Knuckleball

The CBO tells us the shocking news that Bush's tax cuts heavily favor the wealthy. Since the congress is controlled by Republicans, the "non partisan" CBO has displayed courage and will probably be in trouble soon. The thing that interested me in the New York Times story is the extreme feebleness of the Republican effort to spin the news

""It doesn't matter who you are, the report shows that you are better off now than you were before the tax cuts,'' said a House Republican aide. "It's showing that everybody's tax burden has gone down as a result of the tax cuts.''" This is a lie, since the fact is that the taxes paid by each quintile have been cut and not that the taxes paid by each taxpayer have been cut (they haven't since many tax payers pay only FICA which has not been cut). The Republican aide claims that if someone's taxes are cut, they are better off. The aide did not explain why it wouldn't then be a good idea to eliminate taxes entirely, that is, he seems to have hoped that Edmund Andrews would be too lazy to find someone to note that a tax cut not balanced by a spending cut is really a tax shift to the future. I don't think that the fact that Andrews closes his article with just such a quote makes him a hero genius -- it is the obvious reply.

The thing that struck me most is that the House Republican aide seems to have asked that his name not be used. I can certainly understand that he didn't want to taint his name with a clearly false and stupid sounding assertion. This all reminded me of Joshua Marshall's list of feeble endorsements of Alan Keyes. I'd consider the spinner who dare not speak his/her name the feeblest spin I have ever seen, the political equivilant of a knuckleball.

Update: I am a knucklehead. I should have checked at least the Washington post before awarding the anonospinner the prize. This is the most feeble spin I have ever read

"The CBO answers the questions they are asked," said Terry Holt, a Bush
campaign spokesman. "To the extent the questions are shaded to receive a
certain response, that's often the response you get."
The question posed was a standard request for analysis of the type
members on both sides of the aisle routinely make of the CBO. In this case
... asked ... to estimate the distribution of the tax cuts among income
levels, and compare that to tax levels if none of the cuts were passed.

Clearly a trick question.