[Vision2020] Cost of Government Day: ATR BIAS?

Dale Courtney dale@courtneys.us
Mon, 21 Jul 2003 17:07:52 -0700


Ted writes: 
> I think ATR (Americans for Tax Reform) provides misleading 
> figures.  I 
> present data from the Tax Foundation below to support my claim.
> 
> http://www.taxfoundation.org
> 
> See below for an brief analysis of different conclusions than 
> ATR on percent 
> of government costs paid out of their income by the "average American 
> worker" (ATRs wording) based on a brief excerpt from a study 
> by the Tax 
> Foundation.

Ted,

I think the difference occurs because the ATR includes *legislated*
requirements that we have to pay for that consumers are not clamoring for.
ATR *claims* that Federal and State regulations add another 16.9% to our
government overhead. 

Now, we can debate whether all those regulations are good for us or not; but
I don't think that we can dismiss them as not increasing the cost of
products we buy.

Best,
Dale