Why Paul Krugman should be President Obama's pick for US treasury secretary

[ProSense]

6. I get the sense

"Krugman will remain banished from the White House until he embraces triangulation, which he will not barring a brain trauma of some sort."

...that the most important thing in the world to you is to prove Obama is a sellout who should be despised.

Krugman is a practical person who rarily subccumbs to knee-jerk.

Battles of the Budget

By PAUL KRUGMAN

The centrist fantasy of a Grand Bargain on the budget never had a chance. Even if some kind of bargain had supposedly been reached, key players would soon have reneged on the deal — probably the next time a Republican occupied the White House.

For the reality is that our two major political parties are engaged in a fierce struggle over the future shape of American society. Democrats want to preserve the legacy of the New Deal and the Great Society — Social Security, Medicare and Medicaid — and add to them what every other advanced country has: a more or less universal guarantee of essential health care. Republicans want to roll all of that back, making room for drastically lower taxes on the wealthy. Yes, it’s essentially a class war.

The fight over the fiscal cliff was just one battle in that war. It ended, arguably, in a tactical victory for Democrats. The question is whether it was a Pyrrhic victory that set the stage for a larger defeat.

Why do I say that it was a tactical victory? Mainly because of what didn’t happen: There were no benefit cuts.

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There were also some actual positives from a progressive point of view. Expanded unemployment benefits were given another year to run, a huge benefit to many families and a significant boost to our economic prospects (because this is money that will be spent, and hence help preserve jobs). Other benefits to lower-income families were given another five years — although, unfortunately, the payroll tax break was allowed to expire, which will hurt both working families and job creation.

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http://www.nytimes.com/2013/01/04/opinion/kurgman-battles-of-the-budget.html