Stick that in your pipe

Harper's magazine, the second-oldest continuously published monthly magazine in the U.S (per Wikipedia), publishes something called the "Harper's Index," a compilation of "ironic statistics arranged for thoughtful effect." Statistics of course can be manipulated to mean almost anything, and I'm not 100 percent sure the numbers in Harper's Index (Oct. 2011) would stand up to close scrutiny. With those caveats in mind, the next time your Republican friends try to hang the bad economy on President Obama, fire back with these apparent facts: (a) Seventy-one percent of current U.S. debt was accumulated during Republican presidential terms. (b) Two-thirds of debt-ceiling elevations since 1960 have been signed into law by Republican presidents. (c) In 1961 the percentage of corporate profits paid in taxes was nearly forty-one; now it is less than eleven. (d) Seventy-five percent of the increase in corporate profit margins since 2001 has come from depressed wages. Interesting, isn't it? Whether after your counter-harangue you opt to throw in "so stick that in your pipe and smoke it" is up to you.