Question

Which part of this excerpt from President Barack Obama’s remarks on the Buffet rule uses the logical fallacy of false dilemma?

There are enough excuses for inaction in Washington. We certainly don’t need more excuses. I’d just point out that the Buffett Rule is something that will get us moving in the right direction towards fairness, towards economic growth. It will help us close our deficit and it’s a lot more specific than anything that the other side has proposed so far. And if Republican in Congress were truly concerned with deficits and debt, then I’m assuming they wouldn’t have just proposed to spend an additional $4.6 trillion on lower tax rates, including an average tax cut of at least $150,000 for every millionaire in America. They want to go in the opposite direction. They want to double down on some of the inequities that already exist in the tax code. If we’re going to keep giving somebody like me or some of the people in this room tax breaks that we don’t need and we can’t afford, then one of two things happens: Either you've got to borrow more money to pay down a deeper deficit, or you've got to demand deeper sacrifices from the middle class, and you've got to cut investments that help us grow as an economy.

Answer 1

The part of this excerpt from President Barack Obama's remarks on the Buffet Rule that uses the logical fallacy of false dilemmas is: "Either you've got to borrow more money to pay down a deeper deficit, or you've got to demand deeper sacrifices from the middle class, and you've got to cut investments that help us grow as an economy.:"

Answer 2

The correct answer is the last part of the excerpt.

The part of the excerpt from President Obama’s remarks on the Buffet Rule that uses the logical fallacy of false dilemma is: “Either you’ve got to borrow more money to pay down a deeper deficit, or you’ve got to demand deeper sacrifices from the middle class, and you’ve got to cut investments that helps us grow as an economy.”

A fallacy of false dilemma is when an idea is falsely claimed to be a situation of “this or that”. When the idea is “this thing can happen or the other thing is going to happen”. But the truth is that there is another option that can be contemplated. Just like the case of Obama´s words.

The Buffet Rule was a tax plan of President Barak Obama in 2011, that wanted to make a fairer tax system.