Why Use Credible Data When I Have This Awesome Heritage "Study" Right Here?
The News-Leader asks Roy Blunt today why he continues to use inflated partisan talking points instead of non-partisan data. Professors from Missouri State University and Drury University drafted the questions to Blunt, and wanted to know: "What is your basis for saying Missouri's costs would be 17 times higher than the [non-partisan Congressional Budget Office's] national average estimate?"
To which Blunt replied: I find the inflated Heritage Foundation numbers to be far more useful, but thanks. And also, I'd prefer to exaggerate the very-worst-case scenario outlined in a letter from the Unified Missouri Electric Utilities.
While I understand Blunt's political motivations for using wild estimates, it's worth pointing out again that the gulf between Republican and non-partisan talking points is significant. For instance, the day before Heritage provided "expert" data to help their GOP friends, Reuters published the following:
A new U.S. government study on Tuesday adds to a growing list of experts concluding that climate legislation moving through Congress would have only a modest impact on consumers, adding around $100 to household costs in 2020.
Under the climate legislation passed by the House of Representatives in June, electricity, heating oil and other bills for average families will rise $134 in 2020 and $339 in 2030, according to the Energy Information Administration, the country's top energy forecaster.
This isn't to say that there won't be some variation in costs between states, but these huge numbers from GOPers just don't jive with non-partisan analyses.
In fact, Blunt has a long history of peddling manifestly bad information about clean energy legislation. His junk has been debunked by PolitiFact and others -- winning both "False" and "Pants on Fire" awards (woo hoo!).
And, of course, there's the fact that Blunt thinks "there isn’t any real science to say we are altering the climate path of the earth." Which means that no one should take him seriously on this issue.... ever.
