Looking for some sexy, hot tax statistics action? You've come to the right place! Sorry, this is such a snore fest of a subject for so many people, but its really important. So I thought maybe some humor would help the medicine go down! With a headline like this, I’m sure interest in this post will be light. Unfortunately while subjects like this are not very sexy, they are very important.
The Tax Foundation puts out an annual report, in which it claims to calculate the number of days it will take for the “average American” to pay all federal, state and local tax burden completely, declaring that “Tax Freedom Day.”
If that sounds confusing, think of it was a way to use statistics to assert that Americans are paying way too much in taxes. Sound great, right? Apparently media outlets think so, as they have frequently cited the Tax Foundation report as though it were absolute gospel. And this of course feeds into the conservative delusion that ordinary working families are being crushed under the oppressive weight of outrages taxation.
The trouble is, the reports methodology is shaky and its numbers just don’t add up. The Center on Budget and Policy Priorities took the time to detail the statistical failure of the Tax Foundation’s report – specifically outlining each methodological failure or interpretive distortion to be found therein.
(much more)
http://practical-vision.blogspot.com/2010/03/cbpp-tax-foundation-figures-do-not.html
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