"Deal Saves Taxpayers average of $3,000": The Inanity of Statistics and Some Other Thoughts

Say that five people are sitting in a room. One of them earns a million dollars a year. The other four are homeless. The average income in that room is $200,000. (The median is $0, which is why it is almost always a better stat to use in these types of situations) So Obama's new tax deal would save them an average of, God knows what. But tax savings are irrelevant if you have no or almost no income. The headline in this morning's Portland paper about the new federal income tax plan is just plain bullshit. The entire crux of the issue is that rich people are getting tax breaks and not paying what I would consider their fair share. Some moron picks up the paper this am and thinks to himself, "Hey, I'm $3,000 better off today than yesterday!" That is just not fucking true. The people who are better off are wealthy Republicans. Me? I don't pay income tax because my income is so damn low that I owe nothing. Does that make me a "Lucky duckie", to borrow the Wall Street Journal's phrase from a few years back? No, it makes me poor. And likely to lose some, or many, of the services that the government provides to help people like me that need help.

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Another thing I am thinking of today as I read the paper is one of my alltime favorite idiotic quotes, this one from rockheaded actor Craig T. Nelson, a conservative. He was asked on a talk show a few years back about what life was like for him as a struggling young actor. He replied with a straight face, "No one helped me. I got by on my own. I was on food stamps and everything."

Funny stuff.

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And I'll end by saying that I didn't see Speaker of the House Boehner's tears on "60 Minutes" the other week except to see the ads. But what a cringe worthy performance this must have been. He apparently talked about how he came from nothing and worked his way up. Well, great. But apparently he forgot where he came from, too. The government owes a debt to the lower income classes to assist them, not step on their necks. I can't stand the GOP. For obvious reasons.