I’ll be the first to admit that this story is silly. It’s fluff in an environment that should ostensibly be all substance. However, it also tickles my funny bone.

The gist is that Republican lawmakers describe hypothetical small-business owners who for some reason haven’t incorporated, so all of their business income is counted as personal income, making them millionaires on paper, though they don’t fit the typical stereotype of millionaires.

The problem is, they couldn’t name one.

Neither could the lobbyists who also claim they exist.

On Facebook, a few people responded, all of whom claimed that even though they would be affected by the proposals currently under consideration by Congress, they were all still in favor.

Of course, two of the three have a record of donating to Democrats, and all three were perusing NPR’s Facebook page, so it’s not exactly a random sample, and therefore not a statistically useful result.

Perhaps now that the story has run, lobbyists and Republican lawmakers will be able to find some of these paper-millionaire small-business owners who haven’t incorporated. Once they do, maybe should suggest they incorporate.