Keeping numbers in perspective

It's funny how numbers can be manipulated to serve one's hidden purpose. Being 80 years old, I can recall when government wanted to impose a state sales tax. It was only half a penny on a dollar. It seemed so trivial. Today the sales tax rate in some cities can be as high as 10 cents on the dollar. That's a dime on a dollar. It is also a 10% tax on money on which you have already paid a federal tax, which can be as high as 37% and an Illinois state tax of about 5%.

A recent Daily Herald article entitled “DOGE wants to check federal benefits against IRS tax records” stated that fraud and waste only account for a few billion dollars of a deficit of roughly $2 trillion. Why is it stated that way? What's the hidden purpose? To make it seem trivial? Let's state it another way. If Chicago were given $2 billion, It could write a check to every student in Chicago Public schools for $6,148.

What's a few billion dollars of taxpayer money? In this case, it’s 200,000,000,000 pennies.

Dan Valosek

Downers Grove