Defense of comments

Maybe comments are good sometimes... like in this Washington Monthly post:

...The folks at PIPA have an interesting report out about how average citizens would like to reallocate the federal budget. 1,182 adults were given a spreadsheet that showed current spending in a variety of categories and were then asked to either accept the current amounts or move them around in a way that kept total spending constant. As the chart below shows, respondents overwhelmingly wanted to make drastic cuts to defense spending and voted to redirect the money to deficit reduction and a variety of mostly social programs.

A comment below makes everything clear:

The key: "1,182 adults were given a spreadsheet that showed current spending."

In other words, when *first presented with the facts*, people turn into liberals.

But the voters at the polls don't have a spreadsheet. They think that foreign aid and welfare are the top government programs.

However, I don't think comments like this add anything to the discussion, especially when their authors go by pseudonyms.