A spokesman for the government has argued that our insistence on a twelve percent increase in pay for steel workers is inflationary. But the government's own actions are far more inflationary than ours. The government just gave a fifteen percent increase to every single employee of the giant federal bureaucracy.
A) Tu quoque (you, too).
B) Argument against the person, circumstantial.
C) Appeal to ignorance.
D) Straw man.
E) Hasty generalization.

Question

Quizplus · Accepted Answer

The spokesman for the government is using the Tu quoque fallacy by trying to deflect attention from the issue at hand (the steel workers' pay increase) and instead focusing on the government's actions in giving an even larger increase to federal employees. This doesn't address the issue of whether the steel workers deserve a pay increase or not, and instead tries to shift the blame onto the government's actions.

A Spokesman for the Government Has Argued That Our Insistence