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Politics : PRESIDENT GEORGE W. BUSH
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To: Neocon who wrote (36294)9/12/2000 6:06:33 PM
From: iandiareii  Read Replies (2) of 769667
 
Cato's bias is well known. Although they may have a case to make, I refuse to take seriously any analysis that includes the following junk economics:

In 1981 income tax receipts totaled $347 billion; in 1989 they totaled $549 billion, a 58 percent increase.

The inflation adjusted difference in the two figures is one percent. The 58 percent figure should find no place in an article purporting to be serious -- it's a bullshit sparkler designed, apparently, to mislead, not to enlighten.

The piece also seems to be cooking the revenue books by obscuring the dollar years to which the figures apply. "In 1981" means taxes paid on 1980 income in 1980 dollars; likewise the 1989 figure cited above actually refers to 1988 dollars.

So we have nominal figures of 347B and 549B for the years 1980 and 1988 respectively. Adjusted for inflation, the 1980 sum become 543B in 1988, or a difference of ~1 percent.

Mind you I've used Cato's numbers to make this comparison, something their statistical sleight-of-hand makes me hesitant to do. In fact I'm hesitant to make any comment since their shading of the truth seems to demonstrate bad faith. I'm open to evidence that I'm mistaken, of course. But, even if there's a case to be made, Cato's brand of tomfoolery only undermines it.

Click below for an inflation calculator to do the math yourself:

westegg.com
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