LETTER Columnist statistics are deceptive

Dave Ball doesn’t use many facts to support his Republican talking points, but he has twice cited the government revenue surplus in April to demonstrate that Trump’s tax cuts were working. This is deceptive on many levels.
First, looking at the government surplus for the month of April is like looking at a household budget on payday, and claiming that since your receipts are greater than your expenses, everything’s fine. April is when many people pay their taxes (in addition to first-quarter tax deposits being due), so of course government revenues will be larger than expenses in that month. It’s interesting that he didn’t cite the deficit for February, which was the largest monthly deficit in six years. Was there a miracle that took place between February and April, or did Ball selectively use statistics to try to make it seem like Trump’s plan was working?
The other reason this is deceptive is that the revenues in April are mostly from taxes for 2017, so the tax cut for 2018 would have little to do with it. Maybe we should wait until the year is done to see how tax revenues are affected.
He also declares that corporations have returned a “record one trillion dollars to their shareholders” to demonstrate how vibrant the economy is. But this is what critics of the corporate tax cut said would happen: Corporations would take the money saved on taxes and give it to their shareholders (through profits and stock buybacks), not hire more workers and pay them more. If Ball urged people to vote Republican because they will ensure that corporations will be more profitable, that would be accurate.
Ball argues that Democrats are “Chicken Littles” that are refusing to see how wonderful everything is. But I think he’s using the wrong chicken analogy; looking at one month’s tax revenues and declaring the tax cuts a success is more like counting chickens before they’ve hatched.
Kent James
East Washington