So I didn't even know where to begin with the new Republican election platform [PDF] -- Jamelle did -- until I saw Alexander Hart's post pointing out the disingenuity of one of the pledge's graphs. Sure enough, there's another doozy:
The graph comes after a section noting that "taxpayers are literally funding programs from cradle to grave," although why government aid to both infants and the elderly is bad idea is not made clear. What's worth noting, though, is that when you look at federal assistance programs without any context, it looks like we're spending a disproportionate amount of money on health and agriculture compared to defense and energy. That's why you need to put these programs in broader context: Most of the assistance comes from popular entitlement programs like Social Security, and defense spending is just as large.
-- Tim Fernholz
