Now, the title of our blog is the Flamin' Libs, right, so how can we get by without any political-themed entries? I thought I'd take care of that today.
Kip and I have been more interested and involved in this election that we have in past elections. I've come to the decision that politicians in general like to spout cliches and half-truths hoping to win voters by the emotions created by their speeches rather than by concrete facts and achievable goals. We found an article online today that I thought was excellent in translating party claims and generally-accepted perceptions into statistical truths. Do Republicans really cut back on taxes? Are they better for business? Do Democrats really "tax and spend"? This article gives you the numbers to answer those questions and others like them. It's a set of 7 articles, actually, but each is fairly short and easy to read. And don't worry, it's not biased one way or the other. It's just the numbers!
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So these "numbers" you speak of are pretty interesting. The parties make so many claims and I feel like I, as a voter, don't have the statistical know-how to figure out the veracity of their claims. It is good to see someone attempting to make sense of the raw data. Unfortunately I don't agree with the assessment that they aren't biased and based solely on the numbers. Mr. Summers attempts to use simple statistics to analyze extremely complex economic issues. His statistics support his hypotheses, which make his arguments compelling, but there are alternative explanations for why the numbers are the way they are, (e.g. looking at who controls the house, senate, AND presidency, economic cycles that last longer than 8 or 10 years, etc.) With that being said, it is great that someone took the time to actually try and make sense of the numbers in order to give us a clearer picture of what is going on, I just wish he had followed true research protocol by listing the limitations of his studies rather than assume that he was able to solve the debates of Republicans and Democrats in 7 short articles.
I hope this comment doesn't come across as being rude because it wasn't meant to be that way. We have been more involved in this election than any before. For the first time in my life I watched nearly every Republican AND Democratic Primary debate. I even ducked out of my day long orientation because I heard one of the candidates was going to name his VP pick that day. I find the arguments of each side compelling and interesting. Unfortunately for me, I'm still undecided as to who is the best man for the job. I guess I still have a number of debates, my own personal research, and Factcheck.org to help aid me in my decision. Thanks Kristin for the post. I love it when people use their blogs to get people talking!!!
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