KRUGMAN Warns Us Again: It Was Never About Deficit-It's About Using Deficit FEAR To Shred Safety Net

[kpete]

OP-ED COLUMNIST
Hawks and Hypocrites
By PAUL KRUGMAN

They should be told to go away.

It’s not just the fact that the deficit scolds have been wrong about everything so far. Recent events have also demonstrated clearly what was already apparent to careful observers: the deficit-scold movement was never really about the deficit. Instead, it was about using deficit fears to shred the social safety net. And letting that happen wouldn’t just be bad policy; it would be a betrayal of the Americans who just re-elected a health-reformer president and voted in some of the most progressive senators ever.

http://www.nytimes.com/2012/11/12/opinion/krugman-hawks-and-hypocrites.html

[leftstreet]

1. DURec

[phantom power]

2. Krugman is like a lone voice of sanity in the howling mob

[KansDem]

3. Just like "trickle down" was never about creating jobs.

Or the Iraq war was never about 911.

They were means for the wealthy and powerful to gain more wealth and power...

[nc4bo]

4. Of course it is and we were warned about this even before the election season even got warmed up.

It has always been about the bipartisan grand bargain, the Cat Food Commission, slimy deals.

How the threats of collapse would become a deafening racket and how the results of the Cat Food Commission would seem like the only logical answers to complete austerity.

I remember and I know most DUers do too.

[wishlist]

5. Deficits didn't matter under Bush only after Obama got elected

I have been encouraged to hear Chuck Schumer and other Dems emphasize that Social Security spending does not contribute to the deficit because of its immense trust fund. I was pleased to hear Laura Tyson, economist on Maria Bartiromo's show this weekend explain how Obamacare actually saves money and will reduce deficit by getting health care spending under control while covering tens of millions more people.

[kentuck]

6. k & r

Right on.

[just1voice]

7. That's a fact.

Too bad the TV propagandists are busy selling emotional turmoil instead of common sense.

[WillyT]

8. HUGE K & R !!! - Thank You !!!

[reformist2]

9. Tax revenues are at record low levels... see graph below!

[forestpath]

10. K&R