On the June 24 edition of his Fox News show, Sean Hannity selectively cited “the impact of the [Congressional Budget Office] numbers and the CBO scoring” while discussing health care reform, but not its estimate for cap-and-trade legislation. Hannity stated: “A lot of people haven't paid attention to it, and the impact of the CBO numbers and the CBO scoring, nor are people paying attention to this cap and tax, which could cost us nearly 3 million jobs and literally tax American families about $2,000 each.” However, Hannity ignored that CBO estimated in a June 19 analysis of the American Clean Energy and Security Act that the net impact to households from the bill in 2020 would range between a benefit of $40 per year and a cost of $340 per year, with an average cost of $175 per year -- a figure significantly less than $2,000.

As Media Matters for America has noted, as of June 23, several media figures -- including Hannity -- had yet to report on CBO's analysis, despite advancing conservative claims that cap-and-trade legislation favored by President Obama and congressional Democrats would cost thousands of dollars per household.

According to CBO, “That net impact would reflect both the added costs that households experienced because of higher prices and the share of the allowance value that they received in the form of benefit payments, rebates, tax decreases or credits, wages, and returns on their investments.” From the analysis:

From the June 24 edition of Fox News' Hannity:

HANNITY: Let me ask you one broad question on the economy before we have to let you go, because you've been writing extensively in The Wall Street Journal about nationalizing health care. He --

KARL ROVE (Fox News political contributor): Right.

HANNITY: He has an infomercial -- and we'll talk about this in more detail later in the program tonight -- but he's got that coming. A lot of people haven't paid attention to it, and the impact of the CBO numbers and the CBO scoring, nor are people paying attention to this cap and tax, which could cost us nearly 3 million jobs and literally tax American families about $2,000 each.

Do you think the American people are aware of the consequences of those two pieces of legislation?

ROVE: Well, I don't think they're fully cognizant yet, but they are paying more attention to it and looking at the details. And as a result -- I write about this tomorrow morning in my piece in The Wall Street Journal -- there's a growing gap between the president's popularity, which is declining, and support for his programs.

The opposition is growing faster to his programs. He is declining in his popularity, but at the opposition to his programs is growing even more dramatically. And what that says to me is that he's in deep trouble on things like the cap and tax and like health care -- $1.6 trillion price tag when he himself admits we're out of money, and we're drowning in a river of red ink, is a real problem for him. And I think we're likely to see his numbers get worse, not better, because of it.

HANNITY: All right, Karl, thanks for being with us. Appreciate it.