Article • Dean Baker’s Beat the Press
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The Washington Post is quickly becoming an employment service for psychics. An article on the Republicans’ latest budget and tax proposals, which will reduce tax rates on corporations and the wealthy, tells readers that Republicans believe that their plan “will spur economic growth and provide them with a politically potent election-year message.”
Reporters know that politicians do not always say what they believe. This is why real newspapers only report what politicians say. Only psychics would try to tell people what politicians actually think.
This piece also wrongly implies that reducing the number of tax brackets from 6 to 2, as the Republicans propose, is connected to tax simplification. It isn’t. To calculate one’s taxes, it is necessary to go to the tax tables and see what you owe given your income level. This is the same process regardless of whether there are 2 tax rates or 200 hundred. (Thanks to Robert Salzberg for calling this one to my attention.)