Liberal Math

Here we go again.

The liberal apologists in the media are promoting the Governor Pat Quinn’s 33% income tax increase as a “one percent increase.”

Maybe it’s not their liberal bent.

Maybe they have problems with math.

The first notice of this impairment I heard was on WBBM News Radio 78 while picking up my son from school just after 2 PM. The announcer led into the tax hike story by saying it was a

one percent increase.”

The reporter on the story got it right.

He identified it immediately thereafter as a “33% increase.”

Charles Thomas incorrectly describes Governor Pat Quinn's proposal as a "one percent increase."

hen, on the ABC Channel 7 newscast, Charles Thomas, the man who replaced Andy Shaw, said it was

a “one percent increase.”

Capitol Fax had this incorrect story up from shortly before Governor Pat Quinn's 33% income tax hike proposal was made.

I later noticed that Rich Miller at Capitol Fax Blog headlined his income tax article with the incorrect “one percent tax hike for schools.”

Specifically:

Budget address live blog – Quinn proposes one percent tax hike for schools

Wednesday, Mar 10, 2010
• Have at it in comments. Thanks.

That was just before Quinn’s noon speech.

Added later:

* I’m told that the one percent tax surcharge would bring in somewhere between $2.8 and $3 billion. Wish I knew that when I was on live TV and was asked the question cold.

None of the readers for over six hours pointed out that Governor Pat Quinn's proposal was for a 33% income tax hike, not the 1% hike Rich Miller pomoted with his incorrect headline and description.

It was not until more than SIX hours later that anyone corrected Miller:

– Elin – Wednesday, Mar 10, 10 @ 6:13 pm:A one percent tax increase would bring in far less than $2.8 billion or $3 billion. A 33 percent tax increase, on the other hand…

And, as of over nineteen hours after it was originally posted, it remains incorrect.

But, it served its purpose, if, indeed, it was deliberate and not a mistake.

Reporters and political opinion leaders all over the state were told it was a “one percent tax hike.”

Can it be that reporters really so bad at very simple math?

Maybe so.

Even the Chicago Sun-Times got it wrong:

Even the Chicago Sun-Times wrote one percent was the size of the tax hike. Message to liberal tax hikers: one percentage point divided by three percentage points equals 33%, not 1%.

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