Quote of the Day: Math Is Hard

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From Paul Ryan, explaining to Chris Wallace why he refuses to talk about the Romney tax plan in detail:

I don’t have the time. It would take me too long to go through all of the math.

Well okay then! I guess we should all stop worrying our pretty little heads about this. After all, I’m sure Ryan and Romney’s team of economists has been meticulous with their calculations.

Still, my great-grandmother was from Missouri, and I guess I’d like to see the arithmetic anyway. You never know, after all. It might turn out, for example, that Romney’s plan would cut taxes on millionaires and raise taxes on the middle class, and he just doesn’t want anyone to know this. Sounds crazy, doesn’t it? But you never know.

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We need to start raising significantly more in donations from our online community of readers, especially from those who read Mother Jones regularly but have never decided to pitch in because you figured others always will. We also need long-time and new donors, everyone, to keep showing up for us.

In "It's Not a Crisis. This Is the New Normal," we explain, as matter-of-factly as we can, what exactly our finances look like, how brutal it is to sustain quality journalism right now, what makes Mother Jones different than most of the news out there, and why support from readers is the only thing that keeps us going. Despite the challenges, we're optimistic we can increase the share of online readers who decide to donate—starting with hitting an ambitious $300,000 goal in just three weeks to make sure we can finish our fiscal year break-even in the coming months.

Please learn more about how Mother Jones works and our 47-year history of doing nonprofit journalism that you don't elsewhere—and help us do it with a donation if you can. We've already cut expenses and hitting our online goal is critical right now.

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