VIDEO: Paul Krugman Schools The Republicans On Healthcare Savings

By GottaLaff

Dear GOP,

Take note:



So says the economics Nobel Prize winner.

Love, Laffy

H/t: Hippie_Cyndi

Video- Krugman confronts Ailes with Fox News' "deliberate misinformation" on health care

Damn ABC, they refuse to offer embeddable video, so we have to get it piecemeal. This is one of the better moments in a very contentious segment. Via Media Matters who also has more.

Krugman: "By all means, hang Senator Joe Lieberman in effigy"

By GottaLaff

Quite the colorful quote from someone who looks so, well, harmless:

Paul Krugman: "A message to progressives: By all means, hang Senator Joe Lieberman in effigy. Declare that you're disappointed in and/or disgusted with President Obama. Demand a change in Senate rules that, combined with the Republican strategy of total obstructionism, are in the process of making America ungovernable. But meanwhile, pass the health care bill."

"With all its flaws, the Senate health bill would be the biggest expansion of the social safety net since Medicare, greatly improving the lives of millions. Getting this bill would be much, much better than watching health care reform fail."

I'm happy to oblige. Anyone have a bad suit and a picture of a guy who resembles a blood hound? But rather than hang him in effigy, I'd prefer flattening it out and using it as a doormat. I hate violence.

Bloodhounds are too cute for that comparision. This, on the other hand:

The Big Health Care Vote

By GottaLaff

I'm tired of the number 60:

The latest schedule for the health care vote suggests that very early Monday morning -- at around 1:00 am ET -- the Senate will vote to break the filibuster on the "managers' amendment."

First Read: "The amendment will include all the last-minute fixes, most importantly stripping the public option and suitable abortion language. Once this part of the bill is passed, it's effectively done. If Reid gets 60 on this, the other votes on Tuesday, Wednesday, and Thursday should fall into place like dominoes."

As of now, Reid does not have the 60 votes.

Today Paul Krugman joins the "Pass it, it's better than nothing" side.

Paul Krugman: I approve

By GottaLaff

Earlier I posted several reactions to the newest Senate health care reform compromise. Here is one more voice, one that matters to a lot of people-- Paul Krugman:

If this is the final plan, it’s better than most of us were expecting — and definitely good enough to go with.

Paul Krugman: "Things look better than I expected"

By GottaLaff

This is more encouraging than a lot of things I've read lately, because Krugman has been a recovery thumbs-downer for quite awhile. It's a little like comfort food after a bad day.

Before I get too carried away, he does offer the caveat that "looks can be deceiving", but still:

And I’m not sure what to make of it, but casual observation suggests a stronger recovery than anything I see in published numbers. Lots of small-scale construction — home remodeling, tear-downs replacing old houses. Many new businesses and restaurants filling storefronts that were vacant a couple of months ago. [...]

Still, there’s the observation: walking around, things look better than I expected.

Yum.

Video- Mary Matalin & Paul Krugman Debate Obama Losing His 'Mojo' On CNN

See, call me "invisible" and you get a heaping dose o' Matalin!!! But, it's worth it, Krugman wipes the floor with her.

Health Care Watch- Krugman: "Take a stand against Reaganism" already

By GottaLaff

This is such a good point, I want to lick it. Via The Plum Line:

Paul Krugman on why the public option matters in political terms:

Let me add a sort of larger point: aside from the essentially circular political arguments — centrist Democrats insisting that the public option must be dropped to get the votes of centrist Democrats — the argument against the public option boils down to the fact that it’s bad because it is, horrors, a government program. And sooner or later Democrats have to take a stand against Reaganism — against the presumption that if the government does it, it’s bad.

That's the crux of the crux of the matter

VIDEO- Krugman: We Are in Economic 'Purgatory'

By GottaLaff

Someone tell Big Insurance. They seem to be doing just fine:

Republican Death Trip: "What’s still missing...is a sense of passion and outrage" by Obama

By GottaLaff

Paul Krugman:

“I am in this race because I don’t want to see us spend the next year re-fighting the Washington battles of the 1990s. I don’t want to pit Blue America against Red America; I want to lead a United States of America.” So declared Barack Obama in November 2007, making the case that Democrats should nominate him, rather than one of his rivals, because he could free the nation from the bitter partisanship of the past.

BUT... well, you all know the "but". We've seen it all over the Tee Vee Machine for weeks. We've seen it at town hall meetings, in speeches, on FaceBook, and nasty, vile gatherings of corporate astroturfy TeaDeathers.

So much, then, for Mr. Obama’s dream of moving beyond divisive politics. The truth is that the factors that made politics so ugly in the Clinton years — the paranoia of a significant minority of Americans and the cynical willingness of leading Republicans to cater to that paranoia — are as strong as ever. In fact, the situation may be even worse than it was in the 1990s because the collapse of the Bush administration has left the G.O.P. with no real leaders other than Rush Limbaugh.

The question now is how Mr. Obama will deal with the death of his postpartisan dream.

So far, at least, the Obama administration’s response to the outpouring of hate on the right has had a deer-in-the-headlights quality. It’s as if officials still can’t wrap their minds around the fact that things like this can happen to people who aren’t named Clinton, as if they keep expecting the nonsense to just go away.

[...] It would certainly help if he gave clearer and more concise explanations of his health care plan. To be fair, he’s gotten much better at that over the past couple of weeks.

What’s still missing, however, is a sense of passion and outrage — passion for the goal of ensuring that every American gets the health care he or she needs, outrage at the lies and fear-mongering that are being used to block that goal.

So can Mr. Obama, who can be so eloquent when delivering a message of uplift, rise to the challenge of unreasoning, unappeasable opposition?

GObama... right now. Please. We can't afford to wait a minute longer.

H/t: David Shuster

VIDEO proves Joe Scarborough et al. wrong, Scarborough just gets worse

By GottaLaff



Apparently feeling a tad red-faced in light of the above video, Joe Scarborough got a little testy:

...Scarborough lashed out at Paul Krugman, and doubled down on his unjustified criticism of the DHS report from April.

On Krugman, Scarborough said:

"As somebody that has to sort through a lot of hate mail, a lot of hate email, a lot of viciousness. Paul Krugman's name is attached to a lot of those emails. They use Paul Krugman as their shield for their left-wing hate. This is because Paul Krugman, like a lot of extremists on the right, they only see their side. They have a closed-minded world view. Paul Krugman uses this tragedy, uses this death to try to knock down his opponents on the right."

Scarborough can't (or won't) address the substance of Krugman's claims, so he finds it easier to equate the Nobel laureate with right-wing blowhards. As for the DHS report, Scarborough added:

"What upset most of us [about the document was] the fact not that they were targeting right-wingers, it's that they were targeting veterans."

Scarborough can keep saying that, but it doesn't make it true. [...]

It would never happen, but instead of lashing out, Scarborough should either avoid the subject altogether, or apologize for his insulting behavior.

He's such a class act. Always so level-headed and sensible, able to see the other side, flexible, and so charismatic. He relies on facts and has our best interests at heart. We must stop criticizing him right now.

That was dripping with sarcasm, in case by some crazy chance you didn't notice.

Obama Dines with Krugman, Stiglitz

My head hurts from trying to imagine GWB doing something like this, actually listening to the other side of a situation. Via Taegan-

Newsweek: "Mindful of his predecessor, Barack Obama seems to be trying harder to make sure he hears all sides. On the night of April 27, for instance, the president invited to the White House some of his administration's sharpest critics on the economy, including New York Times columnist Paul Krugman and Columbia University economist Joseph Stiglitz. Over a roast-beef dinner, Obama listened and questioned while Krugman and Stiglitz, both Nobel Prize winners, pushed for more aggressive government intervention in the banking system."

VIDEO: Paul Krugman Calls Out GOP Hypocrisy On Job Creation, Defense Cuts

By GottaLaff

In only 14 seconds, Krugman nails it:

Military correspondent David Axe has pointed out that it’s possible very few workers will lose their jobs because of Gates’s announcement. In fact, thousands of workers will likely be “snapped up for active production lines churning out F-16s, F-35s, C-130s and modernized C-5s for Lockheed, not to mention the prospect that industry rivals Boeing and Northrop might lure Lockheed workers for their own active production lines for the F-15, F/A-18 and others.”

That didn't take long, now did it?

Suddenly Krugman

By GottaLaff



The awesome Bob Cesca has a post up about Krugman's sudden media popularity. Hint: Drama.

Newsweek: "The left's anti-Obama"

By GottaLaff

via Politico

H/t: BuzzFlash

UPDATE: The awesome Bob Cesca has more.

Krugman speaks. Who's listening?

By GottaLaff

Paul Krugman just isn't that into Geithner:

"The Geithner plan has now been leaked in detail. It's exactly the plan that was widely analyzed -- and found wanting -- a couple of weeks ago. The zombie ideas have won."

I'd love to know why the Obama administration isn't listening to Krugman. And if they are listening, I'd love to know what they think of this:

In effect, Treasury will be creating — deliberately! — the functional equivalent of Texas S&Ls in the 1980s: financial operations with very little capital but lots of government-guaranteed liabilities. For the private investors, this is an open invitation to play heads I win, tails the taxpayers lose. So sure, these investors will be ready to pay high prices for toxic waste. After all, the stuff might be worth something; and if it isn’t, that’s someone else’s problem.

At President Obama's press conference, I hope they confront him with questions about Krugman's statements, and then insist on substantive answers.

Or to put it another way, Treasury has decided that what we have is nothing but a confidence problem, which it proposes to cure by creating massive moral hazard.

This plan will produce big gains for banks that didn’t actually need any help; it will, however, do little to reassure the public about banks that are seriously undercapitalized. And I fear that when the plan fails, as it almost surely will, the administration will have shot its bolt: it won’t be able to come back to Congress for a plan that might actually work.

What an awful mess.

Sigh. What an awful mess.

Krugman: "The party of ideas has become the party of Beavis and Butthead."

By GottaLaff

(I could only find the Espanol version of this clip)

Heh-heh-heh:

Paul Krugman on Lousiana Gov. Bobby Jindal's response to President Obama last night:

"And leaving aside the chutzpah of casting the failure of his own party's governance as proof that government can't work, does he really think that the response to natural disasters like Katrina is best undertaken by uncoordinated private action? Hey, why bother having an army? Let's just rely on self-defense by armed citizens."

"The intellectual incoherence is stunning. Basically, the political philosophy of the GOP right now seems to consist of snickering at stuff that they think sounds funny. The party of ideas has become the party of Beavis and Butthead."

UPDATE: Our pal Bob Cesca called it first.

No wealth creation at all since 2001

By GottaLaff

Who was president from 2001-2008 again? Oh yeah...

The borrow and spend decade.

Paul Krugman: "Last week the Federal Reserve released the results of the latest Survey of Consumer Finances, a triennial report on the assets and liabilities of American households. The bottom line is that there has been basically no wealth creation at all since the turn of the millennium: the net worth of the average American household, adjusted for inflation, is lower now than it was in 2001."

But remember: It's the Obama Recession. Bush was just a passive observer of the events that befell him.

Paul Krugman is not happy

By GottaLaff

When Krugman's not happy, my knees start shaking:

Nobel Prize-winning economist Paul Krugman puts those cuts in perspective:

Now the centrists have shaved off $86 billion in spending — much of it among the most effective and most needed parts of the plan. In particular, aid to state governments, which are in desperate straits, is both fast — because it prevents spending cuts rather than having to start up new projects — and effective, because it would in fact be spent; plus state and local governments are cutting back on essentials, so the social value of this spending would be high. But in the name of mighty centrism, $40 billion of that aid has been cut out.

My first cut says that the changes to the Senate bill will ensure that we have at least 600,000 fewer Americans employed over the next two years.

Will someone please tell me why the ObamAdministration is not paying close attention to this Nobel Prize winner? There are a kazillion people advising him, but none of them are named Krugman.

The real question now is whether Obama will be able to come back for more once it’s clear that the plan is way inadequate. My guess is no. This is really, really bad.

Here are the cuts:

Partially cut:

• $3.5 billion for energy-efficient federal buildings (original bill $7 billion)

• $75 million from Smithsonian (original bill $150 million)

• $200 million from Environmental Protection Agency Superfund (original bill $800 million)

• $100 million from National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (original bill $427 million)

• $100 million from law enforcement wireless (original bill $200 million)

• $300 million from federal fleet of hybrid vehicles (original bill $600 million)

• $100 million from FBI construction (original bill $400 million)

Fully eliminated

• $55 million for historic preservation

• $122 million for Coast Guard polar icebreaker/cutters

• $100 million for Farm Service Agency modernization

• $50 million for Cooperative State Research, Education and Extension Service

• $65 million for watershed rehabilitation

• $100 million for distance learning

• $98 million for school nutrition

• $50 million for aquaculture

• $2 billion for broadband

• $100 million for National Institute of Standards and Technology

• $50 million for detention trustee

• $25 million for Marshalls Construction

• $300 million for federal prisons

• $300 million for BYRNE Formula grant program

• $140 million for BYRNE Competitive grant program

• $10 million state and local law enforcement

• $50 million for NASA

• $50 million for aeronautics

• $50 million for exploration

• $50 million for Cross Agency Support

• $200 million for National Science Foundation

• $100 million for science

• $1 billion for Energy Loan Guarantees

• $4.5 billion for General Services Administration

• $89 million General Services Administration operations

• $50 million from Department of Homeland Security

• $200 million Transportation Security Administration

• $122 million for Coast Guard Cutters, modifies use

• $25 million for Fish and Wildlife

• $55 million for historic preservation

• $20 million for working capital fund

• $165 million for Forest Service capital improvement

• $90 million for State and Private Wildlife Fire Management

• $1 billion for Head Start/Early Start

• $5.8 billion for Health Prevention Activity

• $2 billion for Health Information Technology Grants

• $600 million for Title I (No Child Left Behind)

• $16 billion for school construction

• $3.5 billion for higher education construction

• $1.25 billion for project based rental

• $2.25 billion for Neighborhood Stabilization

• $1.2 billion for retrofitting Project 8 housing

• $40 billion for state fiscal stabilization (includes $7.5 billion of state incentive grants)

Morning Joe- Paul Krugman On The Economy

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