Posted by Jed Lewison on Sat Mar 22, 2008 at 5:13 PM Pacific

Debunking Buchanan: Taxing and spending edition (Post 3 of 5)

I hate to take something that a guy like Pat Buchanan says seriously, but it's important to do so in the following sense: offering a factually-based, well-reasoned response is more likely to have a positive impact on the debate than calling him the names he surely deserves.

That being said, it's still fair to characterize Buchanan's response to Barack Obama's speech as a racially divisive polemic. But it's also flat out wrong. Take this claim:

Second, no people anywhere has done more to lift up blacks than white Americans. Untold trillions have been spent since the ’60s on welfare, food stamps, rent supplements, Section 8 housing, Pell grants, student loans, legal services, Medicaid, Earned Income Tax Credits and poverty programs designed to bring the African-American community into the mainstream. ...

We hear the grievances. Where is the gratitude? ...

Sorry, Barack, some of us have heard it all before, about 40 years and 40 trillion tax dollars ago.

So according to Buchanan, white Americans are footing the bill for social programs designed exclusively for black Americans to the tune of 40 trillion dollars.

Well that's just not true. In the last 40 years, the entire Federal tax burden on every single American combined has been $40.2 trillion. Even if there was a statistic on the amount of Federal taxes "white Americans" paid, $40 trillion isn't the right number. Presumably, white Americans have paid a disproportionate share of taxes -- but only because on average, white Americans have earned between $1.67 and $2 (depending on the year) for every $1 black Americans have earned.

Moreover that $40.2 trillion hasn't been used exclusively -- or even largely -- on the social programs Buchanan ticks off. During that same period of time, the Federal government has spent $45.2 trillion.

Of that $45.2 billion, the closest you can come to a cabinet level agency focused mainly on the black population is Housing and Urban Development, which received $794 billion -- 1.8% of all spending.

At a program level in the past 40 years, looking at both discretionary and mandatory spending, $409 billion has been spent on the earned income tax credit, $837 billion on food and nutrition assistance, and $685 billion on housing assistance, $1.9 trillion in total.

Again, though: not all of that money that was spent these programs went to black Americans! Moreover, not all of the tax dollars that paid for the programs came from white Americans! (Indeed, more than 10% of it was borrowed!)

Yes, it is likely that a higher percentage of blacks benefit from these programs than whites, but that is a function of racial inequities in this country.

The real tax injustice in this country has nothing to do with race: it's the war in Iraq. Beyond the human cost, and beyond the damage the Iraq war has done to our prestige throughout the world, taxpayers have already spent $500 billion -- 25% more than we've spent on the earned income tax credit over the past forty years.

Like Barack Obama, Pat Buchanan opposes the war in Iraq. It's unfortunate and ironic that in his zeal to sow racial division, Buchanan has missed an opportunity to work with someone to end the greatest policy disaster of our government in recent history.

This is post 3 of 5 posts on this topic:

Post 1: Suddenly, Pat Buchanan makes Bill O'Reilly look moderate
Post 2: Debunking Buchanan: Jeremiah Wright served in the Marines, but Pat Buchanan didn't serve his nation
Post 3: Debunking Buchanan: Taxing and spending edition
Post 4: Debunking Buchanan: False characterization of Barack Obama's speech
Post 5: Debunking Buchanan: Violent crime and racial fearmongering

Debunking Buchanan: Taxing and spending edition (Post 3 of 5)

I hate to take something that a guy like Pat Buchanan says seriously, but it's important to do so in the following sense: offering a factually-based, well-reasoned response is more likely to have a positive impact on the debate than calling him the names he surely deserves.

That being said, it's still fair to characterize Buchanan's response to Barack Obama's speech as a racially divisive polemic. But it's also flat out wrong. Take this claim:

Second, no people anywhere has done more to lift up blacks than white Americans. Untold trillions have been spent since the ’60s on welfare, food stamps, rent supplements, Section 8 housing, Pell grants, student loans, legal services, Medicaid, Earned Income Tax Credits and poverty programs designed to bring the African-American community into the mainstream. ...

We hear the grievances. Where is the gratitude? ...

Sorry, Barack, some of us have heard it all before, about 40 years and 40 trillion tax dollars ago.

So according to Buchanan, white Americans are footing the bill for social programs designed exclusively for black Americans to the tune of 40 trillion dollars.

Well that's just not true. In the last 40 years, the entire Federal tax burden on every single American combined has been $40.2 trillion. Even if there was a statistic on the amount of Federal taxes "white Americans" paid, $40 trillion isn't the right number. Presumably, white Americans have paid a disproportionate share of taxes -- but only because on average, white Americans have earned between $1.67 and $2 (depending on the year) for every $1 black Americans have earned.

Moreover that $40.2 trillion hasn't been used exclusively -- or even largely -- on the social programs Buchanan ticks off. During that same period of time, the Federal government has spent $45.2 trillion.

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