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Comment by laputan_machine | Hacker News Reader

Thanks, this is the kind of information I'm after.

So, the Senate is not a trustworthy source of information? I'm not clued up on US politics so I really have no idea how the system works, upper/lower houses, senate is lower? Like the house of commons in the UK?

e.g. could an analogy be this is like a small party of Brexiteers making a document on how leaving the EU is economically a sound idea? There is no requirement for it to be evidence-based?

Finally, have you read the document and is there anything in particular that is egregiously incorrect? Just because we don't agree with someone's political stance on something doesn't mean what they're saying isn't necessarily true.

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I'm glad it was useful!

When it comes to documentation from the US government, you have to consider the source agency, think of them like individual sources rather than all part of "the government".

Most agencies are fine, you have to be careful when you see things coming from Congress though.

If it's a report from the CBO, GAO, CRS, or other agencies that are a PART of Congress, they're great, generally VERY reliable: https://www.google.com/search?q=congressional+agencies

However, if there is a report from any committee, you have to vet it more carefully.

Step 1 see if it was written by a bipartisan committee, if not, it's probably trash. I'm a liberal but I wouldn't blindly trust reports from any partisan committee, but GOP committees tend to focus on creating propaganda for political purposes rather than actual actionable plans or reliable data. They focus on blaming whatever the topic is on Democrats above all else.

Reports from bipartisan committees TEND to be better, and ones endorsed by the entire Congress are pretty bulletproof, like the Warren Commission or the 9/11 report.

> the Senate is not a trustworthy source of information?

A partisan report, in the U.S., is not a credible source. There is simply no culture of intellectual rigour in partisan debate. (The Senate has nonpartisan research arms which are highly credible.)

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