John Funk of the Plain Dealer recently authored a story that discusses energy and job creation. The story focuses around Department of Energy Secretary Steven Chu calling for increased renewable energy production but also agreeing with chief executive officer of Cleveland Medical Devices that the government should target more research and development funds toward small businesses. The majority of the article, however, jumbles the phrases renewable energy standard and clean energy standard.

Funk writes that Secretary Chu, “made it clear that the White House has another idea for creating jobs: requiring power companies to use clean energy … Continue Reading

Spencer Hunt of the Columbus Dispatch has a story on the overwhelming demand for state tax credits to homeowners and businesses that install solar panels on their homes and buildings. The two takeaways from the reader would get from this story is that demand to install solar panels is incredibly high and the cost of solar technology is coming down. The real takeaways of the story should be that if you subsidize something enough, people will buy it, and that the cost of generating electricity from solar panels is still prohibitively high to compete in the … Continue Reading

In a story discussing President Obama’s FY2012 budget request, Rachel Jakubowitcz of CBS News mentions how that the budget proposal will reduce the deficit $1.1 trillion over ten years. Jakubowitcz also quotes Former Congressional budget analyst Stan Collender calling the deficit reduction “not an insignificant amount.” This may be true if the budget actually But, as Heritage research fellow Brian Riedl notes, much of the President’s proposed budget savings nonexistent and also will not be scorable by the Congressional Budget Office. Riedl explains,

It claims $315 billion saved from eliminating “certain tax expenditures” — but doesn’t list which

… Continue Reading

Matthew Wald of The New York Times recently reported on the success of a new Department of Energy program Advanced Research Projects Agency-Energy, better known as ARPA-E, because the government grants were not receiving private sector support. The ARPA-E program is designed to fund high-risk, high-reward projects that the private sector would not embark upon on its own. Specifically ARPA-E is “responsible for funding specific high-risk, high-payoff, game-changing research and development projects to meet the nation’s long-term energy challenges.”

One example Wald points to is FloDesign. He writes, “FloDesign, which is working on a more efficient … Continue Reading

The February 15th Bloomberg write up of President Barack Obama’s FY 2012 budget reports:

Obama previously pledged to freeze non-security discretionary spending for the next five years, and under his budget about half of all federal agencies would see their budgets reduced from levels in 2010, the last time agencies operated under an enacted budget, according to administration documents.

Authors Laura Litvan and Roger Runningen go on to note that the President’s budget does increase spending for the IRS and SEC, but there are a lot more spending increases than that. The Department of Education budget would rise 11%, the … Continue Reading

A number of news reports tried to reengage the climate change debate by reporting on a press release from National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) and NASA’s Goddard Institute for Space Studies that suggested 2010 tied 2005 for the warmest year on record. The Associated Press reports, “Indeed, the last three months have been particularly cool in the U.S. Southeast, even while worldwide readings were going on to tie 2010 with 2005 for the warmest year on record as climate change continues to affect the atmosphere.”

But the article fails to differentiate between warmest years in the United States … Continue Reading

Dan Eggen had an article on Common Cause’s recent embrace confrontational activism in February 10ths Washington Post beginning:

Common cause has long been something of a nerd among the jocks. While other activists staged loud demonstrations and nervy stunts, the 40-year-old good-government group was more likely to hold a forum on filibuster reform or the vagaries of redistricting.

Amazingly, after specifically mentioning the filibuster in his lead, Eggen fails to report that Common Cause recently flip-flopped their position on the filibuster for purely transparent politically partisan reasons. A 2005 Common Cause press release reads:

Common Cause strongly opposes any effort

… Continue Reading

The Associated Press’ Stephen Ohlemacher had a fine item out February 7th noting that federal tax receipts as a percentage of GDP are at their lowest level since World War II. Ohlemacher even properly reported that “the poor economy is largely to blame.” But no where does Ohlemacher clearly explain the difference between tax rates and tax receipts. It is not until the 14th paragraph that he finally reports that “Income tax rates remain unchanged.”

So will federal taxes remain low when the economy improves? Ohlemacher does not tell us. But the Congressional Budget Office does. Thanks to our … Continue Reading

In anticipation of upcoming hearing on the government owned housing finance corporations Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, McClatchy’s Kevin Hall reported on February 6th:

Beginning in 1992, Fannie and Freddie were directed to foster more lending to minorities by purchasing and securitizing these loans — when the loans met guidelines.

At the high-water mark, Fannie and Freddie did securitize 52 percent of the loans made to low and moderate income borrowers. But during the boom from 2001 to 2007, bank lending standards weakened dramatically and in 2006, the height of the housing boom, Fannie and Freddie purchased just 24 percent of the

… Continue Reading

The February 3rd Los Angeles Times has an article by Noam Levey on Obama Administration attempts to help states cut their Medicaid spending. Levey reports:

The Obama administration is particularly concerned with maintaining state Medicaid programs because under the new healthcare law, these government insurance plans are expected to provide a foundation for guaranteeing coverage to all Americans beginning in 2014.

First of all, Obamacare does not gurantee coverage to all Americans. According to the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services 18 million Americans will pay $33 billion in penalties for failing to comply with Obamacare’s individual mandate and yet … Continue Reading

In a January 19th article title “The White House Looks for Work” The New York Times Peter Baker reports:

The American Recovery and Reinvestment Act, known as the stimulus, produced or saved at least 1.9 million jobs and as many as 4.7 million last year, according to the Congressional Budget Office.

Someone reading this sentence might conclude that the CBO has analyzed actual real world data taken before, during, and after the stimulus and concluded that it saved jobs. This is completely false. The CBO job estimate numbers are based off of a computer model that does not incorporate any … Continue Reading

Reporting on the budget crisis Medicaid is causing for states across the country, McClatchy’s Marilyn Werber Serafini and Julie Appleby wrote on January, 31st:

Under [Obamacare], Medicaid will expand sharply in 2014, when 16 million more people are expected to become eligible for the program. The federal government will pick up the full tab for the newcomers for the first three years, then the federal share tapers down to 90 percent by 2020.

This is all true, but Serafini and Appleby forgot to report on the additional administrative burdens that Obamacare’s Medicaid expansion inflicts on states. In order to get scored … Continue Reading

The political conflict currently going on in Egypt has sparked an energy debate in the United States. Although Egypt is not a big oil producer, their unsettled situation may have some short-run transportation impacts because 2.4 million barrels per day are transported through the Suez Canal. Reporting on this issue, Politico’s Darren Goode wrote on January 30th:

Congressional Republicans quickly called for a greater push for North American energy production, including accelerating oil drilling in the Gulf of Mexico. Democrats will undoubtedly use high prices to pursue more conservation and oil-alternatives, such as with President Barack Obama’s

… Continue Reading