Robert Hanson's (mostly) tech log.

Politician Bullshit: The Game

I don't care if you are a Democrat, Republican, Green, Tea-bagger, or whatever. Politicians run marketing machines that bend the truth to make them and their party look better.

I received a newsletter from my Congressman Leonard Lance yesterday. In it were several half-truths, and I wanted to share one of them.

"Certainty that comes with renewing the Bush-era tax cuts for all taxpayers so that individuals and small businesses won’t face a $3.8 trillion tax hike on January 1, 2011." - Leonard Lance

Well who wouldn't complain about a tax hike like that! But this is about the truth. Since the entire article was about how the Democrats want to take your money the implication is that if you don't vote Republicans in November, you will be paying more taxes.

But the truth is that this $3.8 trillion is if all of the tax cuts are allowed to expire, which most in Congress are against. The truth is that the Democrats want to extend the tax cuts for lower-income and middle-class families, and let the tax cuts for the wealthy expire.

So how much is the real number? It is $700 billion over a 10 year period. If you do some simple math, that comes to about $70 billion per year, and it only affects you if you make over $250,000 a year as a family, or over $200,000 as an individual.

Looking at it a little closer, you will also see that the the wealthy only pay more taxes on the money that they make that is over the threshold, and the amount is only 3%. So if your family's income is $300,000, you will pay an extra 3% on $50,000 of it, or a total of $1500. Or if the family income is $500,000 the tax increase is $7,500.

My Congressman contends that this $7,500 added tax bill to a small business owner (who is doing well if he makes half a million a year), will cause him to not expand his business. I find that somewhat unlikely, but seeing that this post is about half-truths and not my opinion, I'll let it slide.

This led me to thinking, perhaps you could make a game out of these half-truths. It wouldn't be hard to find material, especially with elections coming up. As they say, how do you know when a politician is lying? ...When they open their mouth.

Good luck to the citizens in this coming election, and keep your head down lest you be hit with flying bullshit.

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Reference: Bush tax cuts: What you need to know - http://money.cnn.com/2010/09/15/news/economy/bush_tax_cuts_faqs/

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