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April 20, 2005
Email to WVLT
During your 11pm newscast on April 15 you ran a story, apparently produced by CNN but read by Kelli Parker, that discussed where tax dollars are spent. There was some misleading terminology in the story that should be corrected. The story started off with a statement:
But do you know where all your federal income tax dollars are going?
It then started discussing how all tax dollars are spent, not just income tax dollars. The numbers were supplied by the Cato Institute which is a libertarian anti-tax organization. I'd expect that a story run on tax day and claiming to be about income taxes wouldn't also include payroll taxes (FICA) used for Social Security and Medicare.
I realize it's hard to find numbers that don't have a bias one way or another, but you should at least understand that this is a common tactic among those that want to change our tax system. For example, when discussing tax burden, progressive taxation and taxes on the very wealthy, anti-tax groups will leave out payroll taxes and sales taxes because the burden for those taxes is primarily on the poor and middle classes.
I'd urge your station to adopt a consistent framing on taxes, tax burdens and how taxes are spent. That's the only accurate way of helping the public understand who's paying in and how it's being spent. If you decide to include payroll taxes and sales taxes then please be more clear in your terminology.
Thanks,
Paul Witt
Posted by Paul Witt at April 20, 2005 12:08 PM
Comments
I thought I had straightened this out with Paul's help. Didn't you say that the government is taking the Payroll tax and spending it with the Income tax and putting IOUs in place. Just because they put in an IOU doesn't mean they didn't spend it.
Posted by: Ron at April 20, 2005 11:16 AM
But they didn't spend it on Social Security. They borrowed money from an available source. But you're right, the public should be made aware of every source of borrowed money
Posted by: Paul Witt at April 20, 2005 11:23 AM
Nice letter Paul.
Posted by: mpower1952 at April 20, 2005 07:05 PM
I can't believe you are trying to make such a case out of this. Next time they want to do a 30 second story on taxes they should give an extra 20 minutes so they can put in all the liberal "nuance". You know, all they gray material to match the gray matter in liberals heads.
Posted by: Ron at April 22, 2005 03:52 PM
Simple explanations for the simple minded. Thanks for letting us know what you prefer Ron.
Posted by: Paul Witt at April 22, 2005 07:12 PM
You have a pretty sour outlook on just about everything Ron. Wing nuts have to be the most miserable people on the earth. Always bitching, moaning and complaining. And the name calling! Sheesh!
Posted by: Anonymous at April 25, 2005 09:40 AM