In addition to the boom in tax revenue, the federal government’s books are being helped by lower defense spending, a drop in outlays for benefits like Medicaid, and proceeds from the sales of General Motors and Chrysler, the automakers that were taken over by Washington in 2009. (700)
Federal government’s books are being helped by:
• Boom in tax revenue
• Lower defense spending, a drop (in outlays for benefits like Medicaid), and proceeds (from the sales of General Motors and Chrysler)
General Motors and Chrysler are the automakers that were taken over by Washington in 2009
I was a bit conflicted with the use of the present vs present perfect tense on this one. I think one can make the argument work either way. Either the federal government is being helped currently or the help started in the past and continues into the present. Due to this conflict, I switched over to other decision points mainly those that concern the repetition of prepositions in the lists.
(A) are being helped by lower defense spending, a drop in outlays for benefits like Medicaid, and proceeds from the sales of General Motors and Chrysler, the automakers Correct
(B) have been helped by lower defense spending, a drop in outlays for benefits like Medicaid, and
by proceeds from the sales of General Motors and Chrysler, automakers
-preposition by here is repeated twice for two elements of the list, but not all three
(C) have been helped by lower defense spending, a drop in outlays for benefits like Medicaid, proceeds from the sales of General Motors and Chrysler,
and by the automakers
-General Motors and Chrysler, the automakers, are not supporting the federal government’s books, but the proceeds from their sales.
(D) are being helped by lower defense spending,
by a drop in outlays for benefits like Medicaid, and proceeds from the sales of General Motors and Chrysler, the automakers
-suffers from the same problem as B; i.e. the preposition by is only repeated twice and not three times (or once)
(E) were helped by lower defense spending
and a drop in outlays for benefits like Medicaid,
also by proceeds from the sales of General Motors and Chrysler, the automakers
-the insertion of a coordinating conjunction and to create a nested list does not make sense, even then, why start the second list with ‘also by’ rather than ‘and’?