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Among the Intellectualoids
Chains of Austerity
Paul Krugman and friends struggle to take back the American Dream.
The professional left has a new word to symbolize all that is bad and wrong with contemporary politics. Joining such past and present favorites as “Nixonian,” “neocon,” “crypto-fascist,” “lock-step” and “Koch,” we now have… “austerity.”
Anybody who attended the Take Back the American Dream conference in D.C. this week, a left-wing version of the right’s annual CPAC event, could not miss the disgust and fear that the mere mention of the “A” word caused.
It was ruining Europe, speaker after speaker said, and the rapid debt reduction the word implied would be ruination of the U.S. too. Getting the public to understand this has to be a top priority of the progressive movement.
“Austerity is exactly what happened in Europe in the 1930s… that gave us fascism and communism,” said AFL-CIO policy director Damon Silvers.
Now it is true that the word has made a comeback in politics. But this is no nefarious plot of the right. Anybody who paid attention during the George W. Bush administration knows that. Republicans would just as soon spend like Democrats, if for no other reason than it’s the path of least (political) resistance.
But as the saying goes: a billion here, a billion there and pretty soon you’re talking about real money. And real debt. Trillions of it — $1.5 trillion this year alone, the Congressional Budget Office warns.
Most of it is in the very entitlement programs the left loves so much. And as the case of Europe shows, the welfare state just cannot grow indefinitely. Eventually that tab either has to be paid or the spending has to be cut back. Not even confiscatory tax rates on the rich would change this fact.
And yet the wise men of the left persist in telling their acolytes that this is not so. That all that is needed is to spend further. To — yes — spend ourselves into prosperity.
“The problem with the economy is there is not enough spending,” said New York Times columnist Paul Krugman, who was greeted at the conference as a kind of philosopher-king. He literally insisted that there was indeed such a thing as a “free lunch.”
As an aside, he added, “Nobody on the left is saying they want big government.”
No, no, no that was a myth, Krugman said. They just want a “government big enough to do certain things.”
The Nobel-prizing winning economist did not give any sense of how big that government would be or how we would know when we got there.
For the left this is an existential dilemma. Those entitlement programs are among their proudest political achievements. Defending them against any cutbacks is, they are convinced, the sharpest tool in their political arsenal. Admitting that those same programs may also be undermining the country as a whole is to make too big a concession to their critics.
In this setting, even President Obama’s own bipartisan commission on reducing the debt, which did include tax increases, was treated with scorn. “The Bowles-Simpson plan, or as I call it B.S…,” mocked Rep. Jan Schakowsky, D-Ill.
On this, she was at least following the lead of the president, who himself abandoned his own commission, opting to instead damn the Republicans for refusing to hike taxes on the rich.
Letter to the Editor View all comments (83) | Leave a comment
More Articles by Thirsty McWormwood
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Appleby| 6.20.12 @ 6:30AM
It amazes me every day to hear people frantically denying that the truth is true, that reality is real, and that the lady behind the counter at Prada really DOES mean that your credit card is no good, and that DOES mean you can't have those shoes. Some of us are keeping our heads above water because our Depression Baby parents taught us that we can live on a lot less than we think we can, and how to do it if we must. Last night our local news channel said that Generation Y (that I call Generation Whine) is spending every dime it gets on luxuries, and when asked if they were saving anything for the future, the answer was, "What's the point?" We whose steady income is from unemployment insurance and SSI can hardly wait until these selfish brats start thinking WE are TheRich because we have food and a roof over our heads.
Purp| 6.20.12 @ 2:13PM
You can hardly wait? A little envy there, huh, Chuckie? That's a terrible future to wish on anyone.
Slacker| 6.20.12 @ 6:35PM
Truth matters little in academic pseudo-science.
Krugman realizes his spending recommendations have zero chance of being implemented. At the same time he is anticipating the economy will remain terrible for a very long time. A safe bet.
All Krugman has to do is stick to his guns and for the rest of his career he can say, “I told you so”.
That is unless the economy improves. Anybody think that is going to happen?
Anthony| 6.20.12 @ 7:39AM
When last we saw the Nobel Prize winning, NY Times writing, Princetonian professor of Economics, he was still in his Alice-in-Wonderland rabbit hole, singing the same song.
Well Paul, if the A word Austerity sends chills down your lefty back, and America keeps spending like a pot head lefty Ivy professor, try what the other A word will bring America..... Armageddon.
Coming to America soon, Survival, the new American national past time that all Americans will be playing, thanks to the American Left.
Stay out of the woods Paul, with those doe eyes of yours, you might be mistaken for someone's next meal, since the supermarkets will be closed. Now, what A word would that be? Awesome or Awful, you decide.
TLP| 6.20.12 @ 7:48AM
If your talking about Rat Face?
It would be Assh*le.
Purp| 6.20.12 @ 2:15PM
As if you know anything about economics or history. He's right, you're wrong ... but you will see.
TLP| 6.20.12 @ 7:46AM
Does anyone live in the same world, as these people, do? When we're in hock, do we Borrow from Peter to Pay Paul?
Or, do we make SACRIFICES? And, when did AUSTERITY become a 4 Letter Word?
One must understand that we are dealing with a CULT, here. This is not a Political Party with a different Political Philosophy. The Democrats are ZEALOTS, and their Marxist Dogma is their RELIGION. Their way must be the way. It has to be.
They will never give it up. If $5 Trillion hasn't gotten us to Utopia, then we must need $10 Trillion. If Tax Increases aren't gettin it done, then we must not be Raising them High enough. If all of the Thousands of New Regulations aren't getting Companiesmto Expand, and Hire, then we must need Thousands more.
It's like Jonestown, the Branch Davidians, and the Hail Bop Bunch, all rolled in to one.
They've spent so much time BELIEVING? So much of their lives has been spent WORSHIPPING at the Alter of The State Almighty. They can't let go. THE ONE they've been waiting for, has to be The One they've been waiting for.
HE HAS TO BE!
So, they keep drilling holes in the bottom of the boat, in an effort to let the water out, secure in their belief that their Messiah can Walk on the water, and Part the Economic Tsunamis that WILL be coming, before year's end.
Doctors call it: INSANITY.
The Big E| 6.20.12 @ 11:14AM
"drilling holes in the bottom of the boat, in an effort to let the water out,"
Great analogy, TLP. I think I'll start using that one.
Warrior| 6.20.12 @ 2:51PM
One of the biggest problems with the cult is that they provide something unConstitutional for much of the population. If states act up, the federal highway money is pulled. Don't touch the tax write offs (I hate the word loophole, it's either law or it's not) because this is important for the rich or some favored group. If you mention Social Security or Medicare the old start screaming about how they are entitled because they swear they paid for it. If you speak about foreign policy and cutting from the military you get labeled a non-interventionist or Paulbot. Don't dare speak about oil company subsidies because the horror of all horrors they will pass this along through higher gas prices. Cutting a dime from welfare, section 8 and/or food stamps is labeled "an attack on those who need help the most (I just about ruined my keyboard with the tears of worry for these parasites.....I mean, unfortunate people). Unfortunately, while the democrats just want to spend, spend and spend some more, there are many "conservatives" on this site that will fight tooth and nail when you mention an entitlement or a program they believe in or believe they are owed something from. Pick a group or program, goodies for someone.
In reality, the boat has already sunk, the holes are now being drilled in the life preservers.
TLP| 6.20.12 @ 5:21PM
Your last sentence?
I LIKE IT!
Ken (Old Texican)| 6.20.12 @ 7:47AM
who wants to self impose self austerity? Pretty tough sell to 44% of Americans on the teat.
TLP| 6.20.12 @ 7:52AM
Indeed.
We need a FLAT TAX that includes EVERYONE.
Our "Good Intentions" have Paved a Superhighway to an Economic Hell, of our own doing.
"There's no such thing as a Free Lunch."
It would be funny, if it weren't so Goddamned Sad.
Harry the Horrible| 6.20.12 @ 8:56AM
Better yet, we need the Fair Tax. Tax consumption not production, AND capture taxes from the illegals, criminals, etc.
TLP| 6.20.12 @ 9:08AM
It's my belief that the only thing the Fair Tax will do, is depress Consumer Spending.
Which will make things worse.
Gary B| 6.20.12 @ 9:14AM
Not if it increases savings. Savings drive investment, which drives creativity, which creates jobs, which creates healthy growth.
The Big E| 6.20.12 @ 11:18AM
How about we not tax income at all? You know, the Country did prior to the invention of the income tax. It spent money on major infrastructure, supported a functioning post office, built navies, fought wars, and all without taxing a dime of income. Why do we bicker over "flat tax" or "fair tax" when either accepts the left's premise that income should be taxed?
QUIT ACCEPTING THEIR PREMISES!!!
The Big E| 6.20.12 @ 11:19AM
I meant, "the Country did survive prior to the invention of the income tax."
Sorry.
Von Mises Jr| 6.20.12 @ 10:18AM
The teat runs dry, and it is about time to stop sucking off someone else at 18.
The economics comes down to wealth production. This is what Adam Smith wrote about in 1776 called "The Wealth of Nations." The baker bakes to buy shoes from the cobbler for his kids, and shoes for his horse to plow. They buy bread, corn, a winter jacket from the fur hunter, etc....all based on self-interest.
A POS such as Perp produces nothing. When he isn't spewing communist diatribes on TAS, he is stalking Romney to heckle him for Soros and Obama dollars. They produce nothing but eat the sustenance of other men who contribute to society. The same is true of the people on their porch or street corner who live off an EBT card and got a free Obama cell phone.
Rhoetus| 12.22.12 @ 1:34PM
"Tax and tax, spend and spend, elect and elect, the American People are to damn dumb to know what's good for them." --Harry Hopkins
JD| 6.20.12 @ 12:02PM
Liberals have been self-imposing austerity for generations. Their overspending has ensured that austerity is inevitable. They will continue trying to delay it, but that will only make it worse.
Purp| 6.20.12 @ 2:16PM
Austerity = raising taxes ... Now, are you all for it?
Riff Raff| 6.20.12 @ 3:46PM
This is a false statement. No further reply necessary. If you want respect you should stop with the blatant falsehoods. You garner no converts here.
TLP| 6.20.12 @ 5:24PM
No.
Austerity = SPENDING LESS.
But then, why am I wasting my time talking to a wall?
Gary B| 6.20.12 @ 9:12AM
I wonder what it's like to be known as an intellectual when you have no intellect? The prospect of surviving in the real world must be terrifying to a theoretician neck deep in Keynesian BS .
How many times must the government solution fail before it's dubbed a failure? How many times must the free market win before it's deemed a winner?
What's the main difference between the two? Personal responsibility.
Dolor en el trasero| 6.20.12 @ 9:13AM
Well, austerity may bring about CHANGE, but we've already experimented with Liberal Socialism and it don't work! The Obama regime has failed at every effort, except those efforts to tear down America. I so hope that Obama and his Thugs are sent packing back to Chicago where they can run their rackets, skim off of taxes and bump each other off when it pleases them. The Obama Mobsters are no longer welcome in Washington. Oh, that cute Immigration crap Obama pulled didn't swing MY vote! I came here LEGALLY and resent having to compete with ILLEGAL ALIENS who want my job. Thanks to Obama;s policies, life is tough and jobs are hard to come by. I got one and don't want some Mexican illegal to take it at half the wage I get. So go stick it Obama!
Dolor en el trasero| 6.20.12 @ 9:15AM
PS I learned to speak ENGLISH in school and can even read and write! Sure, I still speak Spanish with my folks, but ENGLISH is the language of this nation! --DEET
Purp| 6.20.12 @ 2:21PM
Honey, it's Republicant policies that sent jobs overseas and "Globalized" our workforce. The rich still make plenty off the Chinese and Indians - just the average person does not.
Obama inherited a horrible mess and you can blame GW Bush and his cronies for the mess. This is what free enterprise, unfettered by regulation causes - just as it did in the 1930's ... Welcome to Great Depression II again caused by Republicant policies. They are just bad for most of us. The 1% is happy though.
Riff Raff| 6.20.12 @ 3:12PM
This is incorrect. High taxes and heavy regulation raise the cost of labor and this drives jobs overseas where such conditions do not exist. You know nothing.
Note: The "1% vs 99%" is a fiction. That you keep selling this nonsense is proof of your economic illiteracy.
TLP| 6.20.12 @ 5:29PM
Actually, if you're concerned with FACTS, and you're not, it was The RAPIST - Bill Clinton - that signed NAFTA, in between Blowjobs.
But then, what are Facts, when you can just spew Bullsh*t?
Dave Williams| 6.20.12 @ 9:28AM
Look around you at all the fat porkers waddling down the street, with their candy bars and giant sodas for breakfast...do you think for a minute that these flabby, self-indulgent, lazy slugs are CAPABLE of anything resembling genuine austerity? We are doomed.
Purp| 6.20.12 @ 2:22PM
The Obesity epidemic you are alluding to is primarily located in the Old South states, typically the RED states. Is that really what you meant to call them?
TLP| 6.20.12 @ 5:31PM
Again, if you wanna talk FACTS?
The Fat Slobs are in the Black Community.
straight| 6.20.12 @ 9:47AM
They say "austerity." We say "pay-your-bills-and-don't-spend-money-you-don't-have."
Mike G| 6.20.12 @ 9:52AM
"As far as many were concerned, the U.S. had already tried the politics of austerity ...."
Huh?? What?? What was cut? Did I fall asleep and miss something?
Purp| 6.20.12 @ 2:28PM
It was called the Great Depression, 2nd phase, in 1937 where FDR put the brakes on (Austerity) and plunged us back into Depression until WWII started.
We need to cut back some, yes, but we also need to raise revenue and invest in the future for future growth. I find it amazing how many are willing to throw Grandma in the street, but don't want to curtail any defense spending at all.
Riff Raff| 6.20.12 @ 3:13PM
"...but we also need to raise revenue and invest in the future for future growth."
People need to do this. Not government.
minktulip| 6.20.12 @ 10:42AM
When people don't go into debt it's called "living within your means". Does anybody know how the proposition that govts do the same came to be called "austerity"?
Purp| 6.20.12 @ 2:29PM
Depends on what you spend it on ... if you own a house, you are in debt up to your eyeballs. So what?
Riff Raff| 6.20.12 @ 4:02PM
If someone buys a house on a mortgage and stops there, paying the mortgage off over time, this works. By your example, people would buy a house on mortgage, then two Ferrari's, then monthly trips around the globe, then give money to their friends to buy houses and Ferrari's and travel the World as well, all on borrowed money. This does not work. But this is what government does, borrow incessantly to feed an ever more gluttonous bureaucracy, while the people, the taxPAYERS, suffer. This is YOUR government, the crooks YOU vote for. We have 3,000 years of recorded history showing clearly that government centered economies work for GOVERNMENT, while the common people suffer. The grand beneficiaries of your economic model are the rich, fat, greedy do-nothings in government, while people who create, design, build, and market, suffer the loss of the profits of their work as your government fat-cat heroes tax it all away to spend on their cronies. That you not only believe this fatuous nonsense, but try to sell it to others is proof not only of your lunacy, but of your malevolence.
TLP| 6.20.12 @ 5:34PM
He's a Moron.
A Useful Idiot.
A RACIST who would back this POS, in the White House, if he slit his own Kid's throats.
That's all you need to know about this Puke.
Riff Raff| 6.20.12 @ 5:45PM
I think use-LESS idiot is more appropriate. He accomplishes nothing by posting here. At least Stalin's idiots served a purpose, for Stalin that is. "Purp" does not serve his own cause.
Jack London| 6.20.12 @ 10:46AM
You people won't be happy until millions of Americans are forced to beg for food and medicines as they are in Greece right now.
Riff Raff| 6.20.12 @ 11:05AM
This is a lie. Grow up, dumbo.
Gary B| 6.20.12 @ 11:17AM
Unwinding decades of the government giveaway mess is a real bitch, isn't it? How the hell did you think it was going to end?
Purp| 6.20.12 @ 3:01PM
So who do you throw over the side first? Grandma? How about the disabled, those freeloaders? Or how about everyone under 5? What are you willing to cut? Maybe we could take all Republicants off of Social Security and Medicare? Does that sound fair?
Riff Raff| 6.20.12 @ 3:13PM
I think we start with you.
Purp| 6.20.12 @ 5:24PM
A useless answer that means nothing. So answer the question - who do you throw over the side? Put you money where your Big Mouth is.
TLP| 6.20.12 @ 5:36PM
Who do we throw over the side, first, when we hit Insolvency?
Tell us.
Cause we can't go on like this.
Period.
Riff Raff| 6.20.12 @ 5:47PM
You asked a useless question that means nothing. "Who do we throw over first?" has no meaning and no relevance. A free economy throws no one over the side. Governments do that.
Gary B| 6.20.12 @ 3:26PM
Gee, I don't know, Purp. Giving up unconstitutional freebees is always tough. How 'bout we cut government 10% across the board and see how that works? How 'bout we close every unconstitutional department just for the fun of it?
The Big E| 6.20.12 @ 11:36AM
It certainly wasn't conservative policies which brought Greece to where they are now. It was exactly the sort of policies people like Krugman (and you) want more of here, so if anyone wants people begging in the streets for food or medecine, it is you and your kind. I think it was Albert Einstein who said insanity is doing the same thing over and over again and expecting different results. By that definition, then you sir, are clearly insane. (I bet you think TV shows end differently in re-runs, too).
Purp| 6.20.12 @ 3:03PM
Not Greece, but it was conservative policies that brought us to this point in the United States. 1% more wealthy and making more every day off of India and China, while the 99% suffer in this country. Great plan, conservadumbs!
Purp| 6.20.12 @ 5:33PM
We tried it your way ever since Reagan - but you haven't cared about the country, only that someone might benefit from some money you paid in taxes. When confronted with the lion share of the people that need that money, you always back down. You only concentrate on the tiny number of n'er dowells and throw Grandma out with them.
So since we have been doing Reagan's bidding (through the Bush Twins administrations) that created Globalization (which started way back then) and the search for lower wages and no benefits and losing American jobs in the process, how about we change and get back to what made this country great. And it sure wasn't unfettered capitalism - but if you like that, I hear China is choking to death on their huge success. They don't make squat in wages and have a horrible life - but go ahead, enjoy what unregulated capitalism provides. But I do hear they execute those that get caught causing trouble like the lead paint in toys; but they don't regulate, that's true. Maybe we should behead the Wall Streeters that crashed the economy and the idiots that didn't regulate them properly?
Riff Raff| 6.20.12 @ 5:49PM
Ridiculous.
JD| 6.20.12 @ 12:47PM
Liberals cannot make any arguments at all without first imposing bad motives on their opponents.
Purp| 6.20.12 @ 3:03PM
Okay, so what's your good motives? Name some.
Gary B| 6.20.12 @ 3:32PM
How about a 10% flat tax across the board? Liberals are always honking about fairness, so what's wrong with that?
How about not triple taxing returns from entrepreneurial risk so more companies are created here in good ol' America?
How about removing extreme political correctness from public schools?
How about setting up honest voting?
How about enforcing federal immigration laws?
How about not put our grandchildren into hopeless dept?
Purp| 6.20.12 @ 5:42PM
1) Flat tax - go for it and add the VAT based on what you spend, not just what you make. That's more fair
2) Don't believe that one about Triple taxing.
3) Why remove? What good motive is that? It's a good thing to call people expletives and bully others?
4) Honest voting, yes - how about change Election Day to Saturday? And increase early voting and easier voter registration?
5) Immigration laws are enforced, just like drug laws are enforced - it's a losing battle apparently. Next idea?
6) Grandchildren - tell your parents to pay more in tax and actually pay for what we spend. While you're at explaining why Grandma has to die to get off of Social Security, how about explaining why we have to police the world instead? Or why we can't help the disabled because we need to meddle in every local war around the world? It's a little late after 3 Republican presidents put almost 11 Trillion on the debt to worry about that now, isn't it? Unless you plan to pay your way and stop living on the dole.
Riff Raff| 6.20.12 @ 4:06PM
Good motives? That's easy. We want to see people prosper. We want freedom, peace, and happiness for everyone (even you). Those are good motives and a free economy provides those things. Government centered economics provides poverty, conflict, greed, and envy, among many other bad things. Leftists bozos like you are ALWAYS ascribing motives to people that they do not have to justify accusations that hold no water.
Purp| 6.20.12 @ 5:53PM
Your good motives are perfectly fine with me and I agree.
But - then you go off the rails with the "government is bad" mantra, and that's where you go wrong.
We have always needed government to do things we cannot do alone. Whether it is local, state or Federal - government matters, and you have to pay for what it gives to you. Whether it's roads, airports, streets and sanitation, Armed Forces, FBI, the Treasury, the State Dept, Homeland Security, the EPA, Social Security, Medicare, Food Stamps, Workmen's Comp, Unemployment Comp, Police, Fire, Hospitals, Schools we need government in so many ways.
Rightist wingnuts like you are always haranguing on free giveaways and how horrible it is you have to pay for something, but either you don't care about people in need or you're selfish, envious and/or greedy.
Really, to be Christian, you shouldn't be so wound up about money - you can't take it with you, ya know.
Riff Raff| 6.20.12 @ 6:31PM
I have a degree in history and have studied governments from ancient Rome to today. The bigger government gets and the more power it acquires, the more oppressive it becomes. This is axiomatic. No one here is an anarchist and I am not so don't throw that straw man argument in to the mix. No one here says we should have no government. But at the other end of the scale (your end) you have dictatorships, economic stagnation and even collapse. You have oppression and poverty. You also have genocides and needless wars. All for the benefit of "leaders" in big government and their monstrous egos. Conservatives want to do away with oppression and have freedom. Leftists are government centric and the practical result of leftist policies is poverty, debt, and oppression. This is the way it is.
Riff Raff| 6.20.12 @ 6:41PM
Continued:
Government is a necessary evil. We need government for limited purposes, to protect rights and public safety and national defense. But your government exceeds the legal limits imposed on it by the People and the federal government has extended itself illegally in to healthcare, education, welfare, subsidies, "stimulus" and the like. And it has royally screwed up each and every one of these. The Founders of this nation fought a war to define and thus limit the powers of a central government, not to eliminate government altogether, so your arguments are straw man arguments.
Lastly, your snide remark about being Christian is way out of line. I am not so "wound up about money" as you pretend. What I object to is the ravenous confiscation of my wealth by crooks in a massive central government who use that money to serve themselves. The real greed IS in government, and you support that greed and work to impose even greater oppression upon us. It is YOU who are obsessed with money, OTHER people's money, for YOU to spend on what YOU think is right and proper, even if it is illegal (e.g. unconstitutional.)
Skippy| 6.20.12 @ 1:18PM
If that's what it takes to stop the bus going over the cliff, then fine with me.
If you think we can keep up doing what we're doing, you're blind.
If you think there won't be a lot of real pain, you are delusional.
You need to be humbled, and reality has a nasty way of doing that.
Bill84728| 6.20.12 @ 10:57AM
I keep hearing one thing being repeated between right-wing commentators lately: "When something can't continue, it will stop."
A welfare society that has no money must stop being a welfare society. It can't continue. Will this kind of austerity bring fascism or totalitarianism? Maybe; I hope not. If we engage in economic austerity by choice now, it will lessen the likelihood that international poverty will drive us into that sort of thing if we continue kidding ourselves that the welfare state can persist.
mike 3/505| 6.20.12 @ 1:39PM
Before it gets to that point, other stuff will be gutted. The administration is already attempting to use Military Retiree TRICARE, an erred benefit, to subsidize OBAMACARE/Medicaid. The administration, with the conivance of senior officers, is proposing a "means test," based on income, to determine the annual fee and copays, military retirees pay. Effectively, they are equating a benefit earned by arduous military service, with government charity.
mike 3/505| 6.20.12 @ 1:40PM
*earned
Riff Raff| 6.20.12 @ 11:06AM
Paul Krugman is living proof that the Nobel Prize Committee knows as much about economics as it does about World peace. The Committee is a working definition of the adjective “politically correct.” Politics trumps everything. Krugman has to be the most discredited fool on TV. If not for politics and ONLY politics, why would anyone pay any attention to him?
According to the boobs of the Left, like Krugman, we need to “prime the pump” with more government spending. Continuing this analogy, goofballs like Krugman have already consumed the entire well “priming the pump” and it still is not working. There is nothing left to “prime” or to “pump.” Government has messed the economy up completely, and that is all government is capable of doing. The government-centric economic model does not work and it is time for the Leftists to give it up and go home. They have failed and their failures are costing the rest of us a lot of money.
Purp| 6.20.12 @ 3:05PM
He's right, you aren't. Keynesian economics works, and government is not the problem, greed is.
Riff Raff| 6.20.12 @ 3:16PM
The greatest greed is in government, whcih takes other people's money to spend on itself. The "stimulus" failed. Keynesian economics clearly does NOT work. Look around you. I'm right, and you aren't and Krugman isn't. Get used to it.
JD| 6.20.12 @ 3:16PM
Keynesian economics has never worked, and greed is an inevitable part of human nature that does not substantially change over time. Government that ignores human nature in making policy becomes a problem.
Gary B| 6.20.12 @ 3:35PM
Purp, you're priceless.
If greed (profit motive) didn't exist, you wouldn't have a job. Maybe you don't.
Who Knows?| 6.20.12 @ 12:24PM
Austere—L austerus, harsh < Gr austeros, dry, harsh < IE base *saus, dry > sear.
How dry I am!
Dust to dust.
There’s a lot of ruin in a nation, especially an Obama-nation. And, as Reagan said, “You ain’t seen nothin’ yet”.
I’ve lately seen some Fellini movies, from the late 50’s, and have been reminded of the truly austere condition of Italy and Europe after WW II. Obama and his fellow destroyers have only begun to fight. They have a LOOONG way to go before all hell spreads the wealth---too thin, to a completely dry and seared austerity.
I am the one who is with you now. I speak with my own silence.
Stupid is as stupid does.
Obama is the logical emanation from a sick and deluded society, the kick in the head direly needed, to as quick as possible remove all the living dead “wood”---all the bloodsuckers and do-nothing-for-themselves “retards”.
Yes, we need a mechanism to “retard the spark”, a la on an old gasoline engine, so it can get back in tune. Oh, is the world economy way out of tune!
It sputters, coughs and barely lurches ahead, while it continues to fill up with more and more fat and sick passengers.
When will people stop pinching themselves?
This is the other world.
JD| 6.20.12 @ 12:29PM
The Left continues to conflate cause and effect. Austerity is an effect. CNN miraculously printed a good editorial on the subject recently: http://www.cnn.com/2012/06/07/.....ndex.html. It compares austerity to a hangover. It's the suffering you endure after overindulging. Only a fool (liberal) experiences the pain of the hangover and concludes that it was a mistake to stop drinking.
Similarly, the Left sets about to solve all social ills by treating the symptoms, not the cause. Does someone not earn enough money? Give him money, so that he no longer suffers from lack of money! Of course, this does not actually solve the problem of him not producing enough for himself (it has been shown to make it worse, in fact), but who cares? The SYMPTOM has been treated! Nevermind the long-term health consequences...
The Left is so married to symptom-treating that when someone proposes to treat a cause instead of a symptom, the Left scoffs that the idea is a do-nothing. While we're over here saying "This government policy caused the problem, we removed it, so now there will be no problem", they're saying "you can't possibly have solved the problem, because you didn't enact a new government policy to compensate for its effects!"
Drug commercials berate competing products for "treating symptoms, not causes". Only liberals are insane enough to berate people for "treating causes, not symptoms."
JD| 6.20.12 @ 12:40PM
Remove the period at the end of the hyperlink to get it to work:
http://www.cnn.com/2012/06/07/.....index.html
cicero| 6.20.12 @ 1:06PM
But you miss the whole point. These folks on the left that are paid large sums of money to tell people what they want to hear, are insulated from the debacle that will surely come to place. The only possible way that these huge deficits can be repaid is by inflating the currency (monetizing the debt). If you are sitting on millions, the fact that the value is cut in half will not matter much. They won't miss too many meals. However, if you a middle class working stiff who spends his wages raising a family, cutting in half the buying power of your wages and savings matters very much.
As history shows, the the wealthy stay wealthy in such circumstances. The poor you will always have with you. And, the middle class will be left to eat their children.
Petronius| 6.20.12 @ 1:12PM
To the left, taking back the American Dream means taking it away from all those not in their camp. Their true goal is confiscation of all private assets over an arbitrary amount they consider "enough": (the level pail full of sand). To them, anybody who makes money in businesses they don't like are thieves because everybody gripes about the prices of those things they don't want to spend money for. It's O. K. for athletes and rock stars to get rich because these people are their idols they throw their money at. And it's all the market's fault they cannot have and pay for everything they want. And they can't be made to understand that their interference through government regulations escalates the costs of all the basic necessities, especially food, energy, medicine, and education. The last two are almost totally insulated from market forces due to over control and destruction of the relationship the customer no longer has with the provider. That doesn't matter to the economically illiterate overgrown brats suffering another bout of acute binkie withdrawal.
Mistral| 6.20.12 @ 1:25PM
The American Dream - laisser-faire avarice and gluttony. Looks like so-called fat people are next on the official persecution list now that smokers have been intimidated indoors and behind abandoned buildings. The state has already started on tormenting rich people unless of course they belong to Bilderberg.
wolf| 6.20.12 @ 1:35PM
so your driving your car ... and the light blinks .. low fule it says..but the car is still doing 80mph with no problem..so the gauge must be wrong..
15 trillion in debt..lets rewind a bit..the accounting dept has a very late night meeting...we are 2 trillion in debt they say..you have to stop spending and increase income..and being that almost everything is taxed to the max..stop spending..
but the warning goes unnoticed...lets party on..
see nothing happened...dont listen to the fools in accounting..
now..its 16 trilling and climbing..and no end of spending in sight..in fact it is at a all time high..and going higher...much the same for taxes..
and nothing happens..see were not out of gas..put some tape over that silly blinking light..
in los angeles i wittnessed something that scared me enough to arm my self..after the large earthquake in 92..i saw a supermarket litterly emptied in about 30 mins..panic set in the masses and spread like wildfire..
if we ever get to the place where we really do run out of gas..so to speak..survival will trump all and the last can of beans in isle 7 may be what gets you killed
Cobalt| 6.20.12 @ 2:04PM
Paul Krugman,Robert Reich and company dwell in the land of economic myths.
I don't believe, that they believe, their own B.S. On some level, they know you can't keep raising taxes, keep growing the government, and get a result that gets us out of this ecomonic mess.
Perhaps, they just have that much contempt for us, and think we are that stupid.
Krugman and Reich should join hands, and dance around the Maypole until Hell freezes over.
Louis Jenkins| 6.20.12 @ 2:24PM
So what is wrong with being simple? Maybe it should be given the chance, instead of thinking that whatever one wants, one may have. The 49% of Americans who don't pay taxes, but receive the benefits from that program, are living in a dream world. It cannot continue. Keep growing oh government, keep getting richer, snarf up everything produced, and then...
(PS...Obama has invoked executive privilege on the Fast and Furious papers, so Holden is in the clear at the moment.) Talk about dancing around the Maypole.
cicero| 6.20.12 @ 2:59PM
Be careful on that 49% figure. That includes working people that pay payroll taxes, but after all deductions, don't make enough to pay federal income tax. It also includes those who have begun collecting social security. They do not look on themselves as free loaders, and resent beeing lumped into that catagory. The conservative movement will not be well served alienating those two groups. Both consider themselves contributors to the well being of the country. The real free loaders are those who game the system, and have found ways (often informed of their "rights" by the community organizing crowd), to live and prosper without contributing anything.
The actual percentage of those who pay nothing is probably closed to 15% to 20%, and track closely with the extreme liberal left.
JD| 6.20.12 @ 3:18PM
It's more than that, and you don't have to guess:
http://www.taxpolicycenter.org.....Docid=3277
This data cannot distinguish spending through the tax code from honest taxation, and doesn't factor in social welfare that is still counted as actual spending, even by Democrats, but you can see the sum total of the tax code's impact on people.
Rhoetus| 12.22.12 @ 1:36PM
Rules for Conservatives @
http://www.saveamericanow.us.com