Fox News Host And Guest Falsely Paint Cap And Trade As Unpopular
Reported by Ellen - January 3, 2010 -
Co-authored by Brian
On last Saturday's (12/26/09) Cavuto on Business, guest host Charles Payne and guest Joe Battipaglia falsely claimed that the proposed “Cap and Trade” bill is unpopular. In fact, recent polls show the majority of Americans support efforts to curb greenhouse gases and that bill in particular. Furthermore, it was another completely imbalanced panel, with all the guests against cap and trade and nobody talking about the need to combat global warming. Only one guest, near the end, referred to the possibility of green jobs creation. With Video.
In his opening, Payne described the bill as "full of cap and trade taxes." But he did not explain how the bill would raise taxes, how much or on whom.
Matt McCall called the delay "really good for the economy." He also said the bill would lead to "higher taxes,” without specifics. Instead he added, “That means more struggles for our manufacturing."
Ben Stein said, "We should get rid of cap and trade… The calculations are if they put in the strictest possible version of cap and trade, it will cost the economy trillions, and will change the global temperatures by something like one thousandth of one degree. So this is just a way to pay off the green people in the Democratic party… It never seems to be mentioned that a close friend of President Obama's is going to run the cap and trade exchanges and become a billionaire."
Adam Lashinsky said, "Most reasonable people I talk to don't like this legislation… It's the polluters who like it the most…They're going to get a big gimmie at the front of this."
Payne sounded as though he had not done any research on the issue before opining, "I don't know if there's any, any pubic support for it at all."
Joe Battipaglia said, "No, absolutely not… If they don't go cap and trade, they’ll go carbon tax. If they don't go carbon tax, the EPA will usurp the Congress, and put in laws and regulations that harm the polluting industries."
In reality, recent polls show that efforts to curb emissions have strong public support. An Ipsos/McClatchy poll in December found 52% support the cap and trade proposal. In November, an AP/Stanford University poll found 58% support cap and trade, though the support went down to 50% when the wording was changed slightly. In October, a CNN/Opinion Research Corporation poll found 60% favor cap and trade.
As the segment was ending, Leigh Gallagher said, “There is a possibility of job innovation from the bill.”
But she was quickly interrupted by McCall who said, "And losing jobs in the coal industry. So you're gonna create jobs, lose jobs."
"We've got a jobs problem no matter what," Gallagher said.
But nobody followed up on that point.
