It seems my post, Anatomy of Deceit: American Enterprise Institute Analysis of CBO Study, hit a nerve with Mark Perry, the author of the American Enterprise Institute analysis that was the subject of the post.
Just for laughs, I emailed Perry a link to my post.
To my surprise, he responded, repeatedly.
First, he took offense that I attributed a set of mechanical calculations to him, rather than to the CBO. He demanded I correct the post, which I was happy to do. But the correction he demanded was trivial, and his demand was telling. He was adamant that I clarify it was CBO, not he, who had punched two sets of numbers into a calculator to derive a third set of numbers. If my post had not hit home, would he have made such a huge deal over a trivial inaccuracy? I doubt it.
Then, he had a shill write an obscenely long response, in the comment section. He emailed me twice to make sure I would post it, then, once it was posted, pressured me to respond. I suggested to him that the comment would have more credibility if it came from him, but he seemed uninterested in speaking for himself. Here’s the email chain between Perry and me:
