#4 - Politician P: My opponent claims that the government is obligated to raise taxes to increase

[Administrator]

Complete Question Explanation

Flaw in the Reasoning—Cause and Effect. The correct answer choice is (C).

Answer choice (A):

Answer choice (B):

Answer choice (C): This is the correct answer choice.

Answer choice (D):

Answer choice (E):

This explanation is still in progress. Please post any questions below!

[Cflores17]

It sounds more like "Strawman" than Cause/Effect, please explain

[Dave Killoran]

A straw man argument would restate the opponent's claim. That would typically look something like this: "Politician P: My opponent claims that the government is obligated to raise taxes to increase funding for schools and health care. But what they are really saying is they want the government to make the the average citizen poorer by taking more of their money for things not everyone needs." Or something like that. It would restate the position in a way to make it easier to attack.

That's not what we have in this argument. In this case, the Politician discusses a consequence of raising taxes: "Because raising taxes to increase funding for schools and health care would make taxpayers upset over their loss of buying power..." That discussion contains a causal claim that raising taxes will lead to taxpayers being upset. That is not a restatement of "the government is obligated to raise taxes to increase funding for schools and health care."

By the way, for more fun info on Straw Man Arguments, see here: https://blog.powerscore.com/lsat/bid-33 ... arguments/

Thanks!

[Cflores17]

This a great explanation thanks.