Juliet Eilperin’s October 28th Washington post story Economics of Climate Change in Forefront reports:

In June, the Center for American Progress and the University of Massachusetts at Amherst’s Political Economy Research Institute predicted that a $150 billion annual public and private investment in clean energy would produce a net increase every year of 1.7 million jobs.

It’s true, CAP did release such a “study” in June of this year. But they also released a very similar study in September of 2008 showing that $100 billion in annual spending on clean energy would produce 2 million jobs. That is a … Continue Reading

Shailagh Murray and Lori Montgomery report in the October 24th The Washington Post:

Democratic leaders in the Senate and House have concluded that a government-run insurance plan is the cheapest way to expand health coverage, and they sought Friday to rally support for the idea, prospects for which have gone in a few short weeks from bleak to bright.

Murray and Montgomery first note:

In an early estimate of the House bill, the Congressional Budget Office forecast that fewer than 12 million people would buy insurance through the government plan.

This is true, by itself, but then Murray and Montgomery later report:

Because a

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Associated Press reporter Laurie Kellman’s October 25th article, “Patients—and patience—in health care end game,” contains a big whopper. In an article otherwise devoted to chronicling the political back-and-forth of health care negotiations, she writes:

In a time of lingering recession, there is no more compelling pocketbook issue than health care overhaul. It’s an effort that’s intensely personal because it could affect every American.

How is the statement that health care is the most compelling pocketbook issue facing Americans justified? It’s not. Polling regularly shows the overall economy, job creation, and even deficit reduction are higher priorities than is … Continue Reading

A unattributed October 21st Associated Press article reports:

The industrialized world again in 2007 boosted, rather than reduced, its emissions of global-warming gases, the U.N. reported Wednesday, as international negotiators looked ahead to crucial climate talks in December.

But a search of the Web easily turns up news stories that show 2008 data, referring to numbers compiled by the Institute of the Renewable Energy Industry (“IWR”). This data, when compared to the IWR’s prior year data, shows that CO2 emissions from the “industrialized world” dropped substantially in 2008 versus 2007 (although the IWR goes out of their way … Continue Reading

An October 21st Associated Press story highlights a push from child-welfare advocates for more money from Washington to combat the problem of child-abuse related deaths. AP reporter David Crary writes:

Armed with grim statistics, experts and activists are mobilizing this week to demand expanded federal efforts — including more money and tougher oversight — to reverse a recent rise in the number of children dying from abuse and neglect. …

“Child abuse and neglect are national problems that require national solutions,” said Michael Petit, president of the Every Child Matters Education Fund. “That means federal lawmakers must work with states to

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In her October 18th article entitled “Health bills target young-old cost gap”, Washington Times reporter Jennifer Haberkorn suggests that young adults “could have the highest costs to bear but the most to gain under the health care overhaul proposals in Congress.”

Beyond the questionable logic of suggesting that something purchased at a high (indeed “the highest”) price results in “a gain”, Ms. Haberkorn’s implication that reform proposals would benefit young adults in any important way fails to match the reality of either the leading House or Senate bill.

It is true that young adults have the highest rate of being uninsured … Continue Reading

An October 20th The Washington Post headline blares: Public Option Gains Support: Clear Majority Now Backs Plan. The first para of the Dan Balz and Jon Cohen article reports: “A new Washington Post-ABC News poll shows that support for a government-run health-care plan to compete with private insurers has rebounded from its summertime lows and wins clear majority support from the public.”

So the public option has “rebounded” from “summertime lows” in the minds of the America public. How “low” did it go? How big is this rebound. It must be a huge swing to justify this headline.

But you have … Continue Reading

USA Today’s Richard Wolf has a very fair and educational piece in October 19ths USA Today on how Medicaid, S-CHIP expansion plan could hurt states’ budgets. Wolf does an admirable job not only detailing how White House sponsored health reform would bankrupt states, but he also reports on how patients in the Medicaid program still find it hard to access health care. Wolf reports:

Many parts of the country already face an acute shortage of general practitioners, 35% of whom did not accept new Medicaid patients last year, according to the Center for Studying Health System Change. House legislation would

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The Washington Post’s Alec MacGillis has a Fact Checker item out October 14th purporting to vet studies paid for America’s Health Insurance Plans and Blue Cross Blue Shield, and performed by PricewaterhouseCoopers Oliver Wyman, showing that health insurance premiums for the typical American family would rise $3,000 to $4,000 per year if Obamacare were to become law.

Writing on the individual mandate portion of the bill, MacGillis writes:

There is a lively debate about whether the penalty would goad healthier people to get coverage. But the reports are probably too pessimistic. Massachusetts has gotten all but 3 percent of residents into

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Reporting on the unexpected narrowing of the US trade deficit in September 2009, a non-bylined October 9th BBC piece uses the headline “Weak dollar improves US trade gap.”

The BBC headline implies that the shrinking trade deficit is a “good thing” for the US economy. In so doing, the BBC perpetuates the myth that an expanding trade deficit reflects weakness in the US economy, and, by extension, that this weakness is caused by imports. In reality, there is a strong correlation between an expanding US trade deficit and GDP growth, not shrinkage, as US businesses and workers … Continue Reading

Bruce Henderson has an article in the October 9th Charlotte Observer titled “Lobbying pays off for Duke” detailing the the massive sums being spent by Duke Energy lobbying for “carbon dioxide cap-and-trade”.

While mentioning the dramatic spike in Duke’s lobbying budget, which the Observer notes are underwritten by ratepayers, the paper cites the following claim without challenge:

‘That was a major achievement,’ said Duke spokesman Tom Williams. ‘I would say that was a major example of our (lobbying) presence paying off for our customers.’

But back in June, Henderson also reported for the Observer, that Duke is seeking 13.5% increase for … Continue Reading

Reporters are usually not responsible for the headlines over their articles, but the headline over Robert Pear’s and David Herszenhorn’s October 7th New York Times article is simply misleading: “Health Care Bill Gets Green Light in Cost Analysis.” Pear and Herszebhorn do report that the Congressional Budget Office “cost analysis” is on the Senate Finance Committee bill, but then they down play the ramifications of the fact, writing:

Republicans, who are overwhelmingly opposed to the legislation, minimized the significance of the cost analysis. They suggested that the “real” bill would be written secretly by Democratic leaders as they combine the

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Michael Shear and Ceci Connolly published an article in the October 7th Washington Post titled “Reform Gets Conditional GOP Support” that reports:

Seeking to provide fresh evidence of bipartisan support for health-care reform, the White House is orchestrating a series of endorsements from GOP heavyweights around the country.
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And in the past two days, former Senate Republican leader Bill Frist; George W. Bush health and human services secretary Tommy G. Thompson and Medicare chief Mark McClellan; California Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger; and New York Mayor Michael R. Bloomberg — a Republican turned independent — have all spoken favorably of overhauling the nation’s

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The October 5th New York Times has an item by Reed Abelson titled “Health Insurance Exchanges: Will They Work?” Abelson reports:

Despite all the disagreement in Washington, every proposal now before Congress to overhaul the nation’s health care system includes creation of an insurance “exchange” — a marketplace that would operate something like a Travelocity Web site for insurance policies.
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The risk is that many local markets could end up looking much as they do today — with small businesses and individuals at the mercy of too few insurers wielding too much power in their regions.
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A recent analysis by the Government

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The Washington Post’s Keith Richburg published a health care article October 1st asking: “What Makes a Health Plan a ‘Cadillac’?” Richburg reports:

In the scramble to find money to overhaul the health-care system, Senate Democrats have been eyeing the most generous insurance packages — what some call the “Cadillac” plans — as a lucrative target to tax.
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But as the competing proposals are debated on Capitol Hill, a fundamental challenge has emerged: Few people agree on exactly what constitutes a Cadillac plan.

But then, fifteen paragraphs later we learn:

Finance Committee Chairman Max Baucus (D-Mont.) initially proposed an excise tax of 35 percent

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Covering the anti-globalization protests during last week’s G20 meetings in Pittsburgh, AFP reporter Karin Zeitvogel reported on September 25:

Thousands of people peacefully demonstrated during the G20 summit in Pittsburgh, but police reportedly arrested 40 as they clashed with a smaller group late Friday.

Waving banners and chanting slogans, protesters on Friday flooded into city streets lined with police in full riot gear, still tense after violent anti-G20 protests in the eastern US city late Thursday.
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Security forces in Pittsburgh said there were up to 4,500 marchers, but Peter Shell, president of the Thomas Merton Center which helped organize the march, estimated

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