Some "Oops" are Bad and Some are Ignored

In what is the latest example of a liberal picking and ignoring his facts to support his conclusion, I bring you "progressive" blogger Michael Wood.

Mr. Wood hates drilling in the Marcellus Shale natural gas sites in Pennsylvania; an industry that has created numerous jobs and helped the US become more energy independent. The former governor of that great state just across the Delaware River from me decided--smartly--that he would allow it and would tax it. He saw the potential for creating jobs and increasing revenue. As with all tax estimates, the numbers were off somewhat:

Back in May, the Department estimated that taxable Marcellus Shale royalties generated $102.7 million in PIT collections in 2010. Now the Department says that figure is a tad lower — $46.2 million, a decrease of $56.5 million or over 55% from what was reported six months ago. To quote Britney Spears, “Oops!”

Yes, that's million, with an "m". And yes, this imbecile included a decade old quote from a bad album to punctuate his point...dude, really?

Mr. Wood goes on to excoriate the entire industry and rail about the amount of taxes received from that sector, which is supposed to indict Governor Corbett and the industry as a whole. The essay was so good that it made to the front page of hard left circle jerk FDL from it's original post on some obscure lefty blog dedicated to PA state issues.

So I entered the search terms "General Motors" in the original site where Mr. Wood usually drivels to see if he or any of his brethren over there ever wrote anything about the abortion known as the auto bailout. To my complete surprise, there was one obscure mention about GM and it was about a plant closing in Edison.

So I got to thinking; how could Mr. Wood be upset about a report that showed a 55% shortfall in estimated taxes for a thriving PA industry but not get equally as irked about a union bailout using billions of dollars in taxpayer money--money already collected, not estimated--that will result in the American people being short-changed $23.6 billion. Yes, with a "b". How can this be? I mean, we have the gas drillers bringing tens of millions of dollars and thousands of jobs into a part of the state that desperately needs it, which provided millions in new revenue versus a bailout that was basically a campaign plan using our money and shoring up dying, crony unions.

And that describes the liberal mindset in a nutshell. Poorly estimated tax revenue that equals roughly ten minutes of federal government spending versus losses of billions on a bailout that helped no one but the United Auto Workers leadership, which one is worse?

As we see in Mr. Wood's post, there's no comparison. And the irony that the state's estimates were--as he suggested--a mistake while Obama's plan functioned by design is lost on him completely.