Did you forget the S/off tag?
Shirley, you jest.
Nope. Did you notice where the baseline is? It’s not at zero. The timeline also starts only shortly before Obama took office, rather than at a somewhat earlier point that allows some comparison about the rate of increase. Did the rate of increase go up dramatically under Obama? It did, but you simply cannot tell that from this graph.
The casual, non-math literate person looking at the graphic will get the impression that usage has increased by 15x or something, rather than by the rather less dramatic 32M to 44M that is the case. That’s an increase of considerably less than 50% during his presidency.
I work with graphs and know all the tricks to misuse them and object on principle to that misuse.
For example, I could show a similarly spectacular chart if the increase in usage under Obama had been 1%, simply by manipulating the chart.
I agree the rapid expansion of this program is a big problem. But I greatly dislike misusing data to exaggerate (or minimize) problems.
BTW, everybody does this, and I dislike it whoever the culprit.
Thank you. I get so tired of those who think misleading people is right and proper in a good cause. Even when I agree with the cause.