs and the quality of care. Conrad says that under his plan, the federal government would play no role in managing the co-ops, but would only provide seed money to help them get started.

There are two things wrong with this paragraph. First, … Continue Reading

A unattributed August 18th Associated Press story titled China Mulls Climate Resolution (printed in the Wall Street Journal), reports that China might vow that it will, or at least should, begin reducing its greenhouse gas emissions possibly around 2050. Early in the piece is a one-sentence paragraph, sandwiched between two others:

China is the largest emitter of greenhouse gases and has not set a cap on its emissions, believing it needs to continue to expand its economy and lift millions out of poverty. The country’s stance is expected to be key to a successful December U.N. conference in Copenhagen, which

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The New York Times’ Robert Pear and Gardiner Harris have a front page story in the August 18th New York Times on Sen. Kent Conrad’s (D-ND) proposal to increase health insurance competition through nonprofit health care cooperatives. Pear and Harris write:

Prof. Ann Hoyt, an economist at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, who has done extensive research on cooperatives in many industries, said they could serve a useful purpose in health care — just as credit unions compete effectively with banks, prompting them to offer higher interest rates on deposits and lower rates on loans.
…
In a study published in March and financed

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A July 29th article by USA Today’s Lindsay Perna attempts to pass off a minimum wage campaign as an effort by “churches” when in reality it is a leftist push sponsored by ACORN, unions and the Center for American Progress.

The headline, “Churches push for $10 minimum wage by 2010,” pins the campaign squarely on churches even as the first paragraph walks that claim back in an artful vague way.

Religious leaders and advocates, not satisfied with the 70-cent rise in the federal minimum wage that went into effect on Friday, are calling on congressional leaders to hike it up to

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In the August 8th edition of The New York Times, columnist John M. Broder, who writes frequently for the paper on global warming issues penned a column titled, “Climate Change Seen as Threat to U.S. Security.” Broder reported on recent studies and exercises conducted by the military that looked at the security implications of global climate change. He then concluded:

a growing number of policy makers say that the world’s rising temperatures, surging seas and melting glaciers are a direct threat to the national interest. If the United States does not lead the world in reducing fossil-fuel consumption and thus

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On August 10th the BBC ran an image showing smog-choked streets accompanying a story originally titled “Bonn hosts climate change talks” – since updated to a more excited “Time ‘runs short’ on climate deal” – about negotiations for a successor to the Kyoto Protocol regulating greenhouse gas emissions.

The context is inescapable: the photo caption below the choking pollution states “There are demands for China and India to commit to cutting emissions”, and the story is about reducing greenhouse gas emissions. The BBC implies it … Continue Reading

The August 12th New York Time includes an anonymous “Frequently Asked Questions” item on health care which claims:

Abortion opponents say the legislation would use taxes to subsidize insurance that could cover the procedure. Under the House bill, health plans could choose to cover abortion, but they generally could not use federal money to pay for the procedure and instead would have to use money from the premiums paid by beneficiaries. Representative Diana DeGette, Democrat of Colorado, said the bill would keep current restrictions on the use of federal money for abortion.

Well if Representative Diana DeGette, Democrat of Colorado, says … Continue Reading

In the August 8th New York Times, John Broder reports:

Arctic melting also presents new problems for the military. The shrinking of the ice cap, which is proceeding faster than anticipated only a few years ago, opens a shipping channel that must be defended and undersea resources that are already the focus of international competition.

Considering that this paragraph comes under an article titled “Climate Change Seen as Threat to U.S. security”, one would hope Broder knew he was on solid ground here. Unfortunately he is not. The Arctic ice cap – which principally, and as referenced in this story, … Continue Reading

The New York Times’ Matthew Wald has a very decent article on the Senate’s approval of $2 billion in new funding for the Obama administration’s Cash for Clunkers program. His August 6 Senate Adds Cash to ‘Clunkers’ Plan article reports:

The Obama administration has been arguing that the savings on gas spending would offset costs, and that the stimulus to the economy would be another benefit.

Wald does a good job questioning the environmental benefits of the bill quoting transportation expert and researcher Lee Schipper who points out, “The new car doesn’t replace the clunker, it replaces the previous first car … Continue Reading

In their story August 3rd Cover story, Congressional Quarterly reporters Coral Davenport, Benton Ives and Phil Mattingly perpetuate a common mythology about the United Nations Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) which surely will proliferate as reportage increases, with numerous international confabs scheduled to discuss an international treaty in coming months. Their piece, Carbon, From the Ground Up at least admits that “carbon dioxide [is] a naturally occurring by-product of human and animal respiration, and the principal gas breathed in by green plants”, but then goes on to state:

The more than 2,000 scientists on the Nobel-Prize winning Intergovernmental Panel

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In her August 3rd article entitled “Democrats walk a careful line on health care” LA Times reporter Janet Hook writes that the health care “reform” bill passed by the House Energy and Commerce Committee on July 31st “is designed to expand health coverage for the poor, cut costs, and improve coverage for people who already have insurance.”

A more accurate statement would have been that Democrats are claiming the bill is designed to do those things. The reality, however, is quite different.

Regarding expanded coverage for the poor, the National Institute for Health Care Management Foundation reported last year that one … Continue Reading

Editorializing on what they see as “promising” and “increased activity” between China and the United States on climate change, the Washington Post wrote on August 2nd:

This is a far cry from what happened under President George W. Bush. After spending most of his eight years questioning the science buttressing predictions of catastrophic climate change.

Although an opinion piece, this assertion is  risibly misleading if not outright false. In reverse order, Bush always acknowledged a human contribution to climate change — though the annual, rapidly increasing climate science appropriations continue to affirm his point that we do not know what … Continue Reading