Bunuel wrote:
Competition Mode Question
Political Commentator: During the previous presidential administration, members of congress approved large tax cuts and yet the economy today stands in shambles. During the current economic crisis, those who espouse large tax cuts as an economic stimulus should consider the failure of tax cuts during the past eight years to prevent the current economic recession as conclusive evidence that tax cuts will not help the country escape from its current economic troubles.
Which of the following, if true, most weakens the argument above?
(A) The large tax cuts of the past administration targeted the capital gains on the financial investments of the ultra-rich while proponents of tax cuts today suggest cutting payroll taxes for both employers and employees.
(B) Economists from across the spectrum now agree that tax cuts helped stem the country's most severe recession in history, which occurred about 70 years ago prior to industrialization in this country.
(C) Economists from across the spectrum predict that if Congress fails to pass the tax-cut legislation, which also includes government spending and much more, it could well be 15 years before the economy escapes the current recession.
(D) Economists from across the spectrum agree that these tax cuts will add less to the fiscal deficit than the tax cuts of the previous administration.
(E) During the most recent political campaign cycle, which featured many deceptive political attacks, the governor of a prosperous state attacked those who opposed tax cuts by citing his own state's ostensible prosperity.
OFFICIAL EXPLANATION
The political commentator's argument is: "tax cuts will not help the country escape from its current economic troubles." The commentator's evidence for this is the failure of the past administration's tax cuts to prevent the economic recession.
A. This answer identifies that the argument illogically compares apples and oranges (i.e., it compares entirely different types of tax cuts). It is not reasonable to assume that capital gains tax cuts for the ultra-rich will have the same effect as cuts on salary taxes.
B. This answer does not weaken the political commentator's argument since the tax cuts referred to occurred under such radically different circumstances. Further, this answer simply states that tax cuts "helped stem" a recession while the commentator states that tax cuts will "help the country escape" from a recession. Simply helping stem (or slow down) a recession is considerably different (and less impressive) than actually turning around an entire economy in recession.
C. This answer notes that a piece of legislation is widely considered essential to escaping the current recession. However, it does not break down what in the legislation is considered essential (is it tax cuts alone, in which case the commentator's argument is undermined—or is it government spending alone, in which case the commentator's argument is strengthened—or is it both). Without more information, it is impossible to ascertain whether the economists feel the tax cuts currently being proposed will be simulative, anti-simulative, or neither.
D. The political commentator's argument pertains to the tax cuts ability to "help the country escape from its current economic troubles" not the tax cut's effect on the government deficit. Consequently, the effect on the deficit has no bearing on the argument about tax cuts and economic recovery.
E. This answer explicitly states that the campaign contained "many deceptive" political attacks and arguments. Consequently, the credibility of the governor's claim is severely questioned. Further, even if the governor's comments were true, we cannot conclude that the correlation between his state's prosperity and his tax proposals also has a causal relationship (i.e., we cannot conclude that the governor's philosophy of tax cuts caused the state to be prosperous). In other words, correlation does not imply causation. Further, the macroeconomic dynamics of a state are different than the macroeconomic dynamics of a country.
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04 Dec 2019, 00:03
42%
(02:34)
wrong 
