Learn this debate technique: "When adjusted for inflation"

[welshTerrier2]

this morning on C-Span, conservative George Will tried to defend bush's record on the economy by citing that gas prices, when adjusted for inflation are really very low ... btw, as an aside, Will conveniently side-stepped a caller's question about how can he, a conservative, continue to support bush when the republicans control the house, the senate and the white house and have run up historic budget deficits ...

on NPR today, a commentator reading the news jumped to bush's defense when reading a story about oil prices ... she said that today's prices are far from record high oil prices when adjusted for inflation

there's probably a great name for this technique ... i have no idea what debate experts call it ... i call it lying !!

a proper comparison would be to compare today's oil and gas prices to those in effect when bush took office ... comparing prices to all time records is hardly relevant ... it's like having a defense attorney argue "yes, my client brutally murdered that defenseless little old lady, but he's not as bad as Hitler" ... the argument may be true but it's irrelevant when measuring the client's conduct ... to measure bush's performance, you measure him from the time he took office ...

if anyone feels like doing some research, I'd like to know what a barrel of oil cost the day bush took office ... same for a gallon of gas ... the point of all this is that bush's hideous pro-oil, anti-mideast hawkish policies are bankrupting the U.S. treasury ...

so don't be fooled ... it's fine to adjust today's prices for inflation BACK TO THE DAY bush TOOK OFFICE ... but don't give me this specious argument about comparing it to the all time records ...

[Deja Q]

1. Maybe he can add in why

if prices are soooooooooooo low, why we continue to use more gas and oil at increasingly insane rates? Doesn't sound like a conservative plan to me...

(now some of them say that oil may not be non-renewable, yet they still can't find anywhere to retreat to when we say in return that while we don't know if it's renewable, it's still a fact we're using far more than what can be replenished in a viable period of time.)

[TrogL]

2. Gas prices are driving inflation

Of course everything pales by comparison.

[Lefty48197]

3. That's called "numbers hocus pocus"

That's what fired MI senator and Federalist Society founder, Spence Abraham said during a debate with now Senator Debbie Stabenow. Debbie was pointing out the fact that the largest tax increase in our nation's history, when adjusted for inflation, was the one proposed by GHWB.

[Sparkly]

4. Another one is "rate of growth"

which they like to express as a percentage.

To paraphrase Bartcop, Clinton had us going 90 mph, so when we sped up to 92 it wasn't a huge rate of growth. But the Chimp slowed us to a near-stop, so as we go from 10 mph to 20 mph the *rate* of change is fast -- but it's still slow. There's always a big-looking "bounce" after the economy hits the dumps.

So they keep talking about the "fast-growing" economy -- faster than it's been since the last time Republicans drove us downhill!! :crazy:

[RobertSeattle]

5. Here's another one - percentages

When someone tells you a percentage statistic, but doesn't provide you the supporting numbers that make up that percentage, your bullshit detector should be on high.

[Junkdrawer]

6. I heard that on NPR on my drive home. I thought the same thing...

Context was that Kerry criticized Bush for the ME instability that lead to the price spike. NPR then added the "adjusted for inflation" to minimize the effect of Kerry's words.

[DieboldMustDie]

7. Adjusted for inflation, the 1968 minimum wage...

would be $8.72 per hour today. The current rate of $5.15 represents a more than 40% decline. We can use that one too. ;)

By the way, did anyone mention when and what the all time high oil price was, and how much that would be in current dollars? :shrug:

[welshTerrier2]

8. no info on that

sorry, i was too lazy to do any research ...

i was thinking the highest adjusted for inflation oil prices might have occurred under Carter during the Iran hostage crises ... that would be a great way to spin bush's record on the economy:

bush has given us the highest oil prices, adjusted for inflation, since Jimmy Carter ... i don't think he's likely to pick that up as a campaign slogan ...

[DieboldMustDie]

9. Yea! You're right.

I did find this graph that's of some use: though you'll note it ends in '03.

[rman]

10. selectively adjusting for inflation

lets not mention minimum wage adjusted for inflation.