Archive for category You're effing kidding me
Numbers Lie/You’re Effing Kidding Me, NYT Ed.
Posted by The Marginalist in Numbers Lie, You're effing kidding me on August 30th, 2009
I saw this editorial in the New York Times today.
Those who fear that a trillion-dollar reform will add to the nation’s deficit burden should remember that these changes are intended to be deficit-neutral over the next decade.
Before why I explain why “deficit-neutral over the next decade” doesn’t actually mean that much, I want to say that I am extremely disappointed in the Times for publishing this extremely shoddy editorial. It’s ridiculously pathetic. I want to focus on that one sentence for this post — click for more. Read the rest of this entry »
You’re effing kidding me: President Obama, Defender of Free Markets
Posted by The Marginalist in You're effing kidding me on June 22nd, 2009
Hat Tip to Young Americans for Liberty.
In a speech to the Council on Foreign Relations in New York, National Economic Council Director Lawrence Summers said Mr. Obama’s interventions “will go with, rather than against, the grain of the market system.”
Yeah, right.
You’re effing kidding me: Parking Edition
Posted by The Marginalist in You're effing kidding me on June 16th, 2009
Hat tip to Young Americans for Liberty:
Residents of Toledo, Ohio, are complaining that they received $25 tickets for parking their vehicles in their own driveways.Mayor Carty Finkbeiner (FINK’-by-ner) says he stands by the citations handed out last week by the Division of Streets, Bridges and Harbor. He says the tickets were issued under a city law against parking on unpaved surfaces, including gravel driveways.
Link is here.
You’re effing kidding me, #1
Posted by The Marginalist in You're effing kidding me on June 10th, 2009
I’m starting a new series called… “You’re effing kidding me.”
From the Washington Post:
Baucus, the chairman of the Senate Finance Committee and a key figure in the health debate, has publicly lectured Elmendorf, saying he has a moral duty to be “creative” and deliver the favorable budget estimates “we have to have” to win broad support.
Creative? Elmendorf is the director fo the Congressional Budget Office. He’s responsible for researching how much the health care plan is going to cost us, and Baucus wants him to get “creative”?
Seriously, You’re effing kidding me. You’re not supposed to get “creative with numbers.” I’m sure Baucus wouldn’t support me being “creative” with my taxes. I’d like to get “creative” with my SAT scores. Reality doesn’t care how “creative” the CBO is with its numbers, the cost will remain the same.
And what’s this about a “moral duty to… deliver the favorable budget estimates.” There’s nothing moral or immoral about how much the health care plan will cost. It’ll cost what it costs, regardless of how “immoral” Baucus thinks it is.
Elmendorf’s work is supposed to be pure, cold fact. What if we went to scientists and said, “you have a moral duty to create this outcome from your experiment”?
Oh, but we “have to win broad support” — that’s where it is. Senator Baucus doesn’t care about the facts, he cares about winning popular support for his agenda. Is anyone else at least slightly disturbed by the fact that Sen. Baucus feels the need to bend the facts to get his way?
– The Marginalist