Krugman Rides The “More Stimulus” Wave

Supposedly, columnist Paul Krugman is credible because he’s an economist.  While he has an economics degree and experience working as an economist, his opinions are rarely based on any valid economic data or principles.

Today Krugman notes the Obama stimulus plan has not done what the President and his supporters in the media said it would do, reduce unemployment, and humbly claims that back in January he was “worried that the plan would prove inadequate.”

According to Krugman’s logic the continuing record high rate of job losses and unemployment proves not that the Obama gang is incompetent, or that they lied to get public acceptance of their plan to borrow almost $800 Billion and hurl it at politically favored programs.  No, according to Krugman it proves they didn’t borrow and hurl enough!

…policy makers should stay calm in the face of disappointing early results, recognizing that the plan will take time to deliver its full benefit. But they should also be prepared to add to the stimulus now that it’s clear that the first round wasn’t big enough.

But the lead “policy maker,” Barack Obama promised immediate benefits. In a January speech he gave to hype the stimulus The  President said:

We are still the nation that has overcome great fears and improbable odds. If we act with the urgency and seriousness that this moment requires, I know that we can do it again.

That is why I have moved quickly to work with my economic team and leaders of both parties on an American Recovery and Reinvestment Plan that will immediately jumpstart job creation and long-term growth.

That promise, convinced a majority of the House and Senate to recklessly trust the new President, urgently passing legislation to borrow and spend nearly $800 Billion before the final version was even printed.

The Obama Administration’s breathtakingly aggressive expansion of government power, and promised future tax increases have clamped a lid on private sector investment and guarantee anemic job creation for many years.  The stimulus, by shoveling bonus money at moribund bureaucracies is doing more harm than good, if “good” is more jobs.

The next sentence in Obama’s January speech was:

It’s a plan that represents not just new policy, but a whole new approach to meeting our most urgent challenges. For if we hope to end this crisis, we must end the culture of anything goes that helped create it–and this change must begin in Washington.

President Obama has largely abandoned the tedious practice of appending every idea with the claim that it’s “a whole new approach.”  There was certainly nothing new about the so-called stimulus or recovery act, except maybe it’s mamouth size.  Congress has been borrowing money and wasting money on the same tired old programs for decades.   In fact, what better phrase is there than “the culture of anything goes,” to describe Congressmen and Senators who would put party loyalty ahead of any other consideration and vote to add a Trillion dollars to the national debt without even reading the legislation?