Fun With Numbers

Billmon

Good News! You just might be one of the lucky winners in the Bush White House tax cut sweepstakes!

That's right! According to Ari Fleischer, you could get an "average" tax cut of over $1,000 this year if Congress approves the president's plan!

It's right there in today's New York Times: "Ari Fleischer, the White House spokesman, said that the plan would provide 92 million taxpayers with an average tax cut of $1,083 this year . . ."

This is what the experts call statistical misrepresentation -- or, to use the technical term for it, "lying."

The weasel word (a particularly appropriate description, in this case) is "average."

Imagine you're a janitor in a big glass office building downtown making, oh, let's be generous and call it $12,000 a year. And let's say the guy who works in the penthouse suite you clean out every night is the as-yet unindicted CEO of a major multinational corporation with a compensation package bigger than the Gross National Product of Canada.

Now suppose the beneficent Mr. Bush decides to give you a $100 tax cut and Mr. Enron a $100 million tax cut. Guess what Mr. Janitor -- you just got an "average" tax cut of $50,000,050.

Gosh, aren't you a lucky ducky!

Posted January 07, 2003 06:05 AM | Comments (34)