They've fashioned numbers in the service of their predetermined policy goals from the start.

Anytime you hear a big, scary number about how much programs for the poor cost, odds are some Heritage Fellow was well-paid to carefully craft a definition that let a lot of programs that mainly benefited the middle class get put in the same category. With the goal of providing report titles for conservative politicians to wave around and numbers to quote, with the MSM happily going onto the next thing before anyone has a chance to dig into the numbers and show how misleading they are.