For Palin, “transparently right wing” is the new “independent”

Given Sarah Palin’s vast familiarity with American news sources, one would assume she’d understand that data emanating from the Heritage Foundation does not count as “independent.”  Nevertheless, for the past few days she and the McCain campaign have been repeating a dubious claim from the right wing think tank, which insisted the other day that Barack Obama’s economic plan — specifically his tax proposals — would “destroy” six million jobs. As CNN’s fact checkers pointed out, however, Heritage’s Center for Data Analysis actually claimed that Obama’s economic policies would produce fewer jobs than his rival’s.

As with most crystal ball economic forecasts, the Heritage Foundation’s predictions about job growth under an Obama presidency should probably be taken as seriously as the CDA’s prediction in 2000 that job growth under George Bush would expand more vigorously under than they would under a Gore presidency — specifically, by 1.5 million jobs above the Congressional Budget Office baseline. Instead, George W. Bush will finish two terms in office with the slowest rate of growth in non-farm employment of any president since Herbert Hoover.

The Heritage Foundation also predicted in 2000 that the US national debt under George Bush would stand at a mere $380 billion by 2010. It currently stands at $10.5 trillion.