I've built spreadsheets with financial data before for business investment and decision purposes and the idea that any spreadsheet or argument relevant to publi

I've built spreadsheets with financial data before for business investment and decision purposes and the idea that any spreadsheet or argument relevant to public or business policy would be value free seems laughable to me. There's always an agenda. Given that, I think the right starting place might be to ask cui bono, who benefits from these policy recommendations? I'm reminded of the argument and policy prescription coming from that argument that we can't afford decent roads or other infrastructure such as sewage treatment plants in rural and suburban areas with little to no mention of the long term trend of declining taxes on the wealthy and major land owners. Given that, I don't feel sorry or surprised on behalf of the author that nobody is interested in the construction of their spreadsheet. Nor do I feel the need to take their argument any more seriously on that basis. It seems to me to be a matter of literally just politics. Especially so when I notice that he's a scholar at the Cato Institute and a self described libertarian. So yes, it's no surprise to me that he's advocating libertarian policy. It's also worth noting that he got a prestigious and expensive education with a BA from Cal and a Phd from Princeton.