Huckabee's Mathematical Creationism

Huckabee is not only a biological creationist, he's a mathematical creationist as well. Have you see the way he figures his "Fair Tax" is 23 percent?

When people hear about a 23 percent national sales tax, they naturally equate it to the state sales taxes they are familiar with. If a state sales tax is 5 percent, then this means that if someone buys something for $1 they will pay $1.05 at the checkout. Thus they assume that the FairTax would cause a $1 product to cost $1.23 if it were to be enacted.

In fact, the rate is not 23 percent, but 30 percent. The 23 percent rate is arrived at by treating the tax as if it were already part of the price instead of being on top. Thus if a product were to sell for $1 and the FairTax added 30 percent, the 30-cent tax comes to 23 percent of $1.30. This is how a 30 percent rate is deceptively turned into a 23 percent rate. (Bruce Bartlett, Boston Globe).

This is such an astonishing (and trivial) piece of arithmetic deception that it seems hard to believe anything Huckabee would ever say after this, including that 2+2=4. How can any reporter let him get away with this?

People, when your leaders start lying to you about basic arithmetic, and right to your face, they will lie to you about anything. Anything.