Fact Check

Continuing with my theme of incompetence today ...

While discussing the upcoming expiration of the 2% payroll tax cut the White House released the following statement...

It's simple. If lawmakers don't vote to extend the payroll tax cut, taxes for 160 million Americans will go up on January 1st.

President Obama just left the press briefing room at the White House where he called on Congress to extend the tax cut, pay for it responsibly, and expand it so middle class families get a $1,500 break next year.

He told Congress to put country before party and stop wasting time.

Every day, folks are fighting to make ends meet and businesses are working to keep their doors open. The longer Congress waits to extend the payroll tax cut, the more uncertainty it creates for ordinary Americans. So we've put a clock on every page of the White House website, counting down the days, hours, and minutes until taxes for the middle class increase. In the briefing room, where the President just spoke, that same clock is ticking down as well.

And to make sure you have the information you need to know exactly what this means for your family, we've put together a calculator to show how much of your money hangs in the balance.

This calculator illustrates for you what nearly every independent economist has said: letting this tax cut expire will be a blow to the economy. We can’t let that happen. Now is the time to make a real difference in the lives of the people who sent us here.

Check it out and pass it along:

http://www.whitehouse.gov/taxcut

Thanks,

David Plouffe
Senior Advisor to the President

A couple of things stood out. First off, 160 million American workers is a BS number that somebody pulled out of thin air, because the BLS only claims about 140 million American workers currently employed. So, certainly there aren't 160 million middle class workers out there. $1500 is the maximum benefit from this break, so there is no chance the average American worker who makes $50,000 is receiving $1500. The number is less than $1000.

So, I sit here pondering this statement and I can't help but wonder.

Was someone trying to deceive us? And I am sure it worked on the weak minded 99%
Was someone flat out lying to us?
Was someone just plain incompetent?

On the high side, at least the spelling and grammar were correct, but then again Microsoft Word is pretty good at correcting those kinds of things. Its shame it doesn't work on the truth.

Because any of these circumstances should disqualify someone from working for the President of the United States or most other employers. Can someone perhaps offer an alternate reason why millions of soft minded Americans were sent these untruths?