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Krugman: The Fiscal Ignoramus Factor
The Fiscal Ignoramus Factor
Some of us had fun with the Business Insider poll finding that by a large margin, people who thought they knew something about the fiscal cliff believed that it would increase, not reduce, the deficit. Ha ha ha — although I actually have a lot of sympathy for ordinary voters, who don’t follow these things closely but know that everyone important has been warning for years that the budget deficit is Worse than H!lter or something. How are they supposed to know that those very same people are now screaming that the deficit is coming down too fast?
<...>
As Jonathan Chait points out, Bobby Jindal — who is supposed to be one of the intellectual leaders of his party — has just published an op-ed on the cliff that sure looks as if he has no idea whatsoever what the cliff is about. There’s nothing in that piece even hinting that the looming problem is spending cuts and tax increases that will shrink the deficit too soon; and his big policy ideas would actually make the lurch to austerity worse. It’s not just the idea of a balanced budget amendment, which would force harsh austerity every time the economy goes into recession; putting a cap on spending as share of GDP would do the same, because you’d have to cut spending whenever GDP went down.
You really have to wonder how someone who’s a major political figure could be this uninformed — but you have to wonder even more about the state of mind that induces you to write an op-ed about a subject you don’t comprehend at all.
But this isn’t the first time something like this has happened to a supposed GOP star. In the early stages of the Republican primary, Tim Pawlenty — a supposed thoughtful conservative — published an op-ed based on the premise that public-sector employment was booming; in fact, it was plunging. And, of course, Mitt Romney made statements — about the 47 percent, about Benghazi — that he clearly thought were smart and well-informed, but were in fact flatly false.
- more -
http://krugman.blogs.nytimes.com/2012/12/06/the-fiscal-ignoramus-factor/
Some of us had fun with the Business Insider poll finding that by a large margin, people who thought they knew something about the fiscal cliff believed that it would increase, not reduce, the deficit. Ha ha ha — although I actually have a lot of sympathy for ordinary voters, who don’t follow these things closely but know that everyone important has been warning for years that the budget deficit is Worse than H!lter or something. How are they supposed to know that those very same people are now screaming that the deficit is coming down too fast?
<...>
As Jonathan Chait points out, Bobby Jindal — who is supposed to be one of the intellectual leaders of his party — has just published an op-ed on the cliff that sure looks as if he has no idea whatsoever what the cliff is about. There’s nothing in that piece even hinting that the looming problem is spending cuts and tax increases that will shrink the deficit too soon; and his big policy ideas would actually make the lurch to austerity worse. It’s not just the idea of a balanced budget amendment, which would force harsh austerity every time the economy goes into recession; putting a cap on spending as share of GDP would do the same, because you’d have to cut spending whenever GDP went down.
You really have to wonder how someone who’s a major political figure could be this uninformed — but you have to wonder even more about the state of mind that induces you to write an op-ed about a subject you don’t comprehend at all.
But this isn’t the first time something like this has happened to a supposed GOP star. In the early stages of the Republican primary, Tim Pawlenty — a supposed thoughtful conservative — published an op-ed based on the premise that public-sector employment was booming; in fact, it was plunging. And, of course, Mitt Romney made statements — about the 47 percent, about Benghazi — that he clearly thought were smart and well-informed, but were in fact flatly false.
- more -
http://krugman.blogs.nytimes.com/2012/12/06/the-fiscal-ignoramus-factor/
Priceless
http://www.democraticunderground.com/10021936642
OMG - Reid just spanked McConnell!
http://www.democraticunderground.com/10021937851
4 replies
= new reply since forum marked as read
= new reply since forum marked as read
Bobby "Berm" Jindal.
