Matt Yglesias relays that the costs of the Waxman-Markey climate bill will be moderate—less than a dollar a day for the richest Americans. In fact, the poorest Americans should see a benefit of about $40/year from the bill. Ryan Avent wonders how long “GOP legislators will continue to use the bogus $1,600 cost per household per year figure they’ve been touting?” and puts his money on “indefinitely.” It’s worth pointing out that the only way to counter this kind of misinformation in politics is for the Associated Press and similar organizations to report the lie as the news; i.e., “John Boehner said today that the Waxman-Markey climate bill would cost $1,600/year per family, repeating a widely-debunked lie that Republicans have repeatedly cited in their arguments against global warming legislation.” That won’t happen, of course, because mainstream journalistic organizations seem to believe once two or more people disagree on something, there is no such thing as a fact.
