🚀 go-pugleaf

In article <BwzqFA.E1L@nic.umass.edu>, mmorgan@titan.ucc.umass.edu (Michael Morgan) writes...
>Charles Packer writes:
>>>harelb@math.cornell.edu (misc.activism.progressive co-moderator) writes...
>>>    only 23% picking by far and away the biggest ticket item, military
>>>    spending (21% of the federal budget).  This suggests that most
>>
>>The largest item in the federal budget is not the military, but one
> 
>Not the point.  Here's the data:


This thread could get confusing real fast! I assumed that "biggest ticket
item" meant biggest Fed budget item, which would be erroneous. Now I
see he meant biggest of the three items presented for response in the
survey question. Infelicitous choice of words on his part, "ticket."

In any case, the fact that people tended to choose "foreign aid" in
that question is very interesting, and, I think reflects the extent
to which people are exposed to the national news media, (e.g. CNN,
network news) which start out their newscasts with international
stories. People are unconsciously projecting the prominence of
international news in the media into a corresponding presumed
preoccupation with it by our government.

I realize that this again is not the point of the original
survey, but hey, at least I changed the subject heading, didn't I?