Krugman: Nobody Cares About Process

[Kurt_and_Hunter]

November 3, 2010, 2:04 pm
Nobody Cares About Process
Paul Krugman


Urk. I just gave up on the presidential press conference. When Obama declared that Americans rejected Democrats in part because “We were in such a hurry to get things done that we didn’t change how things got done,” I checked out.

Nobody cares about this stuff — they care about results. Nobody really cares about earmarks; they’re just code for spending less (less on somebody else, of course, not me). Nobody cares about civility and bipartisanship, which in practice are code for Democrats giving in to Republican demands. Nobody cares about parliamentary maneuvers: we can argue about the role of health reform in the election, but I bet not one voter in 50 knows or cares that it was passed using reconciliation (as were the sacred Bush tax cuts we must, must retain).

If Obama had used fancy footwork and 2 AM sessions to pass a big public works program, and this program had brought unemployment down, Republicans would be screaming about the process — and Democrats would have comfortably held control of Congress. Remember the voter backlash against the way Medicare drug benefits were passed? Neither do I.

Oh, by the way — nobody cares about the deficit, either.

http://krugman.blogs.nytimes.com/2010/11/03/nobody-cares-about-process/

[Dawson Leery]

1. Delay's backdoor afterdark deals on Medicare Part D cost the GOP in 2004.......

Wait, they increased their majorities.

[truedelphi]

3. Many of us old timers here would state that they increased their majorities because

They eliminated the Democratic voters' ballots. It was an election based on "switch" votes - you hit the Dem candidate's name, only to be thanked by the electronic screen for your Republican vote.

All across the nation, there were isolated incidents of elections where more Republicans voted than the entire population of voters in that county.

A Stolen Election such as we had in 2004 swept across the entire nation. It enabled not only George W to continue his Administration; it effectively removed 6 to 10 million votes from the system.

[gkhouston]

7. I haven't forgotten '04. I still have no confidence in electoral results.

on edit: and I remember the GOP's slimy dead-of-night holding-the-vote-open bill-passing schemes, Mr. Krugman.

[Peace Patriot]

11. You got it, truedelphi! ONE, private, far-rightwing connected corporation--ES&S, which just bought

out Diebold--now owns and controls 80% of the voting machines in the U.S., using 'TRADE SECRET,' PROPRIETARY programming code, with virtually no audit/recount controls to...ahem...tabulate all our votes. This gives the far rightwing multinational corporate moguls and war profiteers who are running things the ability--the EASY ability--to play our system like a piano, and, combined with out-of-control corporate campaign money and the corpo-fascist press which writes the narratives for wingnut 'wins,' our elections are very, very, VERY fixed.

We must start with the egregiously NON-TRANSPARENT voting machines. We can't get anywhere on any issue until we can know who really won. We don't even have the bottom-line of democracy here any more--vote counting IN THE PUBLIC VENUE.

[Kurovski]

20. +1

[glitch]

22. Agreed. And they just got an enormous leg up with gop state legislature "wins"

which will be doing the redistricting (as well as all the other voting processes).

[Vinnie From Indy]

2. Krugman cuts through the nonsense here

Cheers to him!

[d_b]

4. stop, paul. just stop.

we have to pretend all that shit is true so the democrats can spread their cheeks even wider these next two years.

be a team player.

[BeFree]

5. Write

Mr. Obama, either you know what the people need, or you don't.

We don't need details. We need results.

We don't need compromise. We need a steam roller.

[bluestateguy]

6. Subcommittee C, to plan the preliminary implementation of the ad hoc policy...

zzzzzzzzzz

:boring:

[dennis4868]

8. I think Obama would agree with just about....

everything Krugman wrote. I think today Obama has to act the way he did during the press conference....with humility and reflection....that is what the people want to hear...it worked for both Clinton and RayGUN.

[laughingliberal]

9. If I could rec it 100 times, I would. nt

[uponit7771]

10. AMEN!!! IOWA had a surplus and dems lost BIG!!!

[yurbud]

12. another simple truth Democrats either fail to grasp or intentionally ignore

They could go right to the limits of what the rules allow and get more done and no one would fault them.

When Bush and the GOP went well past those limits, they suffered zero consequences.

I get sick of saying it but it's like the Democrats think they are playing badminton, and the GOP is wearing a human skin mask and apron and swinging live chainsaws. It's not hard to predict whose going to win those parliamentary battles.

[Better Believe It]

13. K & R People care about the economy and give a shit about deficit spending ....

especially if it creates lots of good paying and useful public works/infrastructure jobs.

[ProSense]

14. I simply don't agree

Nobody cares about this stuff until Democrats do it. Look at all the hateful ads Republicans ran (even Fox), and the huge uproar that met Conway's Aqua Buddha ad and Grayson's Webster ad.

Nobody cares about reconciliation until Dems decided to use it for health care reform, then a lot of people, left and right, were crying foul. Did anyone even hear about Bush's use of reconciliation from the media? During the final weeks before health care passed, even the morning news clips on the Weather Channel were mentioning that Democrats planned to use the process. What about all the polling on reconciliation?

Again, the strength of the policies do not determing the outcome of mid-term elections, and Krugman claiming that somehow "fancy footwork" could have resulted in a significantly larger bill is completely unrealistic.

Does Krugman really believe that unemployment at 1 percent lower would have made a huge difference yesterday? Unemployment had climbed to 10.3 percent and is now at 9.6. Would 9 percent have made a big difference? What about 8.5 percent?

This is a good one: "Remember the voter backlash against the way Medicare drug benefits were passed? Neither do I."

Yet voters seemed to eat up Republican distortions that Obama cut Medicare.

Also, it's really interesting what Krugman takes away from the press conference and what Greg Sargent takes away.

Dear Paul, it's time to stop pretending the useless sniping at the President makes you more progressive.

[leftstreet]

15. K&R

[Renew Deal]

16. He's right

All people care about is winning and losing.

[IDHow]

24. The Krug is spot on yet again.

[Greyhound]

17. K&Rugman

I was just making this point on another thread.
:rofl:

[JamesA1102]

18. Typical Krugman

He gives up so he doesn't know that the President said the exact same thing in the press conference that the people care about results.

[HughMoran]

19. Ha! I agree with Krugman 100% on this

Just get it done and stop telling people about the process.

The ONLY time the process matters is when the Republican obstructionists are blocking legislation that is known to be popular. THIS is when it's time to make the process an issue - but only in SIMPLE terms like BILL GOOD, REPUBLICANS WANT TO KILL YOU! :evilgrin:

[Laelth]

21. Right again, Mr. Krugman. k&r n/t

-Laelth

[renegade000]

23. Spot on.

No one gave a crap about Bush running roughshod over process during his 8 years.