Editorial Critique

In the Dallas Morning News, the editorial "Lawmakers cover up financial woes with slick budget trick" of July 8th 2011, it is clear that the anonymous author had a specific audience and purpose in mind for their argument. The author uses colloquialisms such as "abracadabra" and reference to lawmakers being like magicians. Although this simplifies the argument as to make it accessible to a larger audience- it also has a way of degrading his argument. As such, the author's credibility can be put into question. Further, his short sentence structures and lack of cited work make it seem like the statistics he comes up with throughout the article are dubious.

The argument itself also lacks a scholastic respectability and coherent argument supported by actual evidence.   He supports his claim of lawmakers being dirty crooks with various incidences throughout Texan politics citing that "when revenues are short, though, the Legislature pulls a tax and switch". However compelling and perhaps true this statement may be, he never actually provides factual evidence that this is going on in Texas government. Although I agree with what he is saying, I find the editorial to lack substantial evidence. One can not deduce that lawmakers are crooks, even if they really are, unless they have something that can back up their claim. Therefore, in the end, I find this editorial less than substantial in that, although very humanitarian and pro taxing for the better of the whole state of Texas, it purely lacks professional etiquette and meaningful evidence.



The link:

http://www.dallasnews.com/opinion/editorials/20110708-editorial-lawmakers-cover-up-financial-woes-with-slick-budget-trick.ece