On FNS, Liasson and Kristol skew CBO cap-and-trade estimate as "$175 per person," but it's per household

Special Programs Climate & Energy

Written by Dianna Parker

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Bill Kristol and Mara Liasson misrepresented the CBO analysis of the American Clean Energy and Security Act, claiming the cap-and-trade bill would cost "$175 a year per person," when, in fact, the CBO estimated the net cost would be an average of $175 per household per year.

On June 28, Fox News Sunday panelists Bill Kristol and Mara Liasson misrepresented the Congressional Budget Office's analysis of the cap-and-trade bill passed by the House of Representatives on June 26, claiming it would cost "$175 a year per person." In fact, the CBO estimated the net cost would be an average of $175 per household per year. After Liasson said, “The CBO estimate of the economic impact of this bill was only $175 a year per person, but that's contested,” Kristol asserted: “A hundred and seventy-five dollars a person is what, 5, 600, 7, $800 a family, depending on how many -- how big your family is? That's kind of a lot of money to heap on families in the middle of recession.”

According to the CBO's analysis, the bill's net impact on households in 2020 would be between a benefit of $40 per year and a cost of $340 per year, and “the net annual economywide cost of the cap-and-trade program in 2020 would be $22 billion -- or about $175 per household.” According to the 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 June 28 edition of Fox Broadcasting Co.'s Fox News Sunday:

LIASSON: I do think that the administration got one very important thing by getting it through the House now. The big urgency was to get something that it could take to those Kyoto -- those global climate change negotiations in Denmark in the fall. They've now shown that the United States is moving, at least toward something. How fast it'll move, whether it'll ever get through the Senate -- and I think the chances for it getting through the Senate this year are going to be really, really difficult, even though Harry Reid says it's going to be on the floor in the fall.

The CBO estimate of the economic impact of this bill was only $175 a year per person, but that's contested. So, I think there's going to be a big debate about the economic impact, and it's going to determine -- it's going to be affected by how fast or slowly the economy itself recovers.

BRET BAIER (guest host): Bill.

KRISTOL: A hundred and seventy-five dollars a person is what, 5, 600, 7, $800 a family, depending on how many -- how big your family is? That's kind of a lot of money to heap on families in the middle of recession.

I think Nancy Pelosi has made a huge mistake by defining everything in terms of jobs, jobs, jobs, jobs. And Republicans are going to say for the next year and a half, “Let's have that debate.” Is unemployment lower than when President Obama became president? Is unemployment going up as slowly as President Obama said it would when he lobbied for his stimulus, and today when he lobbies for energy?

We're going to have double-digit unemployment. Republicans are going to be able to be the party that cares about middle-class America and about these ridiculous plans -- and this really is a ludicrous piece of legislation, in my opinion.