Media Matters Daily Summary 04-12-10

Wash. Times advances falsehoods about Matheson bribe, abortion funding
A Washington Times editorial falsely claimed both that Rep. Jim Matheson (D-UT) "endorsed the health care bill" after President Obama nominated his brother to a federal judgeship and that the bill funds abortions. In fact, Matheson voted "No" on the health care reform, and the bill does not contain federal funding for abortion. Read More

Barone trumpets McCaughey falsehood on "freedom to choose" medical treatments
In an April 12 column, Michael Barone cited Betsy McCaughey's suggestion that the health care bill could be unconstitutional because it would remove the "freedom to choose a hip replacement or a Caesarean section," which McCaughey argued would violate privacy rights established in Roe v. Wade. In fact, the section to which McCaughey refers simply sets minimum requirements for an insurance plan to operate in health care exchanges, and nothing in the legislation bans "hip replacements or a Caesarean section." Read More

Quick Fact: Savage falsely claims that "47 percent of families pay no taxes"
Michael Savage repeated the false right-wing claim that "47 percent of families pay no taxes." In fact, while the Tax Policy Center has stated that 47 percent of households pay no federal income taxes, the Associated Press has reported that the "vast majority" of these households pay other taxes. Read More

Wasting no time, Liz Cheney distorts Kagan's record to call her a radical
Liz Cheney said that Elena Kagan's decision while she was dean of Harvard Law School to reimpose restrictions on military recruiters because of the military's discriminatory "don't ask, don't tell" policy was "radical." But Kagan made her decision only after a federal appeals court -- including a judge appointed by President Reagan -- struck down the law requiring access for military recruiters. Moreover, Kagan's policy was similar to policies at many other law schools. Read More

Heritage's Carafano falsely claims Obama is "refusing to modernize" nuclear arsenal and "cutting back on defense"
In a Washington Examiner column, the Heritage Foundation's James Carafano falsely claimed that the Obama administration is "refusing to modernize the U.S. [nuclear] arsenal" and is "cutting back on defense." In fact, the administration's Nuclear Posture Review (NPR) includes "significantly increased investments" to modernize America's nuclear weapons infrastructure, and each of Obama's two defense budget requests have increased the budget by billions of dollars. Read More

Beck's "Plan" is based on discredited Laffer Curve
Laying out his economic "Plan," Glenn Beck hosted former Reagan administration economist Art Laffer to promote Laffer's theory that increases to current federal tax rates would decrease federal revenues. But Laffer's theory is widely discredited, with Bush administration economist N. Gregory Mankiw calling it not "credible," and numerous Bush administration officials acknowledging that tax cuts produce a net decrease in revenue.
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