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The Cost of Increasing Pell Grants Will be 0.1 Percent of Federal Revenue Over the Next Decade
Keeping with the fraternity ritual of presenting readers with meaningless numbers the Washington Post told readers that President Obama's proposed expansion of the Pell Grant program will increase spending by $40 billion over the next decade. This number is completely meaningless to virtually all readers of the Washington Post -- if you added or removed a zero, most would not notice the difference -- yet the Post refuses to make the simple comparison that would give the number some meaning to its readers.
--Dean Baker
COMMENTS (2)
I have an interesting idea for an article for you.
Take all the articles you have written stating that X is only this tiny Y percent of federal spending (or revenue), put them in one batch and add them all up. It would be interesting to see if a large number of "so insignificant why even debate the spending" bills ever add up to a number you would consider large.
Posted by: Erik L | October 8, 2009 7:31 AM
Erik L,
The underlying point in all those posts has been that there should be some public debate over such matters. The "fourth estate" has become such a corporate shill so as to deliberately misinform the public, thus assuring no debate as to the value of spending a fraction of GDP on "socialistic" programs vs. dumping 4-5% GDP annually into a black hole, supporting rah-rah, "must-fund" DOD misadventures.
Posted by: Foster Brooks | October 13, 2009 10:36 PM