$49 million. Or not.

Lies, damned lies, statistics. Politicians with hay to make, axes to grind. I'm certain, however, if these needs were literal, if there were fields to reap, tools to sharpen, that the labor would be farmed off to some low-bid worker, regardless of what creased cards may or may not be found inside his wallet, except, perhaps, in an election year.

The headline in today's paper, Steelman: Illegal workers short state by $49M, introduced what was not even a story, just a summary and then contradiction of a little press release, but the headline is the key. Because it wasn't State Treasurer Twists Numbers to Suit Her Purpose. Or, State Treasurer Cannot Read. But instead: Forty-nine Million Dollars. Whoa, big number. You know how they are.

According to the press release, Treasurer Steelman figures that illegal workers cost Missouri in income taxes they don't pay. Except that, the anonymous AP reporter was diligent enough to point out, the Pew Hispanic Center, Steelman's source all her numbers, says 65 percent of the undocumented immigrants in Missouri are working. Steelman jacked that percentage to 90, and called them all adults. Hardly. She also decided to claim that none of them are paying income tax, an assertion that's just laughable. Does she think that all these national hotel and restaurant and meat-packing chains are paying everybody in cash? I know immigrants who file, and immigrants who are scared to, and immigrants who use the special ID number set up so those without a SSN can do so (perhaps you've heard of it, Steelman?). I'd never argue that it's not a convoluted disastrous mess, but when taxes are withheld regardless of whatever, the government gets the money.

I know it's shocking, a politician that manipulates. Especially one who won the the Phyllis Schlafly & The Eagles Forum God/Family/Country Award. It's right there in her bio, along with her crowning achievement as a state senator, putting the Sanctity of Marriage Act on the ballot. Mutter. Mutter. Mutter. But perhaps I shouldn't cast aspersions, make the assumption that her whack-job Republican politics influenced her calculations today. Perhaps she's just a Treasurer who can't do third grade arithmetic. Either way, I'm still glad to live over here.