Mon Jan 26, 2009 at 09:00:58 AM PST
Have you been hearing a lot of the GOP talking points on the stimulus plan? I have, and so have the media. The GOP are on a jihad against the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act and it appears our new President won't get the overwhelming bi-partisan support he originally wanted.
All the GOP spin was actually starting to get to me about the effectiveness of the 825 billion dollar plan until Mr. Krugman laid it all out in his latest New York Times article called "Bad Faith Economics" where the star liberal economist destroys the republican talking points. More below.
- mholden01's diary :: ::
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The American people hate pork barrel spending and don't trust government all that much either. So anytime democrats propose spending, the GOP resort to their tried and true railing against "Big government" and "Pork Barrel Spending." Yes sir, its a fast ball right down the pipe and our conservative friends don't even need to form a coherent thought before uttering their decades old criticisms.
The last few days this propaganda has been getting to me and I started questioning the merit of the stimulus package. That was until I read Mr. Krugman's article "Bad faith Economics" and realized I too was falling prey to the conservative propaganda machine. Thanks Paul for re-orienting my thinking to reality.
The article starts with the premis that conservatives are not arguing in good faith and that they are scared to death about a Liberal spending agenda actually working. As Dr. Krugman puts it "Conservatives really, really don’t want to see a second New Deal, and they certainly don’t want to see government activism vindicated."
Conservatives are indeed frightened. They got smoked in the election, have virtually no power on capital hill and the new President is very popular. That is a scary thought for conservatives. If Obama's large spending package does what it's designed to do, Americans may open their minds to the fact that the government can actually work if done right, and that scares the hell out of the right wing.
Mr. Krugman goes on to dispel conservative spin with facts:
1.The Obama plan will cost $275,000 per job created
Hmmm. $60,000/job while saving the economy and making the country more competitive in the future through key investments? Sounds good to me.Bogus. That's typical conservative math whereby they take the cost of a plan over many years and look for jobs created in the first year. As the good doctor says:
"The true cost per job of the Obama plan will probably be closer to $100,000 than $275,000 — and the net cost will be as little as $60,000 once you take into account the fact that a stronger economy means higher tax receipts."
2. Cutting taxes is better than government spending because taxpayers, not bureaucrats, are the best judges of how to spend their money.
So spending can actually work better than tax cuts? Haven't heard that much from the MSM.Nonsense. lets listen to what the professor says:
"It’s clear that when it comes to economic stimulus, public spending provides much more bang for the buck than tax cuts — and therefore costs less per job created (see the previous fraudulent argument) — because a large fraction of any tax cut will simply be saved."
3. Barack Obama's chief economic adviser says monetary policy is better than fiscal policy in response to recessions.
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