The truth is their lie is sticking much better peoples mind than Democrats truth, that really hurts me, why dems are so inept when it comes to tehir message heard.
30
Most of you have heard this one.
You look at a video of Trump or some reconizable republican (most likely a male).
And you say he’s lying.
How could you tell that?
I see that his lips are moving.
16
If so Dr.Krugman, We can't blame Republican politicians 100% about what they are doing. What about Republican voters , they willingly choose to elect this people , they know they are lying and cheating.
What is wrong? If Hillary called them deplorables, If you choose to believe a liar , you are deplorable.
29
wouldn't you like just once to see the headline:
DON THE CON TELLS THE TRUTH, FIRST TIME IN 72 YEARS
23
USA Today is actually a news source?
18
lying has become extremely fashionable.
hardly anyone is ashamed of it anymore.
who cares about anything but one's own advantage?
remember cambridge analytica's dark posts!
they flat-out lied into people's face[book]s
to make them believe utter nonsense, such as:
"hillary will take their guns away" if she's potus.
how many times will some perfidious psychometrician
have to repeat that bad is good, ["black is white, up is down"]
until even YOU end up believing it?
trust, empathy, respect, curiosity, helpfulness, generosity
are in total danger of being destroyed ... on a large scale.
luckily, more and more pockets of resistance start to form.
16
I'm still stunned that Paul Krugman, one of my heroes, wears a hairpiece. Paul, please don't eat it under any circumstances. Doing so could render you in need of healthcare, and we don't know for sure whether you will be sufficiently covered under your current insurance options. Intentional mastication of hairpieces may be excluded. Plus, your hair and head look about right currently, so let's not mess with it.
22
The Republican party has complete control of our government, all three branches.
Republicans have demonstrated they are incompetent administrators of our country, starting at the top, the one in the Oval Office.
Misdirection is not enough, so they have to outright lie.
Our problem: It’s the republicans, stupid.
There is only one solution - vote them out of power. Put someone other than a republican in the seats each of us can vote on. It’s just two senate seats, one house seat and the White House seat.
Four votes.
Seems easy.
Do it.
Every two years in November.
One trip to the voting booth.
34
Edmund Burke said it best, and it still applies: "I never meant to say that the conservatives are generally stupid. I meant to say that stupid people are generally Conservative." I don't know who coined the phrase, "there's no fixing stupid," but it and Burke's notion sure apply to Trump and his supporters.
38
When are y'all going to stop drinking the Trump "coolade and "orangeade"? Wake up and Vote 2018.
8
Do you really wear a hairpiece?
4
The problem is that the Democrats have no recognized leader and no ideas that people can understand. The only brief hint of excitement for the Dems was when a vibrant young Hispanic NY congresswoman defeated an entrenched Dem. Forgive me not remembering their names. I’m from Fla. but I read the NYT.
Anyway, this young woman is a Socialist who thinks Socialsm actually works. It might work in Western Europe but NEVER in the US. Americans just watch what has happened to the once beautiful and prosperous country of Venezuela. Socialism has been tried before. It just doesn’t work. Zebra..... it’s whats for dinner in Venezuela.
3
Paul, you must have a short memory. The former CEO of Cambridge Analytica reportedly said, "You don't have to tell the truth, you only have to make it believable. Mr. Trump's supporters think his factoids are believable...
s
5
"Why do Republicans think they can get away with such blatant lies? Partly it’s because they expect their Fox-watching followers to believe anything they’re told."
That's it .. in a nutshell, which doesn't say much for tens of millions of Americans. And why does his electorate so avidly consume their lies like manna from heaven? Because Trump is their pied piper of white grievance, and gives voice to their labile fears that cultural extinction is just around the corner. And, as long as he beats that drum, they'll embrace anything he says and does.
What a sorry state of affairs ...
10
I nearly fell off my chair hearing the lies about democrats wanting to end pre-existing conditions from our Liar in Chief. It boggles the mind the level of lying. It's a wonder any of us are still sane listening to this garbage. He is famous for projecting his wrongs on others.
25
Repeated lies become truth.
6
According to Hannah Arendt: “If everybody always lies to you, the consequence is not that you believe the lies, but rather that nobody believes anything any longer. This is because lies, by their very nature, have to be changed, and a lying government has constantly to rewrite its own history. On the receiving end you get not only one lie—a lie which you could go on for the rest of your days—but you get a great number of lies, depending on how the political wind blows. And a people that no longer can believe anything cannot make up its mind. It is deprived not only of its capacity to act but also of its capacity to think and to judge. And with such a people you can then do what you please.”
There is the objective, not just of Trump, but of the vassals of the GOP Congress beholden to a coterie of right-wing billionaires out to establish a combination of Oligarchy and Theocracy.
26
The GOP doesn't need trump anymore, they have their tax cut and judges, but never the less we are stuck with this bloviating blowhard for the foreseeable future. Why anyone would believe anything that comes out of his mouth, or from any Republican in Congress, is beyond me.
11
Next thing you know, Trump will be saying:
“War is peace.
Freedom is slavery.
Ignorance is strength.”
14
About 30% of the country supports Trump.
15 points of IQ corresponds to one standard deviation by definition, and IQ is a normal distribution (again by definition) so if your IQ is below about 92 ...
Why does a sizable percentage of the population "buy" into Trump's lies? How long does it take for the population at large to figure out that the Emperor has no clothes? November 6th?
@Paul Krugman
Do you really have a hairpiece? Trump needs a hairpiece to cover his bald spot. His comb-over "do" is a metaphor for his bald lies.
9
Of course they did. At this point in the "conversation" we just have to look at what they hope to accomplish by using the lies to debunk them, and the effect on the various audiences hearing them to see why they work.
On the lie of Republicans supporting insurance of pre-existing conditions, the win they seek is to tightly bind employees to their employers, forcing them to suffer bad treatment in return for being the only way they can afford healthcare. Republicans will get more campaign contributions from abusive employers that way.
The tactical reasons for the lie are two fold.
1. It prevents awareness from spilling into the Fox News' audience and prepares them to fight the D's.. They only see Democrats trying to take away what that audience sees as a good, because only R's talking points are allowed on Fox News. The base therefore thinks the Dems want to take their healthcare away and the R's running for office want to stop the D's from taking it away.
It makes the Democrats furious about the lies. Their reaction seems unreasonable to the Fox News audience, since they know the good R's are trying to save protection for pre-existing conditions. The Democrats become stupid looking in the Fox News audience' minds. Dems just don't get it. Dems are portrayed as an angry mob of losers. And everything wrong in this country is because the liberal-infected government tries to take away freedoms.
2
So in effect one must be healthy, wealthy and preferably white, to be considered as deserving in this country. Go away other humans, unless of course you have a little money left after paying and paying and paying, for health care and everything else.
Greed is an ugly thing.
16
Forget DT, this bald faced lying is on the current mainstream republican party. With fox news and sinclair network constantly parroting these blatant lies, our civic community is under a very dangerous attack. Many Americans (my mother and brother included) only get their "news" from these right wing propaganda sources. I fear for our society.
15
I keep begging for a "Lonesome Rhodes" moment from this bigmouthed bigot similar to his Access Hollywood blunder, but where he reveals what he REALLY thinks of the people who attend his rallies.
He's always been a nouveau-riche jerk who despises people who aren't as rich as he is and is still to this day frustrated that he's too crass to get a foot in the door of high society.
The more exposition the better.
That crass buffoon expressing how much he actually despises his followers would probably be the only thing that would wake them up.
12
"The true Republican position on health care has been clear and consistent for decades: The party hates, just hates, the idea of government action to make essential health care available to all citizens, regardless of income or medical history."
Yeah. So? Don't you know, Paul, that the typical republican voter just wants the government and the politicians to keep their stinkin' hands off their Medicare. No government health care for them, they don't need it because they have Medicare.
And the Trump base that is too young for Medicare, well...they depend on the Affordable Care Act, but don't you dare try to push Obamacare on them.
When you don't know what you've got and who got it for you, you're a typical republican:
Hate unions, but love union pay and benefits...you're a republican.
Hate government regulations, but love safe products, clean air and clean water...you're a republican.
Hate taxes, but want a big military and plenty of police and border guards...you're a republican.
Hate immigrants even though you're ancestors came here broke or fleeing oppression, or both...you're a republican.
Hate deficits and the national debt, but love big tax cuts for the wealthy...you're a republican.
Hate science and higher education, but love technology...you're a republican.
Hate democracy, but love power...you're a republican.
Hate the truth, but love to lie...you're a republican.
Want to save this country from fascism...you're a democrat.
VOTE OUT ALL REPUBLICANS
48
Republicans have been freed by Trump to just ignore facts that might contradict what they would like to be true. No more having to account for science that fails to substantiate their opinions and no more dealing with consequences that are not what they wanted.
Trump does not take life seriously, he hires others to do that and has no idea how that works. Anyone who follows him is going to regret it unless they have people to deal with real life as does Trump.
3
Mr Krugman’s animus towards Republicans has become a little too much to bear even for this life long Democrat. In this latest tirade about Republicans and Medicare he refers to then as liars without apparent knowledge of what the word means. What raised my anger to boiling point and caused me to write this comment was his paraphrasing of Ronald Regan comment in 1961 about Medicare and the destruction of American freedom . I must assume he knows that Ronald Regan was a Democrat in 1961.
3
A major problem for the republicans and especially trump is that they lie so much about everything that they get confused and end up shooting down their own insignificant thoughts. It must be very difficult for a rep to remember what position they are supposed to take on an item.
Some voters believe that the reps are really representing them and care for their issues. Boy are they in trouble - except they don't know it. Supporting the tariffs on agriculture that are destroying their homes and farms is an example of the understanding of the issues. Hopefully someone will point it out for them.
1
Paul,
Wonderful to see an Op-Ed Columnist answering some of his replys. Thank you.
When do you think you'll come out in support of M4A or your version and when will you describe how and why it will work?!
Please! As a respected, awarded, thoughtful person with insights and connections, plan, discuss and implement a healthcare plan that will work for everyone and anyone in America.
I eagerly await...as I have been for years now... you reply and answers.
Thanks. Ds.
1
USA Today asserts that the original Trump draft was fact checked: "Trump's original op-ed was fact-checked and edited by USA TODAY and then sent back for review and revision. Trump’s representatives accepted the changes, and the op-ed ran Wednesday. USA TODAY also linked to original material. But as with all opinion pieces, the editors gave the president leeway on his opinions." What is meant by "leeway on his opinions" is not clear. The image of a lapdog appears when I read this. (https://www.usatoday.com/story/opinion/2018/10/11/donald-trump-medicare-...
1
I've talked to Canadians who have moved to the US about their health care system. They hated it. Too few hospitals, long waits for appointments, poor service....but most of these individuals lived in small town. Maybe it's different in large cities.
1
USA today raised its newsstand price from $1 to $2 on Sept. 30, 2018, making it an even less worthwhile money expenditure. So unless you picked up a free copy in your hotel lobby, chances are you didn't see the shameful lie-packed op-ed dropped by the Trump administration.
3
I have never voted straight party ticket before, but this year you can bet I will!
The Georgia Republicans are trying to pass off as truth a multitude of lies about themselves and the Democrats that are running against them. Today I got a "comparison" of issues for state office, so full of lies it could be lace!
4
Of course, it's exactly what Mr. Krugman says. But it's also about the incessant fear-mongering we've been exposed to since 9/11 -- and that has been greedily supported by the media, since it keeps all eyes on their chosen news source for fear of missing The Next Big Threat.
So when Republicans say, entirely against all evidence, that Democrats will gut Medicare, will turn the US into Venezuela, everyone throws their hands in the air and runs the other way, no matter what's waiting for them there. Republicans are more adept at fear-mongering than Democrats, and their constituents are probably less prone to fact-checking before racing for the doors. But we have to stop it. It's ruining our country.
5
The Dems aren't so great either. Get rid of Schumer.
No matter what happens on Election Day, Chuck Schumer should be out as the Democratic leader in the Senate. On Thursday, he cut another ridiculous deal with Majority Leader Mitch McConnell. In exchange for an adjournment until after the election, so his members up for re-election could go home and campaign, Schumer agreed to fast-track 15 more Trump appointees to the federal courts, further guaranteeing that the cancer of this administration* will metastasize over decades until a lot of us are dead, and until a lot of us won't be able to remember what the American government looked like before this president* was elected.
3
Boxing has rules, and disqualifies those who cheat.
Academics have rules, and punishes those who fabricates data.
Politics has no rules. The biggest con gets elected to the highest office.
7
Tis the season, well almost for wildly inaccurate statements designed to get folks to vote opposite their own interests. The tax cuts for the wealthy and corporations supported to poor people. Or health care for no one masked as fantastic replacement coverage just around the next bend in the road. Coal is good and time to plan a vacation to Yemen to witness shock and awe up close. Yes, we are rolling now waist deep in water in the south and southeast. Mother nature so much plastic in the hands of capitalists making America.....what happened to my red cap and my Kanye West cape? Someone is messing with me about the red baseball cap sapping my strength. Robbing me of wisdom. Maybe USA Today will print my op-ed on insurance and the importance of red baseball caps to overall health.
1
"So will the G.O.P.’s Big Lie on health care work?"Most likely it will work for with the GOP lies is the overt message or dog whistles of racism that Republicans have employed for decades since Reagan.
We've come to a place where the attacker is seen as the victim a la Donald trump.
Hence Dr. Ford is still getting death threats
while trump has the audacity to apologize to Kavanaugh of behalf of the " nation."
9
At age 82, I am glad to have been alive when America was at her best, the 40s, 50s, and when LBJs guided Civil Rights and Medicare. Labor unions created our middle class. The top income tax rate was over 90% under Ike. Now, most of us are serfs in an uncaring plutocracy. We can’t even maintain our infrastructure. We worship greed.
Can you imagine what WW2 would have been like under a despicable president?
14
William Butler Yeats put it this way: “ . . . The ceremony of innocence is drowned/ The best lack all conviction, while the worst/ Are full of passionate intensity. . . “
The Right operates on "passionate intensity" which comes from a different place than rational discussion. A rational presentation is more likely to reinforce an irrational but passionately held belief than to cause it to be questioned.
I once worked with some members of a religion.They had a saying, "When the elders speak, the thinking has been done." So it is with our Right. They are past the thinking phase now.
18
I've maxed out my Social Security benefits and purchased the best supplemental coverage there is. Still, without Medicare, I cannot afford the considerable cost of treating my cancer. Loosing the EXISTING Medicare coverage is, for me, more than an economic issue. Without the Medicare support I currently have -- I will soon be dead.
Is there a hat for that?
39
Mr. Krugman, how can you say that USA Today is mainstream. It has been leaning to the right for decades and now has fallen completely into the right wing lake. Many local newspapers and large scale television station owners like Sinclair have done the same.
Self stated unbiased news is nonsense, as all media have biases. It would be so much better to be like the British papers, who are known by their biases. The Guardian is more left, and they have their followers just like the Murdoch-like papers. That kind of transparency would be a welcome change from all the deliberately misleading papers like USA
Today and the many local papers. which endorse candidates and pretend to be neutral, while consistently endorsing only one party's candidates with an occasional one from the other side to keep up the facade.
More naive readers, who seem to be in the majority, believe the facade and think they are getting nonpartisan news and endorsements, when it is usually pro-corporate propaganda,
8
I believe our fundamental problem as a democracy is that we don’t have an adequate number of responsible citizens, who through knowledge, reflection and action drive selection and election of good, capable representatives into our local, state and especially federal governments.
Trump is just the most alarming symptom of our political dysfunction due to a defective electorate.
Only if things get bad enough for many people to resort to studying facts and thinking thru what they and our nation needs is it likely to get better.
I’m not optimistic in the short term, though
12
WSJ disagrees.
Mr. Trump noted in his op-ed that the plan would cost the federal government $32.6 trillion over 10 years. That figure is from an analysis by the Mercatus Center’s Charles Blahous, a respected researcher and a former Social Security and Medicare trustee who sometimes writes for us. His findings are in the ballpark of every serious analysis.
That spending figure amounts to 10.7% of GDP in 2022 when the plan kicks in and then up from there. National defense—routinely derided as too expensive and wasteful—is a mere 3% of GDP today. And brace yourself: “Doubling all currently projected federal individual and corporate income tax collections would be insufficient to finance the added federal costs of the plan,” Mr. Blahous says.
Liberals are griping that these estimates overlook what would be a decline in overall health spending, but Mr. Blahous goes out of his way to credit savings that would probably be illusory such as lower drug costs. As in every socialist system, the real “savings” would come from price controls and wait lists for many health-care services. Have a cold? Come on in. A hip replacement or breast reconstruction? Get in line.
And that’s the good news. The truth is that BernieCare would essentially blow up the entire current health system. The Sanders bill would eliminate employer-sponsored insurance, which now covers some 150 million Americans. The sales pitch for that should be: If you like your health-care plan, we won’t let you keep it.
3
@Joe
If it is impossible to give all citizens healthcare, how can we explain all the other major democracies that manage to do it?
12
@Joe so Western Europe and Japan are crashed into bankruptcy 30 years ago when they decided health care is a right? Didn't Reagan claim our democracy's destruction with Medicare becoming law? Thank God he dismantled this dangerous law.
5
Joe,
Why don't you mention that the current estimate of our healthcare costs will be over $34 billion dollars. As stated in this Koch bro's own study? A $2 billion dollar savings?!
Why don't you mention that America currently pays twice the avg. of other OCED countries for healthcare? With worse outcomes to boot?!
Why don't you mention that currently hundreds of millions cant afford to use said healthcare?! That pre-existing conditions and bankruptcy devastate tens of millions of Americans under our current system?!
You failed to mention how dental and vision will be included under M4A. You failed to mention that billing will no longer be a worry. No more 3rd party and insur. billing for months and years after said service.
Finally...if you think we aren't waiting for elective services currently, if we can even access, much less qualify for, such as hip replacements then you are being disingenuous or ignorant of our system as it exists for most Americans.
Is M4A the cure all?! No.
But our current system is not working and has bankrupted and killed millions of citizens.
Profit off of sickness is despicable.
Denying care for profit is murder.
11
"Why do Republicans think they can get away with such blatant lies? ... it’s also because they can still count on enablers in the mainstream news media."
For example, consider that even NPR referred to Trump's mocking of Blasey Ford as Trump behaving "in a way many took as mocking".
NPR are the good guys of course. But this mindless namby-pamby soft pedaling of egregious behavior, actions, and policy needs to be rooted out of journalism. Fix the journalism schools: Stop pushing out castrated apologists.
336
Do news stories have to tell you when to become angry? You should be able to analyze how a story compares to reality as you see it and judge for yourself whether to fly into a rage and pick a side. Don’t depend on news stories to form your opinions—let the commentators do that.
3
It seems to me that the public has diminishing interest in the issues and the facts that should be openly debated.
Politics has morphed into reality TV, the perfect stage for Trump's theater of the absurd. The public prefers this because politicians as a group have failed them.
Harvard Business School did a report it 2017 on the business of politics and it commented that "By nearly every measure, the industry of politics, itself, is thriving. There’s just one problem.
The people whom the politics industry is supposed to serve have never been more dissatisfied. Public trust in the federal government is hovering at a near 60-year low."
5
I believe the word "lie" is a bit harsh. There is a legitimate fear that Medicare-for-all will morph into an American version of the British National Health Service, which is perennially underfunded, understaffed, and notorious for its rationing of care that generates lengthy waiting periods and outright denials of care to older individuals who are likely to die anyway. At present, Medicare is very popular because none of those characteristics apply and, as a number of commenters have noted, the "popular" (and very generous) program is going bankrupt and requires reform -- but babyboomers hope to die before that happens. Open it up to everyone and we may instead find that Mr. Trump is not lying.
2
Except that none of what you wrote is accurate. The NHS doesn't feature long waiting periods or let seniors die. The solution to fixing Medicare is also quite simple, if Republicans would raise the amount taken out of high earners' paychecks for the first time in decades. So yeah, Trump is lying.
33
@WC Johnson what's notorious is the number of Americans who lose their business, home or even life because they can't afford healthcare.
7
This November, Republicans will expand their Senate majority by five seats. No more worrying about Flake or Murkowski derailing Trump's legislation. No more worrying about the Senate's existence as an independent political entity. From now on their job is the same as the Supreme Court's: a rubber stamp and fundraising machine for Mr. Trump.
To make things worse, they've managed to turn Maryland red. In a few months we'll see Democrats adopt the same survival tactic that saved them after Reagan: abandon left-wing politics and push the "center" even further to the right. The next Democrat president will be a more conservative version of George W. Bush. But don't weep for our "democracy", America. There never was a democracy here, and no American leader ever intended for America to be a democratic republic of any sort.
5
Politicians lie because they have determined that there are no penalties for such. Truth is just an inconvenient bump in the road to these serial liars. Why deal with the truth and complex issues when you can just make up a tale, and when you get called on it, just say the other guy is telling a lie. If a lie support you position, just double down and keep repeating it.
That has to stop. If I lie in a court of law, or to the IRS, or any other number of situations, I can suffer legal consequences with the possibility of going to jail. Lie as a politician, and all that happens is nothing.
I truly believe that there need to be some kind of legal remedy to all of this lying. If as a publicly elected official, you are caught in a provable lie, you need some kind of punishment, with the possibility of being removed from office, or maybe even jail time.
This is why people have no confidence in our public officials. I can see why some people do not vote since they truly believe that nothing will change. One candidate or another, you cannot believe anything they say.
Public officials lying to the electorate corrupts our democracy. And the Republican have honed it to a fine art. This has to stop.
5
The plan by the Koch Brothers- and the Sheldon Adelson-type oligarchs was to take the long view and buy not just the national elections but also the state legislatures to ensure that state governments enact, and state courts support, the gerrymandering and voter suppression needed for their total takeover of the US gov't for their own financial benefit. Did they even work 30 years ago to buy red state politicians to be sure education funding was drastically cut, thereby ensuring there would always be generations of ignorant voters that were never taught critical thinking and would thus vote as they are told by Fox News?
11
Family doc here, 29 years in the game.
Krugman is right. Republicans want to eviscerate medical insurance. That said, beware of Medicare for all. It will kill us, which in turn might just kill you.
Medicare doesn't pay enough to let us stay in business. Our overhead is just too high. We depend on private insurance to make up the difference. A public option that people could buy into would be OK.
8
25% of America has been stupid and gullible since the Pilgrim days. 25% of America has always believed in conspiracy theories, fake this and fake that, fairies, flat earth and believing everything they're told because of the "truthiness" of it. Those are the Trump supporters of today. But the 75% of America who have a semblance of logical thought see through Trumps lying and bloviating but we got lazy and complacent in 2016 and The Big Don was the result. Hopefully enough of the 75% will put down their phones and vote and stop the Trump train before he drives us all off a cliff.
3
Here's a couple of effective soundbites to throw at most Republicans ever, everytime.
Especially now.
Republicans are "Re-Liar-Able"
Republican "Re Liar Bility"
Republicans will lie in bed and when they get up, they enjoy attacking the truth each waking day.
4
You treat the ACA as a kind of rock-balancing package deal. You don’t allow Americans to like some features of it but not others.
1
If you like your employer provided health care and want to keep it vote Republican. If you want long waiting periods for routine procedures, euthanasia as the treatment for expensive ailments, and generally handing your well being over to government bureaucrats vote for Democrats.
4
@I want another option what is it that makes the government bureaucrats a bigger fear than the big business bureaucrats who are now making the decisions based almost exclusively on financial concerns? Those in government would presumably be freed from making decisions that affect the profits of someone who doesn't give a rip about me or you. What's wrong with that?
13
@Bradley Bleck
A free and open market puts me in control over which “big business” bureaucrats I deal with, because while they may not give a rip about me they do give a rip about my money.
A government bureaucrat gets paid no matter how poorly they perform, and has zero incentive to care about me or my money.
I want...,
You mean employer care that is limited? One that can cancel me for pre-existing conditions? One that doesn't cover dental nor vision? One that bills me for every and any 3rd party service not covered, for months to years after said service? One that can bankrupt me cause it only covers so much and only up to certain amounts?
You mean my employer care that is lost if I leave or im layed off?
You mean the employer care that costs thousands of dollars each month. That costs extra to cover my children?!
You mean the employer insurance that I have to pay out hundreds in co-pays and don't dare use in the first place cause it will raise rates and can't afford the pharmacy costs?!
The same plans that make me wait months to be seen. The same plans that deny me care cause it isn't deemed needed or is not covered or too expensive?!
Our current system is run by bureaucrats that are paid to deny you service. That is how they make profits.
You are condemning hundreds of million Americans to no care. Sickness, dying and bankruptcy. For profit and selfishness.
Aka. as Republican.
6
Trump is head of a cult, the Trump Party is not a political party. Trump has been a master of promoting and spreading conspiracy theories using social media and microtargeting. Conspiracy theories are a tool of tyrants and cult leaders and they are dangerous when they create groups with animosity towards each other. Cultists don't care if their leader lies, as long as he feeds their obsessions and fantasies with him as a magical person. Hope that truth and civility can win in the long run.
5
The GOP has long turned truth and reality upside down--as they'll do anything, no matter how amoral or underhanded to wrest all power away from any other parties, not just Dems. These dirty scoundrels have to be voted out now!! Vote Blue No Matter Who!!
3
On April 12, 2006, Governor Romney, later the Republican candidate for President, signed the health care legislation: "Romneycare." Hey - but why let facts get in the way of yet another screed...
3
Drinking republican Kool-aid actually will kill you.
- More and more guns everywhere.
- Less and less regulation on polluters.
- Unregulated market driven healthcare coverage.
to cite a few examples.
19
...and keep the money flowing to the wealthy because they deserve it more.
3
Must be nice to be a politician, you get all the healthcare you want, a tax free pension, all the perks that come with the job. Go in a civil servant leave a kabillionaire, and all on the taxpayer dime. Then they get to make healthcare decisions for the rest of us. I hate these people, I truly do.
A pox on both their houses.
16
".................But it’s also because they can still count on enablers in the mainstream news media. After all, why did USA Today approve this piece? Letting Trump express his opinion is one thing; giving him a platform for blatant lies is another....."
--------------------------------
Take a look at today's WaPo-approved "opinion" piece by lobbyist Ed Rogers, essentially a propaganda attack ad filled with lies about pre-existing condition coverage.
When mainstream news media are promoting lobbyists—and presidents—for attack ads, we're doomed.
4
Noticing that Paul Krugman is replying to comments, I just want to thank him for regularly providing clear and concise information for a populace routinely bombarded with falsehood. His valuable work will, I believe, make a difference as we move ahead.
8
In the human resources office I work in, passage of the ACA was a problem. Those in our office who worked on employee benefits got buried under a mountain of new paperwork for maybe a year. But we all know the joke, "cheer up, things could be worse. So I cheered up, and sure enough, things got worse."
Here is what it has come to: nobody knows the rules because the Trump/Pence cabal has made sure nobody can find them out. The newly-hired business manager (CBO, or whatever title they get) has castigated my colleagues for allowing part-time help and consultants who work by the hour to get anywhere close to 96 hours/month lest they qualify for ACA. To him, it's all about the Benjamins. So then, trying to find out who does now qualify is, redundancy alert, impossible to learn as it's impossible to find out the rules. And my colleagues are very experienced, conscientious and capable. In other words, they know what they're doing.
And of course, there's this. For those who need health insurance but can't pay for it - tough.
3
As usual, the Democrats are allowing the GOP to control the debate. The Democrats, as a party, must seize the agenda and make it their own. Bring healthcare, Medicare, Social Security, education to the front and center of each election cycle and present a liberal worldview. It is time for the left to stop battling on the fields of the GOP's choosing.
240
@TRKapner
The problem is that many people believe that ideas wfrom leftists have actually hurt this country. The left is not making many converts lately with their hate, rage filled mobs. They r hurting themselves by showcasing their scary members.
1
Without a doubt, protecting people with pre-existing conditions is popular although it should be said that no other insurance plan permits this. You cannot buy homeowners insurance and get coverage for storm damage that occurred before buying the policy. Hence we can prove that health insurance in America has morphed beyond true insurance. And here lies the problem. Medicare is already less than a decade from insolvency. We know this is coming. We see the kinds of wait times that people put up with in places like Canada and the UK because nationalized health care rations care.
I admittedly don't have a complete solution that I can offer in less than 2,000 characters. But it's disingenuous to claim Republicans don't care about health care. They do. But they also care about exploding US debt - at least - some of them do. Mr. Krugman would do well to admit that the Democrat's utopian health care plans are not a viable long term solution either. Democrats lie too - they just hope the lie holds up long enough so that current bureaucrats won't have to deal with the Medicare train wreck ahead.
10
@Alan I know people in the UK health system and the care is not rationed, it is prioritized by seriousness of the condition. Ours is prioritized by who can pay for it.
You guys on the right keep misrepresenting a very good health care system.
34
@Alan: Yah, Republicans sure cared about exploding the deficit when they passed those tax cuts....
28
@Alan:
"...it's disingenuous to claim Republicans don't care about health care. They do."
Well, sure, they do - as long as profit is involved. But there is no profit in peace, which is exactly why Republicans don't want universal care.
"Medicare is already less than a decade from insolvency. We know this is coming."
...which is exactly why we need to change our collective mindset about closing our borders to immigrant workers and subsidizing billionaires.
"Mr. Krugman would do well to admit that the Democrat's utopian health care plans are not a viable long term solution either."
Why, when the rest of the industrialized world proves you wrong?
Can't do, right wing noise is just so tiresome. Enough, already.
22
It is well known that Trump has problems in speaking the truth. The truth is his biggest enemy. My problem is that the Trump voters do not mind or care his lying so blatantly . Now falsehood and fraudulence is smart policy to win in politics, Honesty and truth are the policy for looser . Trump is smart and he knows dishonesty and lies will lead him to victory. Because most of us, the voters are politically naïve and ignorant.
6
I read the headline and thought this article was about Schumer and Feinstein.
2
Compared to the stony, Kremlin-wall silence that Americans faced when Eric Holder told nobody anything about the Obama administrations' scandals, the Trump administration - assisted by leakers - is out in the public view.
It even shows too much for some, but it definitely puts everything out on the sidewalk with what it thinks AND says.
There are federal judges still waiting to hear what documents the DoJ even HAD about the gun-walking mess that got hundreds of Mexicans and two Americans killed so far, thanks to what passed to ''the most transparent administraion ever'' as stated by either Vladimir Lenin or Barack Obama, it really doesn't matter wehich anymore.
But hatred is all the progressive Democrats and their parters in the coastal media start with anymore, and their screamers lined up outside buildings in Washington, D.C. think that is perfectly alright.
1
It's totally infuriating. And an indictment on the intelligence of the people of this nation. How dumb do they think we are?
1
I'm not sure which group of Republicans terrify me the most. The people we dismiss as being to stupid to learn the facts or the highly educated folks, I know, that simply bend the facts to fit the narrative they agree with.
6
Would that every voter would read this, and understand it, before the November elections. Thank you, Dr. K.
2
"The party hates, just hates, the idea of government action to make essential health care available to all citizens, regardless of income or medical history."
Well, yeah, but that's just a small part fo the story. The full story is this....
The party hates, just hates, constitutional government, the rule of law, and anyone who is not white and of European descent.
9
They lie because they can and suffer no consequences. Herein lies the tragedy of our times (no pun intended).
8
If I were a political marketing consultant and somebody came to me and said, "our objectives here are to hurt black/poor/"those" people and provide unearned income for billionaires", I'm thinking instead of using that as a tagline I'd advise utilizing a different approach, like....
...lying.
Just spitballing here. There might be another way, but I don't see how they have a ton of options.
2
Why is it so easy to lie to people and get away with it these days. As some contributors have stated here confirmation bias plays a big role. But it's hard not to say that outright ignorance and misinformation aren't key factors. People in the red states often bemoan that they are being looked down on as stupid by the 'elites' in the coastal states and big metro areas. But take Kentucky for example. One of the few states that actually endeavored to create a state based ACA exchange. It was called Kynect. Polls went on to show that when asked if were in favor of the program the majority said yes. But when asked if they were in favor of Obamacare they emphatically said no. Obviously they are too ignorant, uninformed/misinformed to know that they are the same thing.
If you don't want to be looked down on as being stupid, the simple solution is to not be so.
2
Trump is just an empty vessel. He is ignorant, allergic to learning about a topic with this much complexity. The Rs are thrilled to fill that empty suit with their long simmering ideas and talking points. Their push would have been the same with any R president, but a stupid one makes it easier.
In the 60s, Medicare came to be because no commercial insurance company would cover the senior population. By the law of averages, they'd be a burden on a risk pool from which commercial insurers hoped to maximize profits.
In 2009, ACA came to be because no commercial insurance company would cover those with pre-existing conditions. The proven Medicare model would have been better, but Obama was trying to get the buy-in of Rs & Heritage & the insurance stock market.
For 60yrs, Rs have been scheming to defund Medicare, Ryan, its latest architect. They just needed the trifecta, which they got in 2016, thanks, Putin. So kill two birds with one stone. Step 1, bleed $1.5T from 'entitlements'. Step 2, cut $1.5T in taxes (demanded from donors, or threat that campaign $ would dry up). Claim they're fiscally responsible. Oooops.
The bottom line is that Rs have no long term interest in expanding a system like Medicare, which costs 4% management costs, and NO INVESTOR DIVIDENDS. Reagan taught us to place all our chips on corporate profits, not non-profit community benefit. We're not better for his lesson.
2
The sad part of the republicans' difficulty telling the truth upon occasion, is that millions of American children will witness their acts of betrayal and treason.
2
Democrats would turn the US into a Venezuela?
Such vehement lies about the "others" that now include Dems.
When will this end? when Donald Trump is finally out-manuvered. He was pretty much speechless with Kayne West yesterday, and I was sad to not hear anything that Jim Brown might have counter-balanced the idiotic soliloquy with.
Here's the truth: Trump and his administration are the real 'others' whose stain on our nation will take years to repair.
5
The Trump Party lies about:
Health Care
The Environment
Climate Change
The Economy
The Tax Cut bill
The Russia Investigation
The Dysfunction in the White House
The Empty State Department
The Kavanaugh nomination and vetting
The Presidential flouting of the Constitution (emoluments)
The Deep State (it doesn't exist)
The breakdown in the US's international relationships
The national security risk posed by Canada
The "fake" new media - IE all media not Fox.
Lying itself (alternate facts, truth isn't truth)
So keep your expectations very low for this very low party. Vote for Democrats even if for just one or two cycles until this cancer on America is removed.
8
Outright deceit is the go to play in the republican playbook because it works! It works because there is a small percentage of voters themselves who have no idea what the issues are nor where each party stands on those issues. The republicans purposefully target these uneducated voters given the small margin in which elections are won or lost. So far their deceitful strategy is working brilliantly. What the dems seem unable to do because they are to busy “going high” when republicans “go low”, is to start painting republicans as the abject liars for which they are. Instead of using words like “untruthful” or “distorted” the democrats need to stop being so frikken polite and say things like “the republicans are liars who intentionally want to harm you economically so they can help their rich buddies.” It took almost 2 years before a democrat actually used the word “lie” concerning Trump because they are to busy being polite. “When they go low we go high” is a cute pitch but it aint actually gonna win elections because the uneducated populace continues to believe republican deceit. Fight fire WITH fire!
3
"So will the G.O.P.’s Big Lie on health care work?"
Sure it will.
Yours is a country that voted for Trump to be president.
You'll believe anything.
5
America is divided by new kind of religion, the political party. There are those idealists who value, truth, fairness, kindness, free and fair election, equal protection for all people under the law and the notion that the government belongs to the people and is not up for sale, that the oath of office acturally means something and who abhor greed, bribery, using public office to enrich themselves and will do anything to seize and keep power, no matter how cruel. By and large these are Democrats and independents. The rest, the republicans a treasonous cult believe the opposite. And they can’t stop lying.
1
Trump stands to lose nothing by lying obviously and often because his character is of no consequence to his base, they elected him knowing exactly what kind of repugnant character he was. And in the mean time he forces the media to repeat his message and debate it, wasting time on clearing the air instead of literally anything more productive.
But trying to counter this by claiming the Democrats are the "Party of Honesty"? I didn't think Dems were that hilariously naive, to think NOBODY on their side ever lies or cheats. Go ahead an run on that platform though. It's a platform so fragile a single scandal could collapse it into a heap of kindling for the funeral pyre of the Dem's 2020 ambitions.
New polls show that there is an even chance that the Republicans will hold both Houses! So, please get out and vote: Nov. 6th is "The National Day To Vote Out Republicans" --All of them!
12
Trump's followers usually vote again their own self interests. You can actually call most modern day Republicans oxymorons.
5
Trump lying and giving his opinion is one and the same, so how could USA Today tell the difference?
1
If it is not clear this year about what the Republicans want to do to, not for, Americans, it may never be clear.
I suspect that many who have and want to keep Medicare think that since it has not been taken away, it really won't be taken away since Republicans don't do what they say they will in this regard. For others receiving Social Security, the same thinking applies in very large numbers.
Putting those things aside, it becomes easier to threaten others not collecting SS or Medicare, and made sure that foreign born people don't get what "real Americans" are entitled to. Delusionary thinking is pretty common.
The constant bleating of lies from the President and the sheep who follow the bleating has a numbing effect on the flock. The following sheep are likely shorn of their relative diminishing wealth and property and mistakenly think they will be well fed when really, they are on the Republican menu as lamb chops.
2
When the GOP was going to repeal the ACA, they held townhalls expecting their constituents to applaud. Instead they received, "You're killing me, my spouse, my children, my parnets, and so on." The Reps were running out the backdoors in fear. What did the GOP learn from this? To listen, and maybe not improve or expand the ACA, but not to damage it? Or did they learn not to hold townhalls? If your incumbant isn't listening to you, vote them out.
3
If every US citizen paid $130,000 apiece we could retire the debt. Or something in that range. If we did do that, and kept spending at the rate we have been, we will be right back to current debt levels in two to three years. Maybe there is something more than hate motivating people who disagree with Krugman. Maybe they have something they are trying to preserve that we all should be concerned about. But it is easier to get what yo want now by telling the lie that others just hate.
2
@TD
Decades of tax cuts to the rich are always paid for by cuts in social services to the 99%.
Its a continued pattern, a strategy by the GOP to funnel more money to the 1%.
W's wars and W's recession didn't help.
3
Both parties have run up debt. Reagan's cuts "for the rich" added almost half a trillion to revenues. But we outspent the gain. It doesn't matter who is in office. That is the point. They both do it, while claiming it is awful. Show me an actual cut in a program, and I will show you an increase that wasn't enough.
@TD
I don't have $130k to give to the government, perhaps if they held back on their perks and told the idiot in chief to stay in DC for more than a day instead of spending our money to inflate his ego some more we'd save some cash. Have you seen the net worth of our elected officials. How'd they get so rich? Insider trading perhaps?
1
Liberal anti-Trump people such as myself should realize that we have absolutely no impact on Trump supporters, that include many long time Republicans who accept him as the leader of their party.
Bias confirmation is more consequential than we think. "Medicare for All" may be defined by P.K. as the word for many types of tax based care, but the word itself is chosen for low information centrists, who actually think that what is affordable for the 30% of the population of elders, could be provided for everyone. Mis-labeling damages trust, even when it's Dem's doing it.
While the N.Y.T. is only biased, and not fake news such as much of TrumpDailyTweets, or even sometimes Fox, it can come close. An example is the recent front page article reporting Rod Rosenstein discussied with W.H. high level staff using the 25th amendment to depose Trump. This was based on unnamed sources, and denied by Rod R.
Of course he denied it, because any informed citizen, especially the acting A. G., is certain to know that this amendment is not an alternative to impeachment. It doesn't even revoke the title of President, but just suspends his active authority until he recovers from the disability that this amendment is crafted to clarify.
The N.Y.Times is making more and more of such errors, with the goal being either to sustain circulation or else allow it to continue to be the vanguard of anti-Trump sentiment. That "we" are better than Trump, isn't a high enough standard.
2
The blatant lies in Trump's USA Today piece will do Medicare for All a lot of good by making it an issue people and news outlets will want to look at more closely.
Just about every news outlet has a rebuttal to Trump's piece. A good one was at Yahoo, which tends toward general audience news:
https://finance.yahoo.com/news/trump-gets-wrong-medicare-144238956.html
Trump's piece widens interest in Medicare for All. Once people put any thought into the issue, they'll reach the same conclusion that Yahoo's Rick Newman reached: "From a business perspective, Medicare for all actually looks pretty good."
4
Isn't the Affordable Care Act 70% same as what a Republican Governor Mitt Romney implemented successfully in Massachusetts?
So why do the Republicans make false claims about the Affordable Care Act and instead of improving it, are ever so keen to so very keen to eviscerate it ?
3
@Gautam Gupta
So why do the Republicans make false claims about the Affordable Care Act and instead of improving it, are ever so keen to so very keen to eviscerate it ?
Because it was Obama's main accomplishment.
2
Winning is no longer just the "only thing".
(Vince Lombardi)
It has become more important than the truth itself!
Thanks, Republicans, for not having the decency to say what you really believe, or practice what you preach about health care!
But an even more special thanks beyond that should go to Republican voters, who won't turn against them no matter what they do or say.
If voting Republican is wrong, they don't want to be right!
1
That anyone supports or is complicit with Republicans who lie is unbelievable. Pardon the pun. I have lost any empathy or willingness to compromise/debate with those who do so. If you ignore and openly support these who choose to lie to hold and gain power, you have lost any integrity in my eyes. We all know the difference between right and wrong no matter how intelligent we are. We need to VOTE and remove those who would lie and abdicate their oaths to protect the rule of law and the Constitution. Enough is enough. This president has dragged our country and all of it's citizens into the gutter. Until we VOTE to remove him and his supporters, we will all be judged as complicit and culpable by the rest of the world. No excuses and no matter how we actually feel about it. VOTE
1
You have a hair piece?
I'm in Indiana and Mike Braun, who is running against Senator Joe Donnelly, is telling these exact lies about Medicare and pre-existing conditions.
If you believe that Medicare is truly helpful, and pre-existing conditions should be covered - vote Democratic. This election is not just about Trump and his corruption.
1
Before Donald Trump I worried about a lot of things: my kids, health, money, Israel, the coyotes that have been spotted in my neighborhood, the fate of the Dallas Cowboys, etc. But I never worried about America’s basic survival because I believed that was in the bag. Now I worry about it all the time.
Before Donald Trump, I believed that most problems -- guns, drugs, the weather, poverty, the infrastructure, etc., -- could be identified and dealt with on a rational basis through resort to conventional American Democrat-Republican politics. Now I wonder how I could ever have believed this.
Before Donald Trump. I never believed that one man could permanently ruin this country. Now I believe it.
6
I'm turning 70 on Sunday. And I've never seen anything as awful as this president and his administration, this Republican Congress, Fox "News," and the people also currently running as Republicans in this country. And I lived through Nixon.
I can only hope that every Democrat will register to vote and do so. Otherwise, I see no hope whatsoever for any sort of positive future for the USA. Krugman describes it absolutely accurately - black has become white, up has become down, climate change will give us all suntans, and constantly told lies will enlighten us all.
Heaven help us. Vote this nonsense out, Democrats. Vote.
5
The very fact that the World's richest country can't even agree on providing universal health care for its own citizens is enough to make anyone sick, especially Americans.
Which is the last thing so many Americans can ill afford to be.
3
Hay Ross told us that with the Court as it is we Libs just need to get used to 40 years where we have the majority but the court blocks us, show us how Conservatives like him felt when women were given rights over their bodies and other things that he doesn't approve of. So those of us with pre-existing conditions, in my case congestive heart failure, we need to just wait 40 years and then we can turn things around. Now why didn't you think about that?
1
Over the years, I've grown to look forward to Dr. Krugman's pieces as a weekly treat. Alas, I fear he's largely shouting into an echo chamber. The mass of Republican voters would seem unlikely to read the Times, let alone the musings of some "radical, left-wing, deep state, liberal whacko" (or as others call him, a Nobel laureate economist). I'm convinced, but then, I'm so easily swayed by things like facts, science, basic decency, and faith in democracy. But let's face reality, a huge number of our fellow citizens are see reality through Fox colored glasses. They soak up the fear mongering, hateful ignorance purveyed by Trump and all those "serious policy wonks" like Paul Ryan. They'll vote against their own interests (and everyone else's) until all that's left is a smoking ruin. But we have to keep shouting, because life without hope is no life at all.
2
Which is worse: a clever misleading to achieve and end that voters don't want, or a clear lie that can be easily detected and dismissed? Democrats are skilled at the former, Republicans at the latter. Which is the bigger threat to our country?
1
Being disabled, on SSD and on a Medicare HMO, having a 30+ year work history most of which has been in the public and nonprofit sectors to advance the rights of persons with disabilities, government is the problem.
For those [of us] on SSD, earns $1,090/month ('18), by definition under Social Security Regulation, is considered Substantial Gainful Activity. After a total of 12 months, ANY month an individual earns >$1090 in a month, 'they' or their employer is to report that to the SSA and the individual will not receive a SSD check the next month. The avg. SSDI check in '18 is $1,197 and in '19 it should be ~$1,232 given the 2.8% COLA increase announced yesterday.
How does that make ANY sense? Based on the number of work days in a calendar month I stand to lose my more than half of my monthly [disability insurance] income that I've paid taxes for over a number of years because there were two extra work days in October, and the number of hours worked x my hourly rate exceeded that $1090 limit by $10?
For those on SSI and Medicaid, all I know is the system is more complicated; something about for every two dollars earned over some maximum limit one dollar is taken away from some other benefit.
If you can reach around your elbow and grab your wallet, you're ready to run for office.
My thoughts are that every single citizen contributes to OASDI (Social Security) and to Medicare. The earning cap on OASDI is eliminated and Medicare is listed as an option for Open Enrollment for every single employee of every single entity in the country. I also think that income from investments gets taxed as in the above.
No more exemptions for State, Local or Federal employees. It seems that everyone wants to claim benefits but nobody wants to pay for them. Including and especially Republicans.
2
Costs cannot rise to the moon--health insurance for my family costs more than my mortgage, and that is for 3 people. I am now on Medicare.
All I have seen from Republicans is sabotage--cutting out reinsurance built into ACA to lower risk for health insurance companies; removing the mandate for health insurance, etc. However, they can't kill ACA because it is better than what the open market will sell you.
Vote for people that will actually try to fix health care in the US.
4
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=S3RHnKYNvx8
FDR says it all in 1936. It's still true today.
1
C'mon Paul!!? Good of you to call out the lies... but then you slip in one of your own--" “ 'Medicare for all,' a slogan that refers to a variety of proposals, from universal single-payer to some form of public option." No! MediCare for All is a unique proposal the other proposals, as the linked article calls them, are "more incremental approaches". Thus, much like the links in the Trumpster's piece, the link you use to support your contention, actually, disproves it ! stephenadairvernon.blogspot.com
The President has to turn to USA Today to publish an op-ed? Did NYT, WaPo, WSJ, Boston Globe, Christian Science Monitor, and Breitbart News all turn him down because they don't have fiction sections? If nothing else, we know that this destructive propaganda will only real the "sitting in the hotel lobby waiting for the airport shuttle" demographic.
Fine. Now take aim at Trump’s claim that this is the greatest economy in history. The straight press just knee jerks his grandiose claims. You must expose them in clear, straightforward terms. Relentlessly until Election Day.
1
Well, the devil's in the details, and Republican voters don't do details, they do tribalism... and the head of the tribe calls the shots.
4
What is particularly disturbing is that they lie so easily about the most mundane things. We just witnessed it in the last ten days. A nominee to the SCOTUS lied about his drinking problem. He masked the lies in screams, whimpers, and tears. And then, a sitting Senator said "I believe her." But, she believed him more all after she new that he'd lied. We're in a world where telling the truth means you are marginalized and bullied. How do we complete with an utter lack of regard for anything and anyone? This is dumps doing and many hope it will not end well.
3
Bernie does a great job replying to Trump's op-ed with his own op-ed. Besides, Bernie is "on the ground" foot soldier going from town hall to town hall talking about it. Dr Krugman is belatedly waking up to smell the coffee at Upper West Side.
https://www.usatoday.com/story/opinion/2018/10/11/bernie-sanders-donald-...
1
"Memo to the media: Stop spreading Trump’s fake news". This reminds me of that Greg Sargent's Washington Post column the other day. The flat out blatant lying becomes sensational enough to tempt the media headlines, the articles at times neglecting to call out the lies. or if they do somewhere down deep, many or even most do not read. people have become used to headlines and tweets. This is very bad.
https://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/plum-line/wp/2018/10/11/memo-to-the...
Will the G.O.P.’s Big Lie on health care work?
The very scary thought is that it may actually work.
5
Will his lies work? Of course they will, because I'd estimate the number of actual Republicans who read this piece to be somewhere in the zeros.
For conservatives, it's as simple as "Trump said it; I believe it; that settles it." They do and think as they're told.
7
Now, Don’t slam the whole party because of The Donald’s cult of personality.
The common GOP members will read the piece, stare at the ceiling and read something else.
The Trumpaniks, who do not believe a word that appears in “the he failing NYT” will write posts beginning you’ll never print this, but ... , and one or two without too much malediction will appear here, either flabbergasting a reader or causing usually-a-him to start selectively reading and saying “you see, even the Times’s special investigation said that when Bill Clinton killed the economy, Trump had such a bad year he didn’t have to pay income taxes when the Demcrats smashed his casinos, Trump Airlines and a whole bunch of other stuff,” ignoring that “the Great Recession” happened on W.’s watch, and had nothing to do with Trump’s failed businesses.
Probably believes the Bible begins and ends with St. John the Arnageddonite.
What I really fear is nor reading habits, but the drop of the other shoe te day after the Midterms, when no matter how “the people have spoken,” Trump will claim a mandate that will make Nixon’s Saturday Night Massacre look like a race to bring back law, justice and respect to the Office of Attorney General.
I hope that 99.9% of the Mueller team papers are in the hands of the Times, Washington Post, PBS, etc., analyzed by their finest, typeset, plates and web pages secured, encrypted, and ready to hit the net and streets moment after Mueller’s dismissal.
This is crucial to the nation.
2
Do Canada and Denmark really have single payer? Is there no private insurance. Just asking.
@Jake
I DK about private insurance in Canada. Denmark? Probably run though the central gov't - which is why your taxes there START at 65% with sales and minimum income taxes combined.
People tell me Danes are rich like all of Scandinavia is supposed to be, but these tax rates don't include much at all for defense.
I speak only to Canada’s system. In doctor-rich areas (near med schools, cities with trauma units, citizens can get everything except meds, dental, optical and cosmetic surgery, 100% paid through by tax-financed programs when needed.
Doctor-poor areas may make you wait a whisk for non-emergency care, programs run on the provincial level, but an Ontario Health Insurance Program card will be accepted, for instance, throughout Quebec.
Both self-pay and private insurance can be purchased for services not covered and out/of-nation travel.
Some physicians maintain hours beyond mandatory time for those who want non-critical work done NOW- private pay. Well-known physicians are also easier to see through personal payments, for those who would rathe not accept the next available certified specialist.
There are services much closer in the US, depending on specialty/procedure, as there are procedures only available along the 3,500-mile border on the Canadian side.
For the Canadians, US care is covered if it’s say a 50- mile cross-border v a 500 mile trip inside Canada.
Med prices are regulated through agreements with manufacturers, but pharmacists are allowed to charge what the market will bear for their services filling a scrip.
2
The GOP is secessionist and seditious in undermining the intellectual bedrock of the Republic. It's no coincidence that the same states that seceded before are still the power-centers for the anti-empiricists who equate freedom with the right to nullify reality as they like and to leave the "reality-based community" selectively.
7
Somebody asked me online about my opinion of Trump's piece.
My answer started with, "It's the usual dishonest schizophrenic scaremongering I have naturally come to expect from Trump."
It ended with, "Trump is relying on people to take him at his word and not do any research. Frankly, too many people will do exactly that."
The same holds true for other elected Republicans. For too long they have painted Democrats as the people trying to cut government help to citizens even while Democrats fight hard to keep the programs funded and available while Republicans try to sneak cuts in everywhere they can.
If you want to fight against dishonest governance, your odds are much better by voting for Democrats than for Republicans.
4
There is a characteristic of fox repub djt supporters that I just became fully aware of this week in responding to some facebook notions about Columbus Day/Día de la Raza here in México. Friends of friends from the US on FB fall into the repub bent. They seem to be proud of being ignorant and uneducated.
I put a link that happened to be in Spanish within a series of link with the English language translation when it existed - instead of being able to read a 2nd or 5th language or opting for a translate program these repub types were outraged at the use of Spanish language on an international social media platform! When the source material I referenced was written in Spanish.
Their world is so strange to me. I with pride speak and read 4 European languages and colleagues do much better than me or at least 2 or 3 - what happened to these people in the USA! Is their response that I am some sort of traitorous elite instead of a studious person - yes. They are digging their own graves in all aspects of their lives and our world´s existence.
6
@P Wilkinson Kudos for your multilingualism. But European countries are smaller than the size of many or most of our states. You rub shoulders will large populations speaking different languages. If we Americans had such close proximity to foreign countries, I'm sure we would be better at multilingualism too. I for one, continue with my efforts to become more skilled at Spanish. But rubbing shoulders with a Spanish-speaking majority population is still elusive. Your geography produces your skills, not any inherent enlightenment or superiority.
3
If one drank Professor Krugman's Medicare kool-ade, one would be shocked when one found themselves reliant upon Medicare for their health care needs.
Medicare is no utopian cure-all. Either Professor Krugman does not understand the simple consumer economics of Medicare, or he is selling snakeoil out of the back of his traveling medicine show.
If y'all think Medicare-for-All is the answer to whatever ails y'all, then y'all better prepare for reality.
First of all, Part A doesn't kick in until the second day of hospitalization. And, it has limits. Watch out.
Part B has a monthly premium, albeit it smallish. Then there's the deductible - yeah, there's a deductible. Once the deductible is covered, then there's the part of the bill not covered by Part B. Private insurance can be purchased to cover the difference, but you better read the fine print carefully. Then there are the bills for pills. Basic Medicare doesn't cover the cost of scripts, and drugs can be VERY expensive. You can buy insurance for drugs, but read the fine print carefully. And, you may be in a "donut" - ouch. Then, there is the problem of doctors accepting Medicare - many won't and don't. Then, there is the problem of out of system "balance billing". Out of system - ask the Mayo Clinic about its Medicare policies - can be a real surprise when you get a huge bill.
When it comes to Medicare, there are no free lunches. Worse, sometimes the lunch makes you sick to your stomach.
2
I think the article was centered on Trump and the GOP's lies, not the merits of Medicare for All. Whether the country chooses some form of single payer, like Canada or the UK, or insurance for all, like the Netherlands or Obamacare attempted to do, something should be done about the current state of healthcare in America. But nothing can be done while one major party continues to outright lie about healthcare policy.
6
@Albert Edmud
But it's still **way** better than the current system, and it controls costs, which is really the root of the whole problem.
Let's not make the perfect the enemy of the good.
6
Complain about government health care assistance all you want. If I could make the rules, I would let you choose to forgo any government health insurance by signing a waiver, in force for your lifetime, swearing that you would accept NO assistance from government programs OR charities, for yourself and your family.
I would give you your independence to seek and pay for medical insurance from other sources. I would let you be strong and free as long as you can stay alive.
Unfortunately both parties lie. That is the primary reason Trump run the presidency. Everybody could see that Trump had an offensive demeanor, but some hoped that once he was president he would stop his dirty campaign and start ruling. He didn't. Policies as president were not based upon the good of the country, but rather maintaining promises to Trump's base, even when the resulting actions did not improve the lives of the Trump voters.
Hillary on the other hand said one thing to donors, something else to in campaign appearances. This was clear from emails hacked from John Podesta. The image conveyed was that Clinton lied while Trump was at least consistent.
Here was a key issue. At the beginning of Bill Clinton's presidency Hillary had argued for universal health care. By the time she campaigned for her own presidency, she seemed to accept a system designed largely by health insurance companies.
This made some voters, including liberals, mad.
Was this enough to alter a close election? It is quite possible.
In any case, Trump has been far worse than most thought possible. Bob Woodward, in his compelling book Fear describes a president who will not listen to his own staff.
He has made more bad decisions than anyone could have predicted.
But the blatant lies have become part of our toxic politics, perpetrated by both sides.
When politicians cannot be truthful, negotiations become meaningless, democracy ceases to function.
Can we fire everyone and start over?
This president has vonsistanly bent the truth that no one knows when he may be speaking the truth. Obviously these are many people who find this "fake-truth" nonsense appealing nut I find it disgraceful.
The lies that a president says has real world consequences...it can ruin lives snd cause wars.
As long as trumps enablers in congress turn away from their responsibilities our Constitution will just be scratches on paper and "We the people" will simply have no meaning.
5
I don't think the GOP worries about popularity, at least with voters. As long as they have Trump, he can persuade 30% of die-hards to show up at the polls while the rest of us give up or have been sidelined by gerrymandering, voter suppression or manipulation at the voting booth. We saw the later in 2004 in the Kerry campaign. Do you really think the GOP forgot how?
8
The Heritage Society, Citizens for American Prosperity, CPAC formats for how and what lies to tell.
They use universal health care and the fear of Socialism as relinquishing the freedom to choose. That is ironic since abortion should be a freedom of choice and multiple states have made that nearly impossible and cost prohibitive.
It is essential for Democrats to educate the public on how frequently and insiduous corporate Socialism is and how it effects their communities. Tax breaks, free land lure job prospects but wages do not reflect the profits companies gain by paying $10 an hour when the cost of living is not met. Public assistance for employees for supplemental benefits are essential for some families to survive.
That trillion dollars deficit created for the benefit of the minority should have increased Social Security above 2 and half percent, provided the best universal health care, affordable drugs and recreation centers in communities
4
“ … countries that really do have single-payer, like Canada and Denmark.”
CANADA has very few illegal immigrants, and it restricts most legal entry to those who would contribute a needed ability to the Canadian economy and who could easily assimilate. Most of Canada’s immigrants already have a good-paying job waiting for them when they arrive or are able to find one quickly. Thus, they start paying hefty taxes almost immediately, helping Canada to afford its single-payer system.
Nearly 87% of the people who live in DENMARK are of Danish descent. A 7/1/18 NYT article titled "In Denmark, Harsh New Laws for Immigrant ‘Ghettos’” said,"For decades, integrating immigrants has posed a thorny challenge to the Danish model, intended to serve a small, homogeneous population.”
"By focusing heavily on the collective cost of supporting refugee and immigrant families, the Danish People’s Party has won many voters away from the center-left Social Democrats, who had long been seen as the defenders of the welfare state. With a general election approaching next year, the Social Democrat party has shifted to the right on immigration, saying tougher measures are necessary to protect the welfare state.”
Countries with one payer systems cannot accept large numbers of poorly educated migrants.
1
Countries with some type of single payer health care pay about half as much per capita as the US, for BETTER medical outcomes. Rather than worry about how Denmark and Canada pay for their systems, you should worry about how we can keep paying for ours. Again: we pay twice as much for worse outcomes!
11
What about Britain and France, they have large number of poorly educated migrants. But those countries did not end up like Venezuela.
3
People vote against their own self interests. It’s a political phenomenon.
Several years ago I spoke with an elderly woman on Medicare who was so happy that the newly enacted Obamacare would pay for her weekly foot treatments that Medicare was not covering.
She told me she was voting the Republican ticket at the then upcoming midterm election. When I told her that Republicans would eliminate Obamacare if they could she said, “Oh they wouldn’t do that, would they?”
Hard to argue with people like that.
16
I cannot think like a wealthy person. I cannot hoard money. I cannot think poverty is a sin. I cannot. I do like spreading good things around. I do like citizens having health care. Having a good wage. Having a decent home or apartment. I do like everyone having food. That means accepting that those good things happen through money ... coming from all working people. And from those who have money enough. Everyone benefits when all citizens are invested in their country, with the means to be so. Why does this seem so obvious to me and so not obvious to repubs? There will always be people who cannot or who fall. So. Put programs in place, with staff, to help them up and back into life. Do not shove people into communities that restrict them. Do not screw around with education by making public schooling into a coupon agency. Better yet, stop attempting to take away education for "us" and keeping it for the "elite". Healthcare. What is the debate? Especially now with the climate changing. Populous cities are now perfect places for diseases to spread rapidly. Vaccines are one stop. Cleanliness is another. On public streets, in public parks, on public beaches, and in our homes. So. Healthcare. For everyone. Yes.
12
Shame on USA Today. Why would they do this?
5
It’s painfully obvious why Republicans prefer an “under educated” populace but, I can’t understand why they’d want an unhealthy one ?
6
Republicans know Trump supporters are dangerously stupid and dreadfully naive. They'll believe anything he says no matter how ridiculous and extreme.
As for the GOP, they've now - proudly, it seems - become the party of racism, greed, lies and hatred. Not to mention mocking those who were sexually assaulted, who have disabilities, who are somehow different than the sea of bloated white faces at Trump rallies. Their platform seems to be dismantling everything "the black President" did. You know, things that help the many at perhaps the expense of the wealthy few.
Unfortunately, with funding for election security a distant memory and "our" government quite happy to allow our systems to be hacked - how else to win than to cheat, right? - I fear the GOP will pull a 2016 with the results.
Perhaps it's time to face the fact that the days of free and fair American elections are a thing of the past.
6
I was a Republican who volunteered at the Heritage Foundation and listened to conservative talk radio everyday. Republicans lost their minds after Barack Hussein Obama was elected. They went on and on about Obamacare death panels, as if we didn't already have government-run healthcare for elderly people. And the birther thing was just grotesque. They became unbearable to listen to so people like me disengaged from politics. Next thing I know, the tea party is in charge.
6
@Daniel
You have kept the Barack Hussein Obama thing, though. As if we Democrats care about his middle name; we don't. You cling to it as if it matters; it doesn't. It is only a man's middle name. The Heritage Foundation is not on the same level of educated discourse as The Brookings Institute. If Graham's drama queen outburst did not make you think twice, for shame. It was a grandstand performance for Trump; Graham wants to replace Sessions. If McConnell's stall of 14 mos. to keep the moderate Merrick Garland from a Hearing did not disgust you, for shame. If McConnell's rush to put a Catholic ideologue with an alcoholic past did not bother you, for shame. Ask any alcoholic if that disease is curable; it isn't. Kavanaugh's unhinged appearance was that of an alcoholic who needs to go to AA meetings, the only known "treatment" recommended.
1
Trying to shame Republicans as "Fox Watching followers" is rich. Democrats have a rabid, partisan media shouting 24/7 in print, online and TV. Democrats don't own "the truth" and Krugman is famous for being wrong pretty much about everything for the last 2 years.
1
@TL Trump virtually never tells the truth about anything so what should we think of people who continue to believe him?
5
"You know, the very powerful and the very stupid have one thing in common. They don’t alter their views to fit the facts: they alter the facts to fit their views. Which can be uncomfortable if you happen to be one of the facts that need altering."
— Doctor Who, 'The Face of Evil' (1977)
10
I have an idea for a new cable show "The Liars Club" Each week the biggest whoppers told by politicians could be featured 60 minutes style... so long as it was not on FOX.
3
Dr. Krugman, you statements are true, true, and yet again, true.
As a lifelong Democrat I keep looking to my party to fight the mendacity of this administration. So far? Bupkus. Outrage and talk, talk, talk.
I will vote a straight Democratic ticket at the the mid-terms, but it's the Party, nationally, that MUST ACT to expose and magnify the lies and bull excrement put forth by the Right.
It must frame a cogent argument that voting for Republicans is BAD for America and explain WHY it's bad. "Look at what they did" is not an argument, nor does it serve to sway anyone.
6
america has failed. It will end as (1) dictatorship under trump, (2) secession of the Blue States, or (3) civil war leading to #1 or #2.
#calexit - don't make a foolish choice
4
Republicans believe they can get away with all the lies and gaslighting because their voters are ill-informed and will follow them off a cliff.
16
I wake up each day a little older and certainly no smarter but somehow the republicans intelligence declines.
I never had a superiority complex before because I know my limitations. Please fellow Americans don’t take us any further down the road to stupidity.
11
A healthy, educated workforce that has good reason to believe for security in old age, that sounds like one of those radical socialist, lefty ideas to me. When did caring about and caring for others become unpatriotic? Ask the man with no clothes and he will answer, "It is all about me, me, me, me and mine. You go get your own and don't ask for help!"
4
Those who have to file W2 forms and/or who earn less than 300k should vote for the Dems. Maybe the fascination with guns, abortion or race prevent them from doing so. They really need to focus on the lousy salaries paid to the average worker in the US, who cannot afford more than bare necessities, decent health care, a home of their own or a secure retirement. In addition, many of the under 50 year olds have college debt that crushes them. These people really need to vote out ALL of the GOP representatives on Nov 6.
5
Ever since Republicans decided to exclusively represent the "1%," and to embrace an agenda of enriching their constituents at everyone else's expense, they have had nothing constructive to offer the "99%." They can only offer lies, hypocrisy, fear, hatred, division, and bigotry to conceal their true destructive agenda. They determined (correctly) that taking the low road and appealing to the worst in human nature would con millions of chickens into voting consistently and enthusiastically for Colonel Sanders. If this "base" is large enough, everyone else becomes merely an expendable "enemy," to attack as needed to keep the "base" enthused.
Trump's continual shameless blatant lying takes political spin to an unprecedented level. But just as Trump exploited his father's fortune and desire for tax avoidance to build his own dodgy empire, he is now exploiting the longstanding Republican practice of creating alternate reality to serve himself. Lying serves his authoritarian urges, satisfies his incessant need for ego gratification, and (primarily) helps to enrich himself and his brand.
As long as Trump's lying (and destructive action) coincides with the Republican agenda of enriching their donors, Republicans in Congress will not merely aid and abet Trump's lying. They'll even add whoppers of their own. When the truth is inconvenient, the Greedy Oligarchs' Party will make their own truth, just as they have done for decades. And their loyal flock will eat it up.
6
How is it possible to educate people about truth and lies when they refuse to be educated? My infrequent attempts to even discuss differences of opinion with avowed Republicans are out and out failures, even sometimes resulting in the other person interrupting, talking over, patronizing and shouting. I despair of ever being able to present facts that we can agree upon.
4
2+2=5
1
Prof. Krugman, let me suggest using Trump's OK sign.
-------------------------------------------------------------------
What if opponents of Trump healthcare lies, used the OK sign?
Suppose they used two OK signs, one on each hand, as a joke.
Democrats might benefit in House elections by using hand signs.
Words come and go, and I am afraid that if Democrats ramble on and on, they may lose out. Why not try OK, or what have you?
OK, OK, OK?
----------------
I used to think it is those who were painfully ignorant who buy into the lies. I learned it is not. In attending a wedding in Florida, I sat down at a table of peers who started spouting political ignorance based on what they had heard on their favorite cable news show. These were successful business people. We care much less about the facts than we do about our side being the right side and the strongest side.
6
While Trump is certainly a bizarre, unlikely choice for President, the hysteria-driven platform promoted by the now Leftist-leaning Democratic Party is dangerous....particularly their obsessive cheerleading for illegal foreign nationals, numbering in the millions. That is the single issue influencing our vote come November. Until the Dems come to their senses regarding illegal immigration, we’ll be voting the other side, albeit reluctantly.
@Shenoa
Lots of distortions here.
The Democratic party is now the party of moderation. "Hysterical" is the new trumpist buzzword to deflect attention from the dangerous mobs that you support.
There are other issues we're facing in addition to immigration. But you seem blind to trump's
destruction of the country. Most Democrats of course are not obsessively cheer leading illegal immigrants. Hardly anyone is for open borders. Some of us believe in humane treatment of immigrants.
1
Why do Americans buy the health care lie - because they have been sold this idea for decades that it is unaffordable. The collective American consciousness has been brainwashed to believe that their health system is the best because it is expensive. When encountering any other health system, like Canada's, an American will romanticize how wonderful the experience would have been if only they had been in the US.
To illustrate this - an 82 yr old neighbor of my mom's was on a cruise and got appendicitis. He was operated on in a hospital in Halifax, Nova Scotia (Canada). When I saw him a wk later he was walking around looking good but complaining about his Cdn experience - the 5 hour wait for a room, the waste of paramedics' time who had to wait with him, the room's aged appearance. I was irritated and asked did they take your appendix out with a kitchen knife? You're walking around pretty well for such a horrible experience. I asked if he thanked the people of Nova Scotia who paid for the bulk of his stay.
Counter to that, my 88 yr old mother went to a top hospital in Baltimore with a 150 beats per minute heart rate (caused by Dr giving wrong drug) spent the night in the hospital hallway before being admitted to a room. She has private insur and Medicare.
Both systems worked but the Cdn one didn't ask to see his insurance.
Health care is expensive wherever you go. Should a person be sick because they can't afford the incredible costly advancements in care we have today?
4
It is hard to believe that there are so many gullible uneducated and uninformed Trumpites in America. You would think that by now people would see through Trump and his lies. Although there is a good chance we can take back America it won't be without cost. Unfortunately this is a cold civil war whose effects will be felt for decades.
6
If you work for a company that has health care insurance for it's workers or are rich enough to buy your own coverage, ask yourself who is left without coverage? That's what this is all about, the privileged vs the undesirables, or whites vs people of color, or established residents vs immigrants, or slave owners vs slaves.
1
Like that protest sign said, "Keep your filthy government hands off my Medicare!" Oh, wait.....
2
"...Why do Republicans think they can get away with such blatant lies? Partly it’s because they expect their Fox-watching followers to believe anything they’re told..." [op cit]
--
Why not (above), “...because they expect a majority of Americans to *swallow anything* they see and hear…”?
--
I taught school for a while. And I know for a fact, that most Americans:
1. Can barely comprehend anything they read, if it is presented at or above the 8th Grade reading level.
2. Can't unpack, decode and critique the logic of even the simplest propositions.
3. Start to lose interest, whenever anything spoken or written exceeds 280 characters. [Gee! I wonder why?]
--
Get the idea?
Americans generally can’t or won’t apprehend—much less comprehend—anything that doesn’t comport with their immediate needs and desires.
—
We've become in effect, a nation of highly trained animals; motivated by, “the medium [which] is the massage.” (Marshall McLuhan) [that is, "electronic media"]
We live our lives in almost slavish obedience to whatever is placed in front of us. And we usually do this without a single thought intervening, so we can proceed to instantly satisfy whatever craven instincts have been aroused.
—
So it’s not the Republicans fault, it’s our fault!
Sorry to say, but we’re being led, and duped, like Pavlov’s dogs.
—
The American electorate is in real trouble!
3
The Republican Party hates it when government does anything to interfere with the idea of privatization-for-campaign-contributions that sustains the Republican Party.
Brett Kavanaugh's hyper-partisanship and blatant lying to Congress, followed by his confirmation to the Supreme Court, was yet another huge @!-you to the American people by the Republicans, as if to say "we can lie all we want, and you can't do anything about it."
I fear it will get worse. Tsar Putin is laughing at us.
3
It's too bad about USA Today. Founder Al Neuharth was conservative but also passionate about finding the truth. BTW, it would help if certain national newspapers would stop doing all Republicans all the time. Constant front-page stories on Republican figures but never anything about Democrats. Yeah, NYT and WaPo, we've been counting.
4
Your daily bias toward Republicans is annoying as well as distorted. Please stick to your stock market predictions. Oops. I forgot. They was dead wrong, too.
1
We have a saying in my native land that translates to, “When one loses all sense of shame, one acts like one has conquered the three worlds (heaven, earth and hell).” This saying pretty much describes Trump and the Republican Party that he leads. Trump lies blatantly, incessantly and shamelessly – unfortunately, he has not paid any price for it so far.
Republicans running for political office at the local, state and federal level have picked up on the Trumpian style. They need to pay a price for their lies – and, hopefully they will at the polls – because truth is a fundamental pillar of our system of government. A Democratic Congress will also help rein in Trump and his lies – it will be good for the health of our democracy.
So people, come out and vote the lying Republicans out on November 6th. Let truth prevail so that at least some honor and dignity can be restored to the legislative branch of our government. We can then rinse and repeat in 2020 by similarly cleaning up the executive branch. Duty, Honor, Country – let’s do it!
4
It's hectoring School Teacher Krugman against insolent Bad Boy Trump.
Among the Lumpen Male Proletariat, who's gonna be the sentimental favorite?
1
Republicans are such darned good liars because they have to be. After all, they just can’t come right out and say:
- The rich should have ALL the money and power;
- Theocracy is preferable to democracy;
- There aren’t enough guns in the country;
- White people should rule;
- The nation needs more wars.
Which are, of course, the things they believe.
11
@Robbiesimon
Brilliant, as the Brits would say. This should be on anti-Trump, anti-GOP billboards across the country.
1
The media has failed for decades. spanky can thank the media for his election. The media still covers everything the fool says as if it was important. usa today always has been a fake newspaper.
1
This is what I think of Republicans and my father who was an ardent Republican. How he hated FDR and Social Security. I guess it went with his idea of rugged individualism and the fact that his parents were somewhat successful immigrants from Sweden. But this how his life went: his first wife died in her 20's of heart disease so he went into his marriage to my mother with a young child and medical debt. My brother and I were born in '38 and '45. In '53 my mother needed a back operation and spent a month in a hospital. My father's insurance didn't cover it. Why? It was a PRE-EXISTING CONDITION. Thus no house, no savings. For part of their marriage my mother worked but in retirement they survived on Social Security and $7000. in savings. Thank you FDR. Dad worked until he had a stroke when he was 68. Later he had to go to a nursing home. Who paid? Government medicaid. Did they steal from the government? No. they paid taxes from the 1920's to the 1970's. I loved you Dad but you were an idiot Republican who raised two educated liberals.
Dr. K what can we do about such idiocy? Vote I guess and hope for the best.
9
LIES are the lubricant of the GOP Machine.
Period.
4
Use of the term "Big Lie" is staggeringly appropriate. It encompasses Hitlerian-type propaganda the purpose of which is not truth, but to get others to believe what you want them to believe. Keep it simple, and repeat, repeat, repeat.
Why does it work? According to Hitler, because the masses are not very smart (intellectuals are less receptive), have poor memories (so repetition is necessary), and respond chiefly to emotion (fiery speech rather than print is more effective).
Will if work on health care? Republicans are giving it a try. After all, why spin when you can lie. See Trump's rallies (or Fox).
1
Be the first Times journalist to call for his impeachment, Paul. Come on, you can do it.
1
@Ed
Impeachment is complicated and takes a long time to achieve. It might be better to look at Article 25: "Unfit to Serve". That describes Trump; it describes Minuchin, Pruitt, Price, Zinke et al. If a man who sits next to a declared adversary and states he trusts that adversary and his Intelligence Services more than he trusts his own is not unfit to serve, what would be? If a man can stand in front of a memorial to those covert operators who fell in service and denigrate them, what would be needed as worst? If a man violates the Emoluments Clause every day he rents his D.C. hotel rooms to visiting dignitaries, what more is needed to prove corruption? If a man sends his real estate developer son-in-law to negotiate the most sensitive diplomacy in Jerusalem, what more is needed to prove incompetence? Future historians will forge careers on this Administration; it will be permanently written into history books as worse than Buchanan, worse than Jackson, worse than Bush, a bench mark of low never before reached.
@Ed
"Be the first Times journalist to call for his impeachment"
Not time yet and timing is important.
Would complicate the messaging of conservative state Dems. Besides, impeachment is too good for Trump and not good enough for us. Impeachment would normalize him. Instead, he needs to be locked up.
USA Today showed absolutely NO integrity when they published Trump’s op-ed. Democrats should write their own op-ed that goes line by line and points out and corrects all the “falsehoods” (lies!!) in the piece and send it to newspapers nationwide. Start fighting back Democrats and protect our democracy!!! Senator Schumer, Representative Pelosi - this means you!
1
I have a neighbor who is a construction worker. Real nice guy. He is paid about $45 an hour, thanks to Oregon's prevailing wage law. Soon the rate will rise to over $50 an hour - thanks to labor unions and the Democrats they help elect.
But in this guys world? "Trump is giving everyone a raise, and now its my turn". Where he got the information, I have no idea.
For the record, Trump and the Republican party are absolutely opposed to prevailing wage, and would kill it in a heartbeat if they could.
Again, real nice guy. Its not hard to imagine how Hitler came to power.
5
@Eric
Hitler had an industrial meltdown; he had failing States and Brown Shirts on the streets attacking Jews; Jews were blamed for the economic problems left from WWI. We have nothing near that; we do have a long history of bigotry towards Blacks and Jews. Now we have an Administration allied with a Saudi government which beats, hangs and beheads wrong doers in the public square. Trump is currently denying the evidence of a political murder provided by Turkey whose Intelligence Service is among the best in the Region. The Saudis murdered 2,000+ Americans on 9/11 with no accountability. Saudis flew in on the day of the murder, and left the same day. They arrived on a plane known to be used by the Saudi government; they left on that plane, same day. The Saudis murdered a political dissident, openly. Trump has business interests in SA; he will do nothing to put those interests at risk. We have an Administration aligned with dictators; Congress appears to be "helpless" to change that.
It is hard to choose which of the 5000+ lies of Donald Trump has been the most despicable, but his USA Today post may be among the most evil and disturbing lies he has ever told. Trump has no capacity for shame, so it is useless to make any attempt to shame him, but the publisher of that newspaper should acknowledge that this paper is no longer practicing journalism.
4
The media is enabling these con-men by continuing help them promulgate their atrocious lies and showcasing their hatred, in the name of "news."
This isn't "news."
If the media feels compelled to "cover" such things because it is "news" then they need to start burying it in the way back of every newspaper, and just a short blip in a news show.
That, and call lies, lies. No more pussy-footing around.
3
The right-wing has spent decades spoon-feeding gaggles of fauxbots. Now we're got a near majority of Americans eager to lap up right-wing lies by the truckload, with a kind of cultish festivity. I can't see how this ends well.
1
Maybe George Washington lied about chopping down the cherry tree too.
1
Excellent Op-Ed. But the question is how to get the message through to rust belt votes who don't read the NYT.
How do you un-brainwash cognitively dissonant citizens swayed by the leader who makes the most noise and the most outlandish claims?
I believe the 'how' as is important as the 'what'.
This time, when they 'go low' maybe the Democrats should 'go lower'.
4
@Hamid Varzi
That wouldn't be hard, because most comedians are Democrats; they can write some really funny "low" comedic sound bites. Kanye West presented a man who needs some medical/psychiatric help. It would appear that Trump didn't recognize how unhinged Kanye was.I don't really care about Kanye; however, this was sad.
1
Trump is a criminal, a liar and a master con man. And a good many people know this and like it. The damage he is doing to this country is incalculable, yet he continues to use the same snake oil formula and it is selling well. As far as I can tell, here is the formula:Pretend that your very rich, lie as often as you want, pretend that your in love with and married to a beautiful woman and pretend that your king of the United States. It's all a sham put on by a life long criminal who probably could not tell you the difference between a cat and a bull mastiff. But people like the appearance of success, even when the house is on fire. And burning it is.
5
Why is Fox News allowed to describe itself as a news source? It is not permitted to do so in Canada. Its owners, the Murdochs of Australia, have hired Hope Hicks (DonaldTrump’s former head assistant) as director of communications. Does it even have a fact-checking department?
3
The obvious fact of Trump's role in the white house is that he is not president for all the people. He seems to see himself as only president to the boisterous crowds that gather at his rallies and listen to his lies and cheer him on. He does this instead of attending to other citizens dying and having their homes destroyed by calamitous storms. The man is pure TV actor and not a very good one at that. His recent lies about the Federal Reserve reveal his total lack of understanding of our economic system. He is a total failure.
2
The unfortunate truth is republicans hate anything democrats support. It is hate for its own sake and has taken over the party.
7
@LH
The GOP is a minority Party; it has clung to power via gerrymandering key State voting districts which contain the necessary Electoral College votes. State legislatures accomplished this when we were paying attention to Trump v. Clinton; we can hope that women and young voters rescue the country from this skewed, dishonest EC map.
1
The ultimate goal of the gop is to shrink government. To do this, they have to starve government of funds (taxes), thus the huge tax break for the wealthy. With the tax break in place, a court system rigged to protect corporations and the wealthy, the gop is well on it's way to destroying the "New Deal".
Medicare and Social Security are slowly dying of a thousand cuts by a gop now in full control of the nation.
This juggernaut of government destruction is led by a fool president who is a master of misdirection. With him in place, the gop can, behind the scenes, pass legislation to further their goals of destroying Medicare and Social Security, and by having a major news organization assist in the spreading of misinformation and outright lies, these goals are being met with savage efficiency.
The majority of people of this nation want Medicare and Social Security, the gop and .01% of this nation don't. Right now, the gop and .01% are winning, and I have little faith that the coming midterms will do anything to radically change the destruction of our democracy by a cancerous gop.
How do we wake up America to this destruction?? How do we protect voters with a rigged court system?? How do we stop this dismantling of our Social Safety Net and democracy?? How??
This coming election may answer that question!!
5
"Why do Republicans think they can get away with these blatant lies?" Because they do.
1
Paul Krugman is to economics what meteorologists are to ... meteors.
It is not lying when you have your own set of facts and fake news!
Democrats better grow a back bone and grab the megaphone before they blow another election cycle.
2
USA today is the Kanye West of "newspapers".
3
Why do the facts appear in the opinion columns and the lies in the news reports? Talk about up is down.
4
Yes, it can happen here and it is happening here.
Big lie (German: große Lüge) is a propaganda technique. The expression was coined by Adolf Hitler, when he dictated his 1925 book Mein Kampf, about the use of a lie so "colossal" that no one would believe that someone "could have the impudence to distort the truth so infamously."
2
Democracy requires two things: an informed electorate capable of rational decision making, and a majority of participants acting in good faith. Without these democracy is impossible and society degenerates into what increasingly appears to be its natural default state, oligarchy. Are we there yet?
315
No system can be devised that cannot be gamed.
There can be no government without the goodwill of men.
Remember the Tonight Show's "Jaywalking" segment, during which Leno went out on the streets of LA, cameraman in tow, and asked "average Americans" elementary questions about current events, American history and, on occasion, civics? If so, remember how funny it was at the time that so few seemed to know (or care) about the things Leno asked? Well, that's your typical citizen, and given our current, um, "situation", it doesn't seem nearly as funny. In fact, it's downright frightening. We're toast, in every way.
445
@Michael
Yes. We have the present situation in great part to the fact that over the years more Americans have known less and less amount current events, history and civics.
What is the Golden Rule?
@Michael - Jim Jefferies did a piece on his most recent show exactly in this vein. However, he contrasted American ignorance with how much people on the street in England know (not about British politics) about American politics. Maybe some voting SHOULD be restricted. (Just kidding)
The conservative opposition to Medicare and ACA is because these programs increase taxes on the rich to help pay for the care of the non rich and the rich do not want to pay these higher taxes.
But they can not say that directly so they lie about these programs.
405
@david Now even Trump has the gall to complain about increased Interest Rates, as if nobody should ever touch his money or charge him interest for his debts while he charges arms, legs and firstborn children for his lower class apartments, let alone a hotel for long term. That takes a personal pledge of Loyalty and Fealty unto his Trumpedness.
@david - Not only the non-rich but people of color, handicapped and anyone else they oppose or hate.
1
@david
Its actually more than that. I have spoken to some republicans who are not rich and they also feel that they shouldn't have to "share" healthcare with the lower class. Why should they wait in line when they are the ones that pay and they others are just getting something for free. They see healthcare as a limited resource and they want to keep that resource (or the best of that resource) to themselves.
1
It is clear to me that people do not mind being lied to, as long as we like the lie or the liar. If we do not like the lie or the liar, we are relentless in trying to expose and humiliate the liar. But if it aligns with what we want or like to hear, and spoken by someone sympathetic, we will help repeat the lie. All politicians lie and spin, to the extent that I do not know why anyone ever finds it amenable. These role reversals Krugman finds so distasteful are ubiquitous in both time and place. His ability to see them is severely limited by his politics. Trump is the least accomplished politician in our history. But he pales in comparison to liars who have been given free rein over the years because they use all the tools of manipulation effectively and subtly.
41
@TD
Fake double standards TD. Just fake. Your ability to see them is severely limited by your politics. Trump is a master faker and it seems that even you have been taken in by him. He is unique and you stand as a prime example of it.
@Barry Lane
Part of my point is that no one will recognize that their side is guilty, too. There is even a stock response that goes something like, "there is no equivalence". But there always is. I have been around long enough to have been lied to by both parties, and those lies had a high body count. Johnson and McNamara lied about Vietnam. Nixon lied about that and bombing Cambodia, too. Just one example. There are so many. The real lies make statements about keeping your doctor, and not ever having sex with an intern seem tame.
@TD
"It is clear to me that people do not mind being lied to, as long as we like the lie or the liar. If we do not like the lie or the liar, we are relentless in trying to expose and humiliate the liar. But if it aligns with what we want or like to hear, and spoken by someone sympathetic, we will help repeat the lie. All politicians lie and spin, to the extent that I do not know why anyone ever finds it amenable. "
To me, this has always been the biggest problem with politics. It is mother of all of the despicable things that have taken place in history. I do my best to be the person, people in my life come to when they want the truth, and not the person they come too when they want to hear what they want to hear. Telling your friends the truth is hard but it must be done. In politics we should hold people we agree with accountable for misleading statements and blatant lies. Only then can you truly have the credibility to call out your opponents.
1
Why don’t we impeach all Republicans, but tell them that impeachment is good?
1
How does USA Today get away with publishing lies? Editorials should not be published if they present falsehoods. An opinion is publishable, but one baked up by falsehoods is not.
I saw a clip of Trump claiming that Democrats wanted to take money away from Medicare to pay for socialism, and
Trump's crowd of supporters enthusiastically booed the Democrats. Please, tell me we're just getting trolled, because I'd hate to think that his supporters are such complete idiots.
6
@Peter
If you can stand it, watch a few minutes of a reporter interviewing any Trump supporter at one of his rallies. I did that recently, for a few minutes. It was painfully sad; the man was barely able to articulate what he believed. Not to say he represented all who were there; however, I have not seen his counterpart at an Obama rally. He would be one of those who are still chanting "Lock Her Up". If you asked that man where Clinton was, he wouldn't know. Finally, either Trump is appearing at campaign rallies, or he is golfing. Since Trump has no governing experience; he might do well to take golf lessons, and some smart PR tutoring to keep him off a golf course within a mile of a memorial service for H.S. students recently murdered in a school. Tone Deaf is inadequate to describe this man.
1
Paul Krugman is sounding the alarm about the lies, lies, lies, lies.
The media and journalists are dangerously complacent. Krugman is the only major voice sounding the alarm. He needs to rally all journalists to start sounding the alarm that America is being brainwashed by the lying, lying, lying. The nation is gradually slipping into an autocratic dictatorship. It is time to stop the complacency by the media as we are lulled by one lie after another lie after another lie.
This is no longer Saturday Night Live fodder, or late night TV comedy fodder. This blatant lying attack on truth needs to be challenged in force by the media.
The examples are absurd: Obama born in Kenya; size of inauguration crowd; vote cheating in California; Ted Cruz' father part of Kennedy assassination; global warming hoax; Mueller hoax; Dr. Ford hoax; on and on and on and on. As Krugman writes, black is white, up is down. Journalists and media need to pay attention to what is gradually happening, that there is a total erosion of truth so that there is no longer truth, and the public complacency shrugs it off, and it is then too late as the military and police fall under the control of dictatorial powers.
Come on media. Come on journalists. Get on the ball before it is too late. It is no longer a curiosity to laugh at. It is a terrible dangerous threat to every person's future, to the nation's future, even world future.
3
Thank you Dr K for addressing Trumps blatant lies in the OP-ED piece this week. When I read it I knew immediately his message would have a negative impact on Democratic candidates, the exact purpose of the piece. I also knew there would be very little pushback, or corrections from Dems. They just don't get it. Your comments are the FIRST I have read where Trumps lying is called what it is. Two days after its publication! If Democrats think they will take back the house this November they are sadly mistaken, they just do not know how to message like The Repulsicans. Sad !
1
If you see what you want, go for it. That’s Trumps advice on how to meet fine women or get anything else you covet.
Crotch grabbing writ large and in public and as the way for fellow Repubelicans to reach out and touch that which they desire.
Your vote now has a moral imperative.
6
You don't appreciate the power of alternative facts, Paul. That economics training left you too cynical.
Lies are the currency of choice in the post-fact world of alternative truths, and the mainstream media serves them up a la carte while making no distinctions.
It’s a world where what matters is what tribe to which you think you belong, and reality is a matter of opinion.
Charles P. Pierce, from Idiot America:
“Idiot America is a strange, disordered place. Everything is on the wrong shelves. The truth of something is defined by how many people will attest to it, and facts are defined by those people’s fervency. Fiction and nonfiction are defined by how well they sell. The best sellers are on one shelf, cheek by jowl, whether what’s contained in them is true or not. People wander blindly, following the Gut into dark corners and aisles that lead nowhere, confusing possibilities with threats, jumping at shadows, stumbling around. They trip over piles of fiction left strewn around the floor of the nonfiction aisles. They fall down. They land on other people, and those other people can get hurt.”
6
t rump ran on the premise that he would be the dictator, "Only I can fix these yuge, horrible problems..." he said over and over and over and over. Problems, by the way, only he could see. He and the deplorables who see the actual workings of democracy as a bad thing, a scary thing, a liberal thing.
There is a piece of the right wing mind that loves the idea of goose stepping along with their brave and fearless leader.
Main stream reporters and news people had better remember darn quick that in a fascist state they are usually out of work. And in prison.
USA Today has fallen into the Fox Trump Republican state propaganda sinkhole. Better climb out fast, folks, before it's too late. For you and for all of us.
1
The GOP has declared war on America.
4
Reactionaries lie when they call themselves conservative, and they lie when they call liberalism tyranny. The Republican Party of today is the nation's most pernicious RICO.
A preponderance of citizens get their news from USA Today? Really? Well, you learn something new every day.
I’m going to have to let that sink in.
1
USA Today is commonly distributed free to hotel rooms. Travelers can stoke up on the “news” as they breakfast.
1
@Nancy Rathke and itsmildeyes:
USA Today is the old Readers Digest stuff handed out in schools, decades ago. Junk food.
I just watched Kayne making a fool of himself in the Oval Office. Don Lemon called it a Minstrel Show. I call it exploiting someone with severe mental difficulties. How could the people in that room sit or stand by and watch Kayne behave so erratically and let it be filmed. I've never liked Kayne. I think he's over-rated, ignorant and clueless as far as American History. But I dislike his family and friends even more for not stopping him from going out in public and ranting this nonsense. Why does he not have some supervision at this point? Why is his family allowing him to do these things? Trump looks at Kayne the way Nixon looked (and used) Sammy Davis. It's disgusting. Kim, Chloe, Kris, etc. STOP him. Meanwhile Trump's own wife is ignoring his obvious mental defects by touring Africa on the taxpayer's dime. The press said she was on a fact finding mission. Why? Does anyone think Miss "I Don't Care" is actually going to do anything when she returns home, launch some campaign, help the people of Africa in a significant way? She's done nothing since entering the WH but cost us money. Up is down, Mr. Krugman. Kayne said George Bush "don't" like black people but he praises Trump who let 4000 people of color die in Puerto Rico. Georgia is preventing young blacks from voting and Kayne is ranting about not having a father figure??
3
It's funny how the politicians doing all the lying are the same ones claiming to protect Christian values.
3
The big surprise is not that Trump varies between lying and incoherence. It is that a "mainstream" media outlet not owned by Rupert Murdoch published a piece of propaganda, as though it was Pravda. The press needs to form an AMA or ABA-like body to police its members, and kick out the fakes. It would not infringe on "free speech"; it would merely point out that journalism is a profession, with standards and a fondness for the truth...you cannot just slide into it from some PR firm or the RNC (or the KKK!).
Remember the popular musical “South Pacific” and the song “You’ve Got to be Carefully Taught”. It included such memorable phrases such as ‘you’ve got to be taught to hate and fear’ and ‘to hate all the people your relatives hate’ . And, what better ‘teacher’ than our FEATHER in the WH?
Lies (as opposed to spin) are new ?
Hardly.
Trump has been a huckster his entire career. None of this is new.
Unless if you are an ideologue who blindly accepts what "your side" says and blindly rejects what "their side" says.
Show examples ? A few snippets of Obama's lies, none of which are used as counterpoint in this article; raise hand if surprised:
"We’ve got close to 7 million Americans who have access to health care for the first time because of Medicaid expansion."
A lie: 1.2 - 2 million, tops, at that time
"We have doubled the distance our cars will go on a gallon of gas"
A lie: That was simply a future benchmark
""I think it’s important for us to understand that the Fast and Furious program was a field-initiated program begun under the previous administration"
A lie: It began in 2009, in October
"That's not true, George. The - for us to say that you've got to take a responsibility to get health insurance is absolutely not a tax increase."
A lie (repeated in several speeches): The Supreme Court determined that the individual mandate was structured as a tax from the beginning.
"The vast majority of the money I got was from small donors all across the country.''
A lie: 2/3 of hos money came from large donors
" "If we just got African-Americans in Mississippi to vote their percentage of the population," he said, "Mississippi is suddenly a Democratic state.""
A lie: Do the math yourself
@Objectivist
I get it: Obama lied; therefore, what? It doesn't matter that Trump--in less than two years--already has several books written about him that focus almost entirely on his lies? There are full time fact-checkers out there around the world who can barely keep up with Trump's pronouncements. The verifiable list of his lies had, as of August 1, surpassed 4,000. The fact-checkers are doing the math, from which we can draw but one conclusion: Trump is a liar. You can safely call him that--and you wouldn't be lying. It's just about the most obvious thing about him. And he's the president of the United States. Ahem.
2
@Tim
First, recall that this most recent whine-o-gram of Krugman's asserts that Republicans lie, and written in such a way to suggest that they are alone in doing so.
He brings up the ACA, but oddly forgets ""If you like your health care plan, you can keep it", and the myriad other blatant lies that were promulgated by the Democrats when they forced it onto the nation.
Second, Trump stands alone, far and above all preceding presidents, in doing what he promised he would do. He has reversed course on only two campaign promises, and has fulfilled several dozen others, with more to come.
I don't care about his daily bluster and tweetstorms. He made a career out of being a real estate and media huckster. It's old news.
I care about what he and his administration do.
And they are elevating federalism over statism, restoring balance to the federal courts, and eradicating the progressive left agenda, as promised, which gets my seal of approval.
@Objectivist
You obviously prefer to ignore the long list of shortcomings that even many of his fellow Republicans have publicly decried. The Republican Congress has made a deal with the Devil: an ego maniac who thrives on bragging and demeaning others, a clown who has made a chaotic disgrace of the office he holds. In return, thanks to a Republican majority (lucky for him!) the richest 1% of the country got a massive tax break, while his cheerleaders look the other way and scream for vengeance against the boogeymen that Trump uses to scare them.
Trump is a national embarrassment, an accident of history--a reality TV star who inherited $ 43 million dollars and squandered it many times over, leaving a trail of questionable deals and disasters in his wake. The fact that he is now president of the United States is, for 60% of Americans, a daily dose of anxiety and sadness and, for an ever increasing number of those who voted for him, regret.
"Truth is the first casualty of war," goes the saying. "It's War," claimed a liberal op-ed writer of the Times of the election. Mr Krugman did his part to verify the saying, when he claimed the world economy will come to and end on the day of the most recent Presidential election. He's susceptible to hysteria. That's a lot of salt to take when reading his columns.
USA Today should have not let Trump lies be printed as fact.....or at least should have had a fact-check editorial to oppose the lying piece.
As for me...I believe the Republican position on health care has never changed: If you are rich, the best health care in the world. If you are not rich, die.
1
I have been reading/grading 7th Grade papers this morning. While driving to school, I heard the President speaking on the radio, I think concerning Nikki Haley. It struck me that the President's vocabulary, word choice and verbal (dis)organization was at, or even below, the language of my 7th grade students. So, he gets an F from this teacher...no surprise. What an embarrassment to our country, to the world!
7
We know they cheat, pretend to be progressive, while they hate democracy, old people, women, sick or people with pre existing conditions, they love their assault rifles, and the answer is, VOTE.
5
The ultimate sign of the Trumpification of the Republican party.
1
Spineless?
Did you see how Schumer and the 48 other Democrats and Indies rolled over to bypass reviewing something like 15 judicial appointments by Trump so they could go home and campaign?
Because it's more important to try to win the Senate (against worse than 2:1 odds) than stop life-time appointments of judges who WILL protect the interests of corporations, polluters, dishonest landlords (like the Trumps) and White male privilege for the next 30-50 years.
That just sorta slipped by the news. And McConnell is chortling about that and warning if Dems DO pull off the win, the faucet for such appointments MAY shut off !
(But never underestimate the spinelessness of Democratic Charlie Browns to ALWAYS believe Republican Lucy van Pelts won't jerk the football away yet again)!
Spineless and weak (D), or spineless, corrupt, principle-less liars (R). A rotten choice but still (D) is the better choice.
@Dadof2
You need to learn how to count votes, Dadof2. Better to go home and keep your seat in Congress than to stay for a futile exercise in challenging McConnell and his strangle hold on the Senate. The Democrats are neither spineless nor weak; they are a Minority Party without the votes needed to stop Republican legislation. That is how it works. None of them voted for Kavanaugh on the SC; he is now on the Court, because the GOP had enough votes to put an alcoholic Catholic ideologue on the SC . Watch for challenges, again, to abortion rights, voting rights, and misc. civil rights.
1
Lies come in big, as well as, small sentences. “You shall know the truth, and the truth will set you free.” From a religious standpoint, it would be very difficult to deny it. From a political viewpoint, you might want to use “Truth; What is Truth?”
All politicians lie! Now that’s the Truth:Period...
I once used the statement in one of my songs “I’m lost in the jungle of your lies.” Unfortunately, I can’t copyright that statement; only the song itself, so please feel free to use it if it helps you.
In less than a month, we’re coming to the parting of the waters. If you’re not sure on how to vote, here is a free suggestion. If you’re confused about where our country is headed and who’s leading it, vote Democratic, regardless of the person running. If you love “pep” rallies, insanity, lies, deception, circus acts, raising sea levels, horrific storms and Donald Trump as the “Ring Leader” of the current Circus, then vote Republican. It’s that simple.
1
You can keep your Doctor if you like your doctor, you can keep your health care plan if you like your health care plan.
Mexico is going to pay for the wall. Lie #1 of , what are we up to now, 5,000?
5
@Jimd
Or, if you have a pre-existing condition, you can opt for no health care plan or one that will surely bankrupt you should you need it. That one's called the Republican plan.
5
@Jimd
I kept my Supplemental Plans, for both Medicare and prescriptions. AARP provided both private Plans through United Health Care. Nothing changed.
1
"So if you’re a voter who cares about health care, it shouldn’t be hard to figure out where the parties stand. If you believe that Medicare is a bad thing and the government shouldn’t protect people with pre-existing conditions, vote Republican. If you want to defend Medicare and ensure coverage even for those who have health problems, vote Democrat."
This should be the message of the Democratic ad campaign - in every state - on every media outlet - now until November 6
Simple - easy for anyone to understand.
575
@Meza I absolutely agree, but I'm hard pressed to remember when a Democratic position was EFFECTIVELY covered by the news media. All the CNNs, MSNBCs and Fox News of the world want to talk about is the crazy stuff Republicans say.
1
@MezaSo l’m confused! Why aren’t we hearing this message? Beto! Start talking about healthcare LOUDLY!
1
@Meza
Sorry
All democrats seem to want to talk about is Kavanaugh, kavanaugh and more kavanaugh
? Political spin gave way to outright lies back in 2008 if not earlier.
Earlier would include the lie that republicans are more fiscally responsible - the numbers going back to Nixon show the opposite for presidential terms, regardless of who has the senate and house: under Carter and Clinton, spending slowed and revenues increased, thus decreasing deficits, compared to their predecessors, whereas under Reagan and W Bush, spending accelerated and revenues slowed, thus increasing deficits.
As for 2008, here is a clip from the 2009 town hall healthcare reform protests demonstrating their complicit absorption of the blatant lies about the ACA and Obama, some of which came from Palin (against the 'end of life consultation' to be paid for by medicare, despite her supporting such a measure in Alaska in April 2008or9) and Grassley (death panels in particular, but his opposition to the ACA in itself was a lie given his cosponsoring of the 2007 Wyden bill (senate bill S.334) which included a mandate, subsidy, penatly and government oversight of guidelines); ditto for Lindsey Graham's support of Wyden bill S.391 and the Heritage Foundation's similar health reform proposals in 1989 and 1992, until they pretended otherwise in 2009.
https://www.youtube.com/ZKBa9K_vAm8k
1
The vain bumbling prevaricator at the head of our table lies continually because it creates doubt about what is true for many people. We have begun to lose our “truth” perspective. Skepticism is taking a back seat. Many people do not know what to believe anymore. This is a massive attack on our democracy and threatens the Republic. ‘Truth be told’ is becoming out of fashion.
3
Fox News viewers will believe ANY lie they see or hear.
They will "follow anything that moves" - see leading anchors, reporters, and commentators.
The only problem that Trump and the GOP have is wondering how large they can make the lie.
6
“Repeat a lie often enough and it becomes the truth” or the "illusion of truth" effect, is alive and thriving among a huge chunk of the population. Unfortunately, the one antidote to the illusion of truth effect, i.e. knowledge, seems to be in short supply. What's even worse is that much of the population is not even seeking knowledge, particularly when it comes to evaluating political positions. This is the kind of un-intellectual envrionment in which demagogues like Trump and his supporters thrive. Woe is us, or should I say US.
3
If you want single payer (a term used obfuscate the fact that the government is the single payer) just look at how well the VA treats veterans with medical needs.
The disinformation machine run by the billionaire backers of the GOP now defines “reality” for 40% of voters. This success is assisted by social media, and Trump has mastered use of Twitter. The dominance of the profit motive behind apps like Facebook, Twitter, YouTube, not to mention fact-free blogs has made responsible behavior boring.
Until this brainwashing conglomerate is shut down there will be no way to recreate meaningful dialogue.
4
Disagreement on the degree of federal government involvement in health care to achieve the best out comes is not hate.
Pundits advocating free stuff for one group while demonizing another is a poor way to improve health care.
Projecting hateful intent on others exposes yours.
As we watch the party of Trump destroy American values, a big chunk of Trump supporters believe him even though most of what we hear does not make sense. Like I am sure we will soon hear Trump saying, "I deplore and condemn this wonderful thing Prince Salman has done to protect his precious name, which he has every right to do."
4
Twenty-five days, that is 25, days until we vote. We can start to end the nightmare.
9
When a Republican says that Medicare for all is socialism or a government takeover of health care, Democrats should respond more directly and effectively than they do.
If a Republican opposes universal Medicare for the above reason, the obvious conclusion is that they oppose Medicare as it now exists. The expansion of Medicare is simply providing that exact same system to all Americans. If that's socialism or a government takeover, than the existence of the present Medicare system is logically the same.
Democrats need to say so!
But as any thinking person knows, neither Medicare as it exists or through expansion isn't socialism or a government takeover. Private hospitals continue to exist. Medical providers are not government employees. Even private insurance exists for people under Medicare to supplement the basic care provided under the federal program.
Socialism or a government takeover of health care does exist. They've had that system in the UK for 70 years. Hospitals there (mostly) do belong to the government. Doctors and nurses are government employees. Their system is very popular; no British politician interested in keeping their job would advocate its elimination. We also have such as system in the U.S.: it's called the VA.
Republicans obviously want to abolish that too.
12
@pczisny And we have another system that we all pay into, from which we all receive benefits: our national security system! National Defense is a socialistically funded enterprise! Could we please invest more money in schools so that the general public would be more aware of the basics of economics? Such as Adam Smith (("Wealth of Nations") where he pointed out the "invisible hand," the virtue of capitalism and free markets) who explained in 1776 that markets cannot solve everything! National Defense, health care, care of the poor, orphan care, all the areas that capitalism cannot fix are SOCIALISTIC, but not social-ism. Geesh.
8
And let’s not forget socialized medicine, such as organ transplants, for which our kindly government pays.
Thanks once again Dr. Krugman for ferreting out the facts and fronting the lies and deception which the GOP self-righteously promotes. What the Republicans cannot admit publicly: their apparent conviction that unless you have the means to afford the decent or better levels of health care available in our current "system" - then you don't deserve it.
The pre-eminent conservative delusion born out of deep denial: that competitive market forces are the principal means to address health care cost, quality, and access.
Dr. Krugman, can you employ your considerable intellectual horsepower to devote a column to the following assignment:
How do we achieve a basic health care safety net for everyone, regardless of age or income, while also having the option of purchasing additional insurance coverage similar to a Medicare supplement ? How would the costs of such a system compare over the next ten years to what we have now ?
6
Health care premiums and prescription drug costs were rising before affordable care. They are still rising. Before albuterol, asthma was uncontrollable for many and they had no relief for days and weeks. Albuterol has existed for decades now. But copayments for the inhaler have shot up from 10 dollars several years ago to 55 dollars, even in the post affordable care years. Rising health care and prescription drug costs continue to remain a serious problem and have only gotten worse under Trump and the GOP who have done nothing besides try to scuttle affordable care and pass a tax cut whose benefits have mostly gone to the ultrawealthy.
5
Healthcare is not a right. It is a service just like any other service. If you don't want to pay for it, don't go to the doctor or hospital.
That doesn’t make sense from a moral perspective - life is precious but we should suggest someone die at home from strep because they couldn’t afford a doctor visit and an antibiotic? It also doesn’t make sense from a financial perspective. We spend at least $72,000 per child to educate a child through high school. But we should let that child die without ever reaching productivity because his parents couldn’t afford $200 for a doctor’s visit and an inhaler? This doesn’t even take into account the effect on a family’s income or productivity from a treatable illness or injury. It doesn’t make sense to keep someone from working for years in pain from a broken arm rather than set the arm and allow it to heal. All the family income lost would far outweigh treating the arm. Even if you are heartless enough to tolerate the human suffering from treatable conditions, providing health care to keep people productive is the correct financial position.
5
Let us put things in proper perspective. Before affordable care people had no coverage for pre-existing conditions like mental illness or diabetes. Individuals dealing with these are not at fault.These conditions cut across income classes and age. Millions of people who did not have health insurance would go to emergency rooms, which were forced to provide care. The affordable care act should have ensured universal health coverage. It has not for several reasons including the republicans and trump trying to scuttle it. Affordable care has barely survived their attempts. With affordable care people at least pay something for coverage, and it was mandatory till the republicans removed that requirement to undermine affordable care. They call affordable ‘social medicine’ and many millions of people have been denied health care, especially the poor. They have no solution for these people. Democrats and independants see it and the world that is trying to provide universal health care to all its citizens sees it. But not trump and many republicans supporting him, peddling in lies and disinformation. They dont trust government and dont want it in their lives- people in texas and red states in general.
3
The Republicans engage in the most hypocritical lies, voter suppression, gerrymandering, conflicts of interest, racism and misogyny imaginable.
Appealing to morals, honesty, decency or love of country are pointless. They have none of those things.
Americans are in the fight of their lives to maintain our democracy. Vote on November 6th.
3
Ohio AG and GOP gubernatorial candidate Mike DeWine has also undergone a sudden election-year conversion on health care. DeWine sued to block the Affordable Care Act in 2011 and has done a shell game on his Medicaid expansion stance that would do a street con artist proud.
5
Depending on the results of the midterm elections it might be time to leave this country and live somewhere else. The long term prospects of a country with such a sizable percentage of ignorant voters are not favorable. The effects of rampant lying weakens a society terribly.
7
It speaks to the level of institutional accommodation
with the big lie manufacturers busy at work 24/7 at the WH
that usa today published no simultaneous correction to the (ghostwritten) column. To me that is emblematic of the
moral rot and intellectual confusion penetrating yet another level of the society's media institutions as they deal with the authoritarian spirit that is running amok in the country.
It resembled the conscious decision not to raise the subject
of human induced climate change and what to do about it during the televised "debates" of what used to be called the republican party. This accommodated a mindset
that seeks to impose its ignorant authority over the rules
of physics.
While it is not possible to do that, you can keep your image of authority and avoid being made out to be an utter fool if you are never challenged in public. That is what the "debates"
accomplished, and that is what the absence of an editorial
challenge also accomplished.
We are dealing 24/7 with mass manipulation of far too many minds incapable of critical thinking, ignorant of basic facts, and too distracted to care one way or the other. But the worse
consequences of this will only be seen post election when the trumpicans maintain all their power.
That illusory "blue wave" will then be swallowed by a
tsunami of authoritarian governing that few of the many
eligible to vote non voters appear to have any concerns about.
5
Yep - liars indeed.
Time will tell how many of their followers they've iindoctrinated into believing their lies, or don't care if they don't, and how many have tired of being lied to and manipulated so that Republicans can throw money at their big business donors at the expense of Americans' health.
4
Aren't the Republicans just a hoot? They really have actualized Orwell's doublethink into a political reality. It's just crazy what is going on with those guys.
3
The Big Lie has been out there for years. While campaigning for Obama in 2012, I spoke with a woman on Medicaid with multiple health issues. She swore that the Democrats were going to take away her Medicaid and only Republicans would save it. No amount of discussion or facts would sway her. Somebody or something made her believe this. And to think, it's even worse today!
4
The thing about IQ is that the mean is set at 100. 50% of Americans are in fact below normal, 50% above. Since the concept was devised, back around WWI, that IQ100 has shifted toward higher intelligence, but the tide seems to be going out now.
As the wise Bill O'Reilly once remarked , 'The tide comes in; the tide goes out. Why that happens, nobody knows.'
3
Democrats must become the party of DEPROGRAMMERS.
The Republican Party and the conservative movement under Trump and Charles Koch (which aren't always on the same page, yet traffic in self-serving dogmas for the rich and powerful). Instead of fractured, wonky messaging -- or fighting fire with fire (matching their dogmatic mantras with dummed down dogmas of our own), we must call an end to THE BRAINWASHING OF THE AMERICAN MIND!
The Democratic Party believes in Enlightenment principles. Incredibly, the GOP does not; it has morphed into a CULT, steeped in dangerous dogmas that threaten our democratic institutions. We must communicate the need to deprogram the country, to liberate it from destructive belief systems.
It starts by educating the public with PSA-like messaging about what constitutes a DANGEROUS BELIEF SYSTEM (not unlike educating the public about the dangers of smoking). The DNC and liberals will be attacked for being “elitist.” But such attacks should be IMMEDIATELY rebutted with the fact that such thinking is in itself symptomatic of the circular thinking that inoculates those in thrall to a cultic mindset (a dangerous belief system).
Every effort to reframe liberal issues as a negative must be exposed for exactly that, a PLOY, a trick of the mind, brainwashing.
In short, we must DEPROGRAM the American mind and LIBERATE it from the shackles of cultic Republican ideologies that at the end of the day, serve least those they claim to care about most.
2
It never ceases to amaze me when Republicans -- especially Republican officials and their leader Trump -- call "leftists" angry, crazy people.
Note to Trumpians: We "progressives" (i.e., we who stand for progress in America) revere social justice, economic equality, and political fairness. Trumpians: WRITE THIS DOWN, then post it on your refrigerators as a daily reminder of what Fair-Mindedness is.
Angry? Crazy? Look at yourselves in the mirror, Republicans. It's not pretty. Many of you will see lying eyes and rabid sneers -- especially as you think of folks on the other side of the political spectrum: good, caring, law-abiding Patriots who Care about ALL Americans ... AND Fair elections.
Trumpians bark loyalty to a political party that looks, in the 21st century, to be more like a Gang -- a Gang of Despicables who would manipulate voter registration and reconfigure voting districts in every corner of the U.S. if they could -- in order to achieve an Unfair advantage at the polls.
Those of Trump's ilk wear blinders that shut out every viewpoint but their own: everything but a limited, self-serving vision. This is the very definition of prejudice.
Bullies and Bombasts never win in the end.
And they won't win on November 6, either.
7
The “Big Lie” is a rhetorical device that is likely as old as politics. It depends on two things; that the lie is really big like the newest one, “Democrats are evil and through mob violence want to destroy America,” and that it is repeated as often as possible. The Big Lie has worked for demagogues throughout history. And it has worked for Republicans particularly well ever since LBJ foreswore his Dixiecrat colleagues and supported civil rights. The republicans need to lie in order to hold their coalition of business interests, religious fundamentalists and threatened white men together as a voting block. The president, the Fox News pundits and the Republicans in Congress will continue to repeat the lies as long as microphones are in front of them and their coalition listens and believes.
6
Incredibly, even though Trump has made more than 5,000 false or misleading statements as president, major news organizations’ social media feeds continue to inject his unadulterated lies into the political bloodstream without clearly informing readers that they are just that — lies.
Yes, NBC’s story on this new lie did say it’s “evidence free.” But the fact that the social media feeds themselves are regularly awash in Trumpian falsehoods represents a serious institutional failing. As Brian Beutler notes, this “should be the easiest problem in the world to solve,” but instead, we’re getting “abject professional failure after abject professional failure.”
On Wednesday, USA Today published a piece by Trump in which “almost every sentence contained a misleading statement or a falsehood,” as Glenn Kessler put it. All these went initially uncorrected, and USA Today’s feed featured multiple tweetsspreading its falsehoods and distortions. We have seen this againand again.
This may seem trivial — who cares about single tweets? — but they all add up to a gushing Amazon River of disinformation. In my forthcoming book, “An Uncivil War,” I have a chapter called “Disinformation Nation” that discusses this problem and what to do about it.
By Greg Sargent
4
"The party hates, just hates, the idea of government action to make essential health care available to all citizens..."
And why is this?? I submit it is because not *all* citizens are white.
And white conservative voters would rather be without adequate health care, and many other things, before seeing ANY help ("my tax money") go to people with dark skin.
Really, that's the whole thing. That's it.
All the talk about costs and premiums and deficits is just a thin cover papering over racism, pure and simple.
11
Things are so appalling these days that we must turn them around immediately. Our lives and the lives of our children depend on it.
6
"So will the G.O.P.’s Big Lie on health care work? We’ll find out in a few weeks."
Living in a swing district, I get to see the GOP's big lie on health care every time I turn on the television and local programming. My republican rep voted to end insurance for pre-existing conditions after promising not to. But now, the republicans are accusing all Democrats of wanting to end Medicare "as they know it" for the elderly, while claiming Democrats will double your taxes to fund a government health care plan. That would be Medicare for all, but they don't want to tell you that. And they don't want to tell you Medicare for all would be a cheaper way to get health care then the current system.
Shocking!!! The republicans are lying. That didn't start with Trump...it started with Nixon. It's just been getting worse every year since. Now, there is utterly no semblance to the truth in anything a republican says. Once you fully realize the truth of that, it becomes very hard to listen to them.
How, exactly, do you have a conversation with someone you know is lying? What is even the point? How am I supposed to listen to the other side? What, exactly, can I discern from their lies? What does it say when they lie even when they don't need to, but just because they can...just because they want to mess with us, with me?
The only message worth sending them is this...
VOTE OUT ALL REPUBLICANS
9
The Republicans are the party of emotions. The Democrats are the party of reason. History has demonstrated that emotions are often superior to reason when it comes to winning elections. Emotions are also the smoke and mirrors by which Republicans can get away with cheating, lying, and bamboozling the public with faulty rhetoric, fake legislation to prevent "voter fraud", gerrymandering and who knows how many other deceitful methods of maintaining the authority of the rich and powerful.
Eventually their lies catch up with them, because people start look ing at how they are not much better off with the current round of miscreants than they were the previous ones, and throw the bums out of office, but overall, the emotional tide will come back in and wash away the sandcastles of reason that have been erected by the Democratic administration. The cycle repeats again and again.
If there is any lesson to be learned, other than to not repeat the mistakes of the past by actually studying it, it is to rely on yourself and your friends and neighbors -- on grassroots initiative to change the world, and not on politicians.
3
Con men have never had trouble getting their own victims to testify on their behalf in court. People still sign up for Amway so they can be millionaires in 5 years. Seems like there is always 30% of the population primed to be conned in the most obviously ways. The new thing is that, until Trump, the con was about money. Now it is about political power and money and it has it's own TV network.
8
The cult is strong. It's fed daily. Like any cult they're generally aware of the outside world but discount it. Inside is better, safer, supportive. I know as I was in a cult for 1.5 years in mid-70s.
The Republican Party and Fox have created the largest, deadliest cult in history. The decent political party the GOP was is gone. Decent Republicans left, as they refused the cult and therefore were persecuted, banished.
The Russian Mafia State is clearly waging war on all western democracies. Our founders warned of potential for enemies within and without. We're now in an asymmetrical, undeclared but viciously waged worldwide war. It doesn't resemble previous wars because there's limited gunfire.
This is 21st Century-style, truly WWIII. Recognize this and you'll start to think on how we can, unified, wage it back and win this war. But we are perilously close to the Enemy's completion of their primary campaign- the destruction of US democracy, intended top be permanent Minority Rule.
7
The big lie as told by the R's or actual facts as presented by the D's? Of course I'd want to bet on the facts to prevail. But, forced to bet serious money, it would be a very close call. This piece reads as if Krugman feels much the same way. My opinion of the intelligence of American voters means little. But his?
2
For historical context read Hannah Arendt. The GOP today exemplifies the disease that Arendt describes in her studies of the rise of fascism in Germany. Unfortunately, that playbook works, and is being followed line by line by Trump and the GOP vassals of their demented billionaire donors.
5
Trump and his oligarchic backers – both on Wall Street and in Moscow – know what all who have studied history know: it is alarmingly easy to control the thoughts and actions of human beings who are uneducated and intellectually lazy.
Trump's and Fox's flock actually brag about having others do their thinking for them (remember "Ditto Heads"?). Facts and truth scare the heck out of these people. Unequipped to deal with a complex world, they look for simple solutions for their poor station in life. Trump and Fox stand ready and able to manipulate these poor saps for economic gain and political power.
In 2016 in Las Vegas, Trump was not lying when he said he loves poorly educated people. All clever craftsmen love useful tools.
6
SO NOW THE GOPpers are using the Big Lie Theory to guide their politics. The Big Lie Theory says that if you repeat a big lie often enough, people will start to believe it. The corollary of that is the belief that in order for Evil to triumph, all that is necessary is for persons of good will to observe it and do nothing. I must assume that the large numbers of unregistered voters--about 70% of 18 to 25 year olds, and about 50% of eligible voters 26 to 35 are persons of good will. Yet they are sacrificing their future wellbeing and that of their children and grandchildren by permitting the despots among the GOPpers to run the show. The failure to register is based on a depressive belief that voting is hopeless, because each individual vote makes no difference. To counter the depressive attitude, unregistered voters must be shown that each vote is a the of hope of a worthy individual, a spark of light to drive away the dark, depressive thoughts. With enough of the light generated by each registered voter who votes, the darkness will be challenged and defeated. Evil cannot triumph where persons of good will shine daylight on the dark. That's why laws have "sunshine" clauses, meaning that they must be reviewed and renewed periodically in order to tweak them to meet new conditions and needs that have arisen since the law's enactment. Our democracy depends on such dynamic change. As the election approaches, think, This little light of mine, I'm gonna let it shine!
4
Trumps racism and boorishness pulls the curtain back and reveals a country populated by boorish racists.
Any American egalitarianism and general fairness has been snuffed out by corruption, greed and a sadistic inclination to make ideological opponents suffer.
4
First, credit where credit is due.
You can blame President Trump for many things but he is a marketing expert - publishing not in the NYT but in USA Today on a topic that concerns his audience. The USA Today invites replies to its articles - Democrats should reach out and correct the record.
Second, the time for lies may soon be over - we may well be at the peak of an age of greed. As the effects of climate change become undeniable, insurers will balk at insuring anything along the coast, and some populations may well recognize they have been conned. Will the GOP brand be doomed by then? We will see. For now, just notice that while the WashPo, NYT, and CNN feature Michael on the first page, Fox News notably doesn't.
When will denial stop?
When it must - and a kingdom built on lies is one that will surely fall.
5
This is the Leader chosen by the GOP. Although Republicans in sane districts are attempting to run for the House on “ local issues,” they are all lining up like little clones in their support for Trump. Without John McCain, there is no Republican with the courage to stand against the lies and shifting of blame coming from the White House.
Vote for responsibility and truth in November. Let’s end this bad reality show.
6
I have already commented once in a different area. I would like to add this. I wonder how the GOP voters in the Florida panhandle will regard FEMA aid and assistance after Michael ? Is this socialism? Other readers may have already commented on this.
7
" . . . . . Even the president of the United States isn’t entitled to his own facts. . . . . ."
Based on the evidence of the last 2 years, I do not think said President agrees with you on that.
3
Republicans are the masters of deceptive political messaging, and have been for decades. While serving their patrons among the wealthy and business class, they have crafted campaign messages that claim the opposite, that portray them as champions of the working class and the economically disadvantaged, that focus on distracting issues such as abortion and guns while concealing their real agenda. Their election victories in recent memory attest to their mastery of deceptive messaging, and to the gullibility of a large enough segment of the electorate to grease their way into power. In the Trump era, this fraudulent messaging has been fed to the public at unprecedented levels, and since deception is the only means by which Republicans can win elections, we can expect to see even more of it in the coming weeks.
9
The lying and false representations are working their way down the trail from Trump to the local congressional races. Both GOP incumbents in the central NY area are attacking their Democratic opponents, claiming that the Dems are either trying to take Medicare benefits away or eliminate the pre-existing conditions clause in the ACA. In fact all of the upstate NY incumbent GOP reps voted for the repeal of the ACA in the last effort to overturn it and both are toting their support for the Trump tax cuts. We know that GOP leadership intends to pay for a portion of the deficits that the tax cuts will create by reducing Social Security and Medicare benefits that you and I have paid for via payroll deductions during our working careers. When Paul Ryan and Mitch McConnell talk about "entitlement reform" they aren't talking about their retirement plan or post-retirement medical coverage. They are talking about yours.
6
The Republican effort to stop the expansion of Medicaid is one of the most self destructive actions taken by Republican politicians that has harmed their states. Now Republican governors with any brains in their heads want to expand Medicaid to cover the poor uninsured. It saves tax payers money and provides the poor with access to healthcare. But to the Republicans in Washington its a welfare program that must be ended.
6
I live in Missouri where Claire McCaskill, a moderate Democrat, is trying to keep her seat in the Senate. One of the ads opposing her reelection accuses her of being rich and of supporting tax breaks for the wealthy. I don't know how true this is, and I don't rightly care. However, these accusations come from the GOP, the party that is full of rich people and supports their tax breaks. A perfect example of a pot calling the kettle "black."
7
The melding of religion and politics in public life has gotten us to where we are. Just as people would do/say nearly anything other than acknowledge contradictions in their religious doctrine, many now can't conceive of expressing concern or doubt in their political leanings. We have become a fundamentalist nation in many ways.
10
Alice in Wonderland politics in which the absurd and surreal rule the day. Any fantasy that works is acceptable even if it means foregoing principals, integrity and credibility.
The right wants to have their cake and eat it to. Unfortunately their base of foolish lemmings are all too happy to appease them. Strange times indeed. Democracy and principles to them are nothing more than words to be exploited as needed in order to feed their disingenuous hidden agendas.
It all boils down to retaining power in order to make the rich richer by any means available. Wealth first, democracy be damned and they could care less who gets hurt in the process as long as it isn't their wealth masters.
6
I’ve said this from the beginning, that ruthless political campaigns did not need Russia to propagate propaganda, disinformation, fake news, but would use the same techniques, which turn out to be so much cheaper and easier than an actual campaign and so much more effective. I said that if there is no accountability, no repercussions, this would become normalized part of campaign strategy, even to the point of hacking election rolls and tilting tallies (which we actually don’t know whether or not was done in those 3 states that with only a margin of 70,000 votes, gave Trump the Electoral College; a mere two votes per district was all it would have taken and who would know?). And even if prosecuted, a billionaire financier intent on installing a candidate, or the billionaire candidate himself, could simply pay off the family (would you commit election fraud for $1 million?), and even simply erase accountability through a pardon. That will be the future of our politics.
6
Speaking of blatant lies. Here are a couple from Mr. Krugman.
The republicans want to end health insurance for Americans with pre existing conditions.
This is an absolute lie. They have only proposed allowing insurance companies to surcharge people with pre existing conditions who allow their insurance to drop. Folks who have insurance and switch companies cannot be surcharged, according to the republican plans. This is actually an incentive for people to have insurance even though they are healthy. We couldn't just allow everyone to drop insurance, and only add it when they get sick. No one would have insurance under those circumstances.
Another lie: Democrats do not want to destroy medicare.
The ACA take a huge chunk of its funding from Medicare. I know as a physician that medicare reimbursement has decreased by 30%, after not having increased for 30 years. When I started practicing 30 years ago, all physicians took medicare. Increasingly physicians are dropping out of the program because of the low reimbursement. Try finding a neurosurgeon in Manhattan that takes it. Medicare will increasingly become like medicaid over the next few decades, partly because of money transferred to the ACA.
The point is, that Republicans have no monopoly on mendacity.
@chip I dislike anecdotal stories, but:... I recently had a consultation with a surgeon at the local hospital. He reviewed my heath records, but did not examine me. Including wait time, the visit was 20 minutes. I was billed $957.00. Medicare paid $108. Yes, I have supplemental insurance. I also expect to have to pay higher premiums. Tell me please, how this system makes any sense.
3
I will keep repeating this until I'm dead or until we get single-payer health-care or something close to that. Employers(especially big ones) want employees who are beholden to them for their healthcare. This keeps handcuffs on them.
Single-payer will liberate employee's financially to pursue their own dreams. They will become free-agents, entrepreneurs, etc. They and America will prosper. Just not company’s and their owners as much.
8
Reality is complex. Solutions in a real world are complex too. That's the problem. Dems try to explain reality, which requires the equivalent of a peer reviewed paper. Repubs view of the world is so limited and narrow, they can explain everything with bumper sticker logic. Cut funding for education? Not a problem apparently, because now that many people can't think their way out of a paper bag, bumper sticker logic seems perfectly okay by them, making them easier to control.
The way back won't be easy. We need to better educate people for starters (and no - that doesn't mean more private schools; there's a reason the U.S. created the concept of public schools, which the whole rest of the world now follows, just as we're trying to revert to the 18th Century model of education only for the elite) and teach them actual critical thinking. I remember a presentation from a few years ago given by the CEO of Google who lectured a bunch of NYC senior students that critical thinking was a web search. The teachers in the audience were aghast as we all know that critical thinking requires something called Synthesis - the ability to create a completely new idea from components of old ones. No web search can do that. We need to teach people to cross check anything they read and hear (start with snopes.com; they've been telling truth to stupid for 20 years now). Lastly we have to break this 'Consumption is the only thing you need" mantra. We need art and music as well as STEM.
5
People don't vote according to what others think are beneficial to them. To many voters Trump is just fine making America great and even if he is not he has disdain for the same people and values as them. That's sadly good enough.
3
As a former Republican and still conservative I would like to see the Democrats and Independents call out all Republicans for approving Cavanaugh without discussing his evisceration of the 4th amendment, which, you will recall provides protection from unwarranted search and seizure. It is an issue that should be just as engaging, and more worrisome than the second amendment and could make inroads into some of these "conservatives" views and perhaps even their voting. Krugman is direct and logical on so many of these issues.
4
common paul - be honest about healthcare costs.
the truth about healthcare is far simpler than ANYONE in politics is willing to be honest about - and you know it.
there's more than enough money pouring into the system to cover EVERYONE in the country right now. in fact, there's so much money the enters in the system that the excess leaving the system is making thousands of individuals who have nothing to do with health or care - millionaires.
simply put - if ALL the money that entered the healthcare system was kept in the system, there would be an an enormous excess that could be used to lower the cost for all individuals as well as the 3 federal government agencies that cover about half the citizens - medicare, medicaid and the VA.
so i ask :
is ANYONE ever going to tell us the TRUTH about where all the money goes that leaves the system without ever providing any health or care?
3
Bravo Dr. Krugman. Thank you for laying out the unvarnished truth. Why every Democrat isn't speaking up as loudly and clearly on the campaign trail is a mystery to me.
It is well past time to call out the unending lying of the gop on healthcare....and virtually every other issue that impacts the lives of all American citizens.
Lying, fear, and anger.
I thought that was the GOP platform.
They have a policy for something...….I never knew.
1
Will the big lie work? Easy to answer this one. I just got back from Kansas. The rubes really are that dumb. So the answer is, yes. Sorry, I know that is not what you wanted to hear. But the GOP cult really is that dumb and suckered.
4
USA Today needs to do a retraction/correction. This is a travesty. How desperate are they?
2
Why does Trump lie? Because it WORKS.
His followers don't care if he lies, so long as they like the sounds he makes, and he continues to abuse those they hate - people of color, "uppity" women, immigrants, people who are smarter or better educated than they, and anyone who is identifiably "not them."
He's counting on the dedication of those who will support him no matter how many lies he tells, no matter how many destructive things he does. Like all successful con men, he's very good at identifying his suckers.
And there are far more of them than we'd like to think.
6
Why would they run Trump's piece? Because they knew it would get them a ton of traffic.
It's the same reason that media outlets, including this one, credulously reported nonsense from the Bush administration in the run-up to the Iraq war, spent endless amounts of ink on Trump's nonsense during the campaign, and has never met a Clinton conspiracy theory they wouldn't publish and article or 10 on.
Disaster is good for news outlets. It keeps the layoffs at bay. Sound reporting just doesn't pay the bills. No one needs a newspaper in Utopia.
2
Allowing Trump, or anyone else, to publish outright falsehoods (also called lies, but apparently not in journalism these days) is a black mark for USA Today.
Referencing another article, that specifically challenges and refutes most of Trump's lies doesn't mitigate USA Today's responsibility to publish truth, even (especially) in the OpEd pages.
Different points of view are fine. Lies are not. Shame on USA Today. And double shame on them for then trying to cloak this as a high-minded action to improve the marketplace of ideas. Because it smells like a pandering clickbait PR stunt - both times.
5
Has the Supreme Court been sold *down the river" by #45?
A Justice being investigated, what's happening with our Republic?
Please vote with your family and our Republic in mind.
5
@lftash, we will vote. Sdly our democrats cannot be trusted either. They have let us down multiple times.
1
Things are not often crystal clear.
Metaphors seldom express the full breadth of the ideas they stand in for.
But by golly gee whiz miracle of miracles we have crystal clarity via an easy to understand real live metaphor here!
Even my laughably deficient eloquence can handle this message thanks to it!
If you want to know how bad the GOP REALLY IS for America - our future - our place in modernity - our egalitarian advancement - our "spiritual" and material health - JUST LOOK INTELLECTUALLY HONESTLY AT THEIR TREATMENT OF THE HEALTHCARE FOR WE THE PEOPLE ISSUE.
With any honest assessment it shows how ugly they are - - how greedy - how they detest most of us - how poorly they treat our money - how antithetical they are to government by and for the people.
If you do not see it you are delusion. It is there as plainly as the moon the stars the sun the clouds the darkness...
You have to be willfully ignorant or delusional or a plutocrat/oligarch hugger not to see the darkness of their soul.
And don't try to blah blah blah with some technical quibble over method and means to try to dust up what the metaphor exposes. There are a million ways to skin a cat and healthy honest technical debate welcome WHEN YOU SHARE OBJECTIVES.
The problem is evident - they don't!
Only ugly hateful dishonest unAmerican leaders would purposefully obstruct saving the lives of fellow citizens while saving at least 7% of all the peoples' hard earned money!
So obvious it screams at you!
Remember what the ultimate prize is here for the base: a white, male majority rule with abortion outlawed.. Remember all the things they are overlooking to get that: climate change, tax cuts that raise the incomes of the wealthy and not them, ignoring incredibly undemocratic behavior and human rights violations across the globe, a president engaging in fraud and corruption, the tearing apart of immigrant families. And the list goes on and on. The base will gladly give up protections for pre-existing conditions if the leadership of the country remains white and male and Republican and Roe is overturned. After all that is accomplished, then maybe the base will start to say: "Now, what about me". Between now and then, however, many will die. Overturning Roe won't save them. They become collateral damage. Just like all the innocents in Yemen, the Black men with a cell phone, the asylum seekers being forced to return to a life of murder and drug abuse, the Rohingya people being raped and slaughtered, and so on. It's all about abortion. The fact that so many more will die to achieve that goal is totally acceptable to them. But make no mistake. If Roe is overturned, they will have to answer for all the other blood on their hands. And if they get sick, they will not be covered. Because you can't allow coverage for only white people with pre-existing conditions. Or can you? There has to be a way around that little technicality. When there's a will.....
4
Why does anyone lie? Usually, it is to protect oneself from being negatively affected by the fact that you are lying about.
Trump being the sociopath/narcissist that he is, does not have the self-awareness that normal people have when confronted by a lie.
He does not drink alcohol but is addicted and made high by a cheering crowd that wants/needs to consume his lies.
2
As is the case with climate change, there has to be a Trump tipping point- the moment when the culmination of lies, idiotic statements, rants, threats, racist innuendos and completely off the wall claims push even his most ardent supporters over the edge. A time when a significant majority of Americans realize that we are being lead by a buffoon. I thought yesterday might be the day (Kanye chaos, Medicare lies, Khashoggi absurdity, NY Times creation of fake insider story, attack on the FED, continued Me-Too criticism and another ridiculous rally) with Trump failing to make one even rational statement? I guess we just need more time.
10
@Disillusioned By the way, there is no evidence of a climate change tipping point either. We only know that things get worse as we add CO2 to the atmosphere. We also know that we've been bad at predicting exactly where it's going to hurt first. When I was a kid it was sea rise, now it's extreme weather, tomorrow it will be food supply, who knows. It seems innocuous to postulate a tipping point to cajole people into action, but then when it doesn't tip science credibility goes down the drain.
Well, if you’re trying to convince my father-in-law, you’re wasting your breath. I’m making better headway teaching my cocker spaniel quantum inertia.
1
Truth has a way of hanging around - lies have a way of hanging their tellers. May the mid-term elections be the scaffold, the lies the rope and the hangman the voters.
4
If Mr. Krugman is going to say the same things every day, perhaps we could have a guest columnist now and then to offer us some variety?
2
"“In both calls, they (Bolton and Pompeio) asked for more details (about the Kashoggi disappearance) and for the Saudi government to be transparent in the investigation process,” said the White House press secretary, Sarah Huckabee Sanders.
Was the FBI investigation into the Ford allegations against Kavanaugh transparent? The hypocrisy of the Trump White House and its Republican sycophants is mind-boggling.
In defense of those hopelessly maligned by the bulk of the commenters here, and in spite of my own distinctly left-leaning view of the world, I must remind all us coastal elites that we left the hinterland to its own devices for many years.
Having traveled and worked extensively across the whole country, I can speak to the honesty, integrity, and generosity of the average American. I worked in 19 different states and over 400 towns, I can say this.
Indifference to the opinions of these folks allowed the usurpers in the radio media to turn what was just ignorant into what is profane. The radio characterizes the coastal elites as marauders, bent on destroying America.
And make no mistake, that is what Trump is really saying now. The dog whistles are shriller, but there is still an under-message, an idea that has grown out of the minds of those that profit by creating rage: They (We) want to destroy you (them).
Trump described Democrats as 'evil' in a recent government-paid campaign stop. He is characterizing the majority of the country - those that disagree with him and by extension them - as against God. This is pretty much the pinnacle of all rhetoric. Hitler is left in the dust in this analogy.
The inevitable will occur. Right wing hegemony in the media, new and old, must characterize all disagreements as conspiracy, and describe the 'other' as what they have become. This will mean bloodshed.
It pays to lie on midwestern media. Now it gathers its own momentum.
2
@George
And when you consider how dumb the Average American (Joe Sixpack) is, and consider half of all Americans are dumber than that........
"Having traveled and worked extensively across the whole country, I can speak to the honesty, integrity, and generosity of the average American. I worked in 19 different states and over 400 towns, I can say this."
Say it, so what......because you can't think for yourself you follow the leader because he's on a Honda?
And when was the last time you spoke to a Coastal Elite? I live on the coast, and I can't find one for miles....
1
@Draw Man
You've leapt in thinking I was a Trump supporter maybe.
You don't get to call people dumb who have been lied to.
My point is eloquently made by your prejudice.
They know you see them this way.
“You can keep your healthcare/doctor/insurance” is still the biggest political lie in US history. The whole point of Obamacare was to change the health care system.
PK and sycophants, why are you so one-sidedly political?
The MAGA Hat Mob will believe anything Trump/FOX tells them, they want to believe because these are the same lies they are telling themselves. They live in a bubble of lies and they enthusiastically defend the bubble from any form of truth, they are the; hear no truth, see no truth, speak no truth MAGA Hat Monkeys of the 21st century.
Why is everyone getting into a lather Dr. Krugman over some harmless “truthful hyperbole” or “alternative facts”? These statements issuing from our dear Republican Father on downward merely represent a new, refreshing, and much more exciting way to effectively describe and organize the universe of human interactions swirling around us. Objective truth and provable facts are boring and so passé. Long live Trumpian Truth!
Trump Derangement Syndrome is alive and thriving within the NYT bubble. The problem is not Trump - it is the Democrats inability to articulate a clear sellable platform that benefits middle class working Americans. At this point Dems come off as more crime / drugs via open borders; higher taxes; and government run healthcare - and now mob rule throwing out the burden of proof standard. Whining about Trump will not win over middle class working people nor will identity politics.
1
In Hanna analyzing the rise of facism, Hannah Arendt noted how this coincided with the increasing use of mass propaganda technique. In the end the mob will believe anything it is told by the accepted authority and yet believe nothing; any deceit simply becomes another tactical success by leadership.
We have been in a nearly continual state of 'wag the dog' since the election and, when scandals and outrage no longer prove sufficient distraction, the would-be tyrant and his Republican supporters will turn to war. That is the path we are on now.
"I … had a purpose now
To lead out many to the Holy Land,
Lest rest and lying still might make them look Too near unto my state.
Therefore, my Harry, Be it thy course, to busy giddy minds
With foreign quarrels; that action, hence borne out,
May waste the memory of the former days." (Shakespeare; Henry IV, Act 4)
4
"Hello Blatant Lies"...a greeting to the Republican Party.
Republicans don't just ..."expect their Fox-watching followers to believe anything they’re told," they are certain of it, because...well, Fox watchers do believe anything they're told. And daily the shifty Republican Fox greets its audience with a big smile and warm "Hello My Fools!"
Of course it will work. American in general are incredibly stupid and believe the last thing they see on Fox News.
1
I just had a look at Fox News website.
Second article today:
Truth bomber: Trump could be the most honest president in modern history
I'm not faking it, have a look yourself.
2
I believe that the Republicans lies will succeed. After all, they succeeded when they "Swift boated" John Kerry when he ran for President. They successfully used lies and deceit to turn a genuine Vietnam war hero into a coward while they made George W. Bush appear as a war hero when he did not even serve.
Do not underestimate the fiendish abilities of Republicans. They are so good at lies, deceit and chicanery that they make Satan blush with pride. Why do you think that Donald Trump rode the Red horse to victory. He knew that he could never run successfully as a Democrat. Republicans are masquerading as people of religion, family values and patriotism but their policies suggest the opposite.
If Democrats don't fight off the Republicans every step of the way they will, once again, be the losers.
5
if nothing else, the GOP has shown that lying and half-truths and hardball tactics actually secure votes, which is why the Party of unregulated capitalism now rules all three branches of our government. when will the Democrats emulate these tactics or should they continue to take the high road and lose elections? Principle over power? what a super ethical question for our society.
Mr. Krugman,
This is a great article and I think it’s great to point out how this political party has become the party of lies.
I’m curious why you haven’t written about Trump’s comments on the Fed raising rates more quickly than necessary, given that it is in line with your view you’ve had for the last few years.
With a background in Economics, do you feel your Op Eds would be more valuable if they dealt more with the current economic environment? Now more than ever we could use your insight, especially with rising rates and stock market volatility.
We are living in the age of the New Fact. 'What I feel' about something has become 'these are the facts' about it; and as the feelings change, so do the New Facts. Find out what people want, hate or fear most of all, and tell them that what they feel is what is real. Convince them that you are the only one who understands their feelings; that only you can be trusted to make those things happen.
After that, you can make up New Facts all the time, and pretty much about anything you want. All you have to do is jump-start people's reactions to issues you want them to feel strongly about by linking those issues to what they already feel about something else. It could be anything: immigration, health care, terrorism - whatever you want. The list is endless.
'Fake news' is anything that challenges what you want people to feel. But once people do trust you with their feelings - the New Facts - you don't even have to do what you promised you'd do: you just blame your failure to deliver on (a) those who hold to the old type of facts (i.e. the 'fake' ones); and (b) your predecessors. That is why nothing you said yesterday is relevant to today's discussion, or - importantly - admissible as criticism.
When feelings become the New Facts, and the New Facts can be changed at will, the possibilities are endless.
2
Well, American freedom has been destroyed all right, but not by Medicare. It was destroyed by the Republican Party and the inequity of wealth and power that it stands for.
3
Why Republican voters are so unwilling to believe what is right in front of them - that the Republican party does everything in its power to crush them in favor of their rich friends and corporate donors - is something I will never comprehend. The evidence is right there for everyone to see day after day and yet they fall for the lies every single time. It boggles the mind.
4
The GOP has to lie because their economic policies are inferior and designed to shift as much wealth as possible to the top 1%. You can't just say as a politician: "If you elect me, I will find even more ways to shift the pie to the top 1%."
Democratic Presidents have resulted in higher job creation, GDP growth, and stock market returns than Republican Presidents historically, regardless of who ran the Congress.
Further, Democrats are the party of fiscal responsibility, with Clinton balancing the budget for four years and Obama maintaining the spending he inherited from Bush from 2009-2014 at about $3.5 trillion, unheard of when historically spending went up about 5% per year, which brought the deficit down to historical average as % GDP by 2014.
Why anyone in the bottom 99% votes Republican is mainly a function of social issues like abortion, guns and immigration.
6
Trump supports don't care that Repubs want to dismantle Federal health care programs or any other such as consumer and environmental protections because all that care about is winning the Culture War the goal of which is to return America to the norms of 1950 = non -Hispanic white male rule and the economics of 1890.
1
The Times asks readers to "Share Your Thoughts". The shreds of my 85 year old sense of decency pretty much keeps the brakes on sharing my real thoughts - not printable.
One thought I can share: Early voting has started here in Idaho and I'm heading down to the court house to cast my vote for a straight Democratic ticket.
9
We are all -- including the news media -- giving supine acceptance to Trump's violation of every norm associated with responsible governance. The constant lies are just the tip of the iceberg.
He is making money using the Office of the President.
He trashes our allies and cottons to autocrats, which represents a threat to our national security (a violation of the Oath of Office).
He disparages government agencies and functions, which is contributing to an already acceleration of erosion of public support for government.
And to top it all off, Trump doesn't govern, he campaigns, non-stop and virtually full-time. Those base-rattling rallies, for example, have nothing to do with policy, direction or governance; instead, they are blatant events intended to capture every news cycle and promote his self-brand. All, I might add, on the taxpayers' dime for travel, Secret Service protection and all the attendant uses of the office, such as motorcades.
Trump is playing the entire nation for a sucker.
1
The article talks about the problem of Republican lies...but the real issue is the problem with the US democracy.
The current sad state of affairs is because Trump and the GOP discovered that there is no penalty with lies...in fact they can be an advantage...just make up a favorable story.
The problem is with the voters who simply do not care.
Perhaps we perceive that it does not matter who get elected. Hence, we do not study the candidates enough to make an informed vote (or simply do not vote).
No democracy can function with such uninformed citizens. Perhaps the American "experiment" is coming to an end.
2
I only disagree with Mr. Krugman on one point.
USA Today was perfectly correct to publish the article. What they did wrong was not to publish a rebuttal allowing the Washington Post to do it for them.
The answer to any opinion is not to deny publication but to publish rebuttals.
2
Sure, large majorities just love the ACA's protection of individuals with preexisting conditions. Funny, though, they also hate the mandate requiring them to purchase insurance. Those killjoy Democrats painstakingly try to explain that you cannot have one without the other, blah, blah, blah - and that's why we keep losing elections. Republicans are just better at promising "free stuff."
2
Fox News. The GOP and lies - perfect together(apologies to Tom Kean)!
What The Donald has taught the party of regression is that the bigger your lie, the better.
The right wing true believers can't bother with such niceties as fact checking or truthiness.
Why seek the truth when belief feels so much better?
1
You can’t beat the fox/trump twitter propaganda machine. That’s the sad part. This article may be true and on point, but more people will read Trumps twitter and watch Fox’s version of the truth.
I’ve come now to believe that Truth doesn’t exist anymore, in the era of propaganda and social media, who repeats their “truth” the most wins.
Trump will always win, he can be as outrageous as he wants, lie as much as he wants and fox will show obedience as promote those lies as truth.
1
What proportion of the US population is willing to cover medical expenses for Blacks and Latinos?
And how about documenting the lie of the unemployment rate when 140 million people are poor or near poor, have two jobs, without benefits, part-time, underpaid and precarious?
5
Republicans routinely get away with blatant lies. That's why they keep telling them. I think it works like this: The raison d'être for the Republican Party is to allow people to keep the money they possess and not share it with others. I suppose they don't mind sharing a bit, as long as they can control where it goes, but the idea that the government will take their dough and give it to any-old-who is anathema. The problem Republicans have is that, while this idea is popular, it is greedy and counterproductive for society as a whole, so they can't just come out and say it. When Republicans lie, stretch, spin, and obfuscate about, say, taxes or health care--often with lawyerly prowess-- they know that everybody, including their own voters, know they are lying, but it gives the lie enough credence for folks to ignore the inherent greed and get on with the business of keeping all their dough. Republican lies are not intended to deceive so much as equivocate and camouflage their popular creed--vote for me and keep what's yours. It's an irresistible pitch, no?
1
Republicans hate, and call for the repeal of, every government program that doesn’t benefit themselves.
3
DId Rupert Murdoch purchase Gannett when the rest of us weren’t paying attention?
This Republican President, Congress, associated Minions, and voters do not know the meaning of facts or truths, just spin. The Republican policy prescription for all problems is really very simple: more wealth and power for "Old White Men and their Handmaiden wives and girlfriends". The answer "Vote-em-out" at every level.
7
lying has been GOP policy since 1980
gingrich and crew swore up and down they were not
cutting Medicare then had to admit at last they
were cuts
nothing new under the sun
2
I'm old enough to remember Trump on 60 MINUTES, the second he was elected, telling Lesley Stahl: "The BEST thing to do w/ Obamacare is to leave it alone."
If there's ONE admitted truth we should be asking him to uphold is to LEAVE OUR ACA ALONE...!!! Heck Mr President, feel free to call it Romneycare if you want.
1
t an incredibly thought out argument in support of health for citizens.
1
Trump the master of reality television has taken those skills to the White House. His mentor the late Roy Cohn taught Trump that the key to success is lying. The bigger the lie the greater the success. Trump’s current reality show is called The Big Lie and is playing daily at the White House. American voters will decide whether this prime time show is worthy of renewal. Or is it enough already? No more lies. No more Trump. Cancelled.
1
@bnyc
Paul Krugman is right. Trump's supporters will believe anything and everything they are told. You ask why? My response is based on my own family member's behavior (she's a Trump supporter): Basically, Trump's diehard supporters are members of a cult. There is nothing anyone can do or say to dislodge the "truth" of all he spews. Kool Aid, anyone?
2
The GOP’s big lies will likely work.
I sincerely hope that I am wrong.
1
The Republican health care plan in one sentence. "If it's YOUR health, why should I care?"
2
Fool me once, shame on you. Fool me twice, shame on me. Fool me all the time, I'm just stupid, i.e., the American voter.
8
I’m terrified that the republicans will retain control after the midterms, giving them two years to utterly destroy our democracy. Two years of the fight to address’s climate change lost. It boggles my mind how far we have fallen so fast. It’s as if all the complex and interconnected machinery of our body politic failed simultaneously on Inauguration Day.
Anyone believe for one minute that Donald Trump has read "his" op-ed in USA Today?
In Missouri Senator McCaskill is running against an earnest young liar who is advertising support for health care while working to end coverage for pre-existing conditions. He, like many Republicans, is simply counting on ignorance of the voters. Let's pray they are wrong!
2
I just read the USA article and my jaw is still on the floor. Every sentence is a lie. Dems will destroy medicare, end private business? I don't need politifact to check what is blatantly obvious to any reasonable person, but USA Today is just one platform. Unfortunately, professor, Trump supporters don't bother to check other opinions in the the Washington Post or NY Times.
1
Debate this all you want. All I know is I'm tired of all the lies, the inconsistencies, the ignorance, the arrogance, the cruelty and the drama. The midterms can't come soon enough.
2
Remember, "We had to destroy the village in order to save it."?
1
Thank you Paul for not mincing words and calling a lie a lie. If only the talking heads on network and cable news would do the same, we might end up in a better place.
Paul...Paul...PAUL!
I think that Republican begins with the end: "only rich people matter"
The rest is simply to support "only rich people matter"
2
Republicans, like most people are predisposed to believe they know what is true. Trump knows how to take advantage of this to serve his purposes . When he speaks it is not to educate but to parrot the ideas of his base that do not want facts to get in the way of what they believe to be true.
Medicare has helped millions of americans obtain quality health care and though a fact, for republicans this is a lie ! Republicans worthy of the name Republican "know" that medicare was the first step on the road to socialism...and worse yet communism !!! They also "know " that to prevent the socialist/communist take over they must get rid of medicare either by privatizing it or cutting its funding.
The "truth" Republicans subscribe to is that health care should be ruled by market mechanisms even if people die as a result. What to the ears of Democrats sounds like blatant lies unfortunately are blatant truths to Republicans. The only logical response to the republican base...is to educate them. The public must be reached by television, by radio and by internet . The conditioning of the republican base by a constant barrage of lies can only be countered by an equally vigorous attempt at the correction of lies they accept as truths. If this does not happen facts will no longer be important in america, only the lies people have been conditioned to believe are true!
1
It is long past time for newspapers stop broadcasting everything Trump says without a full disclaimer, highlighted in bold and underlined - "almost everything Donald Trump says is a lie. "
Or better yet, stop reporting on him and repeating his lies for him. Just stop doing it. No more "President Trump[ said today....." Just state "President Trump had a rally today in Pittsburgh where he spoke to an audience of mostly supporters." That's it. It doesn't matter what Trump said at the rally because all of it will be a lie. So don't do the work for him, spreading his lies.
As Paul Krugman correctly points out - he (and republicans) just lie. Period. They are not even trying to spin or sugarcoat their lies anymore. They just flat out lie. All the time. About everything. And so long as nobody (the media especially) call them liars and call them out on their lies, they will just go right on lying.
The amazing thing about many of these lies it that they are contradictory. Democrats are Bolsheviks who want to turn America into Venezuela and are in bed with the banks. They want to expand Medicare for all and to destroy it. Doesn't make sense.
2
Health care affects EVERYONE--the self, a spouse, our children, extended family and dear friends. No one with empathy is immune from the effects of illness. Calling Medicare for all "socialism" is a blatant attempt to brand it negatively. In fact, Medicare is government-supported and has helped millions of seniors to relieve suffering and extend life-expectancy. Health outcomes in Canada, Scandanavia and Europe are better than in the U.S. With the real effects of GOP proposals, the US could have 4th world outcomes--plenty for the rich, none for the poor.
2
While being self-interested is a benefit for survival, at the same time, if we are too self-interested, we ignore the fact that we can’t survive without other people. So unbeknownst to the supporters our current leader and his administration their needs to fulfill their selfish ways are met.
American citizens have the power to take a closer look at where our world truly is and take a stance to fight against the manipulation.
After all this time, I am still skeptical that our many of citizens will seek out the boldness and be insightful enough to have a sense of what is right and wrong in order to see the situation of our country as it truly is.
1
I was listening to NPR when the announcer paraphrased Trump’s editorial claims then ended with “ The Democrats disagree.” After last week’s Kavanaugh hearing, their guest was a woman and long time friend of the Kavanaugh family declaring his goodness. I suppose I’m naive but, that was unacceptable as fact based news. Yet, that sort of passing as information is very common for our public “news” and other media. It used to be that experts from each side really discussed such events or issues. Now we have to settle for Shields and Brooks in lieu of meaningful fact based information or thoughtful discussion. Dr. Krugman’s column is a big step in the right direction.
The non Fox media’s ongoing refusal to report facts or to report what declarations are lies or half truths, especially regarding Trump and the GOP, continue to play a huge role in our loss of democracy. Many Americans are crying out for facts not spin or coffee clatch commentators.
4
Shields and Brooks provide thoughtful commentary; otherwise, you are right.
The effort to be "balanced" ends up giving equal time to outright falsehoods AND fact-based analysis; equal time to Trump's lies AND nonpartisan assessments.
It also treats the Republicans, who are virtually ALL anti-science, anti-fact, climate change deniers, who largely disdain the victims of sexual assault, and who have undemocratically commandeered the government and disdained the rule of law, as the equivalent of the Democrats who who science and fact-base, recognize the reality of global warming, and respect the rights of women, minorities, and immigrants, and uphold the Constitution.
4
Democracy is hard work.
Between elections, few people pay attention to politics. During elections, few people pay attention to politics. Why? Because paying attention requires spending time reading, listening, questioning incumbents, finding source material, etc and so on and so forth.
Full time research in other words. Few people have the time for that. Most of those who have the time are paid to do it. But when they report on what they've found, few people take the time to read the reports. Why? Because they don't have the time to read and make sense of all the details.
So most people rely on the sloganeering candidates and talking heads hired to spin the facts into whatever fantasy the political advisers think will sell.
Will the G.O.P.’s Big Lies on health care work? We’ll find out in a few weeks...Vote Blue!
Election Day in November offers the moment to reaffirm support for fundamental freedoms and integrity in government. The choice will be there in print. The Republican’s name on the ballot in your district may be different, but it is, de facto, Donald Trump. You know where his base stands. Where do we stand?
An historic Blue Wave that retakes Congress is our civic & moral responsibility. We must awaken independents, & Dems across the spectrum to vote Blue.
4
The comment section is about sharing our thoughts. Well, here is mine:
I'm 64 years old and scared to death of losing my Medicare and Social Security, which I qualify for in 7 months.
9
It's not that they hate hate hate the idea of our own people have access to health care it's that they hate hate hate all of us who are NOT part of the %1 it's that simple. They will say anything they will do anything to get their way they've already betrayed our country and will gladly sell it all off to the highest bidder if they get to pocket the money (tax free of course).
5
The politicians who have voted themselves the golden egg health care (ditto wage and retirement) really don't give a fig about "the little people".
The only value "the little people" have for them is paying taxes and fighting their wars.
The only People politicians care about are wealthy donors who can help them keep their seats and perks.
So it follows that the wealthy donors must be "protected from taxes" and anything else they demand.
7
I have a moderate pension and Social Security. Medicare has been the best health care insurance I have ever had, and I've had HMOs and PPOs through my university employer. Without Medicare and the "pre-existing conditions" I have it would cost tens of thousands of dollars a year to even purchase health care, assuming I could find an insurance company to issue one. I would be destitute. So, what do Republicans in Congress get from eliminating Medicare and Social Security - millions of Americans begging in the streets and dying in the gutters, and many of the GOP voters there won't be watching Fox News anymore. They'll just be trying to stay alive, and those of us with a brain will be very angry.
11
From the cradle, people are conditioned to credit unsupported assertions promulgated by authority figures. Although such trust has been betrayed repeatedly, it's easier to be swept along, a sheep among the flock, than to seek the truth.
I was describing to some friends last night how I was radicalized when I left my casually racist home and for the first time could witness what was going on in Newark and Detroit and My Lai. People who lived in those places I might never visit were being killed and maimed by those in uniforms who presumed to speak and act on my behalf.
I had been taught as a child that the greatest faith was the faith that required no evidence, that in fact evidence could only sully the nobility of my credulity. Consider that for a moment: In a world in which evidence matters, one of the earliest lessons for this young human was that evidence would only cheapen the virtue of faith.
Ronald Reagan actually made a record to be played on a turntable that warned credulous Americans about creeping socialism in the form of Medicare. A few years ago, a sign waved by a right-wing protester read, "Get your government hands off my Medicare." Clearly, the disinformation campaign that Trump has made de rigeur has a glorious history.
Because the truth can hurt, the mentally and emotionally lazy wallow in lies that support a worldview consistent with fairy tales presented as fact. The alternative is to admit that they were misled by the very people they trusted. No exit.
8
The press, like congress, and now certainly the courts, is the far right enabler. The coverage of Kavanaugh's ridiculous performance at the Senate hearing and of Trump's attacks on Dr. Ford after that, was despicable. The latest travesty is in Georgia, where more than a million voters, mostly poor people and people of color, now have registration "problems," but I learn about it from Michelle Goldberg. And the media hohums it and the Courts sit by and refuse to "interfere." We have been waiting for the midterms to restore some sanity, I am increasingly sceptical and fearful.
4
It never ceases to amaze me about how many people in this country are gullible to the lies that spew forth from politicians mouths, particularly the GOP-Greed Over People party.
These same gullible people have bought into the "Democrats want socialism" battle cry that the carnival barker from Queens screeches and the minions in the House and Senate parrot yet march to their nearest Social Security office to avail themselves of social security benefits and Medicare.
These same gullible persons will line up, if needed, for FEMA assistance if they are affected by disaster.
The two examples are, well, socialism yet there is no balking at participating in socialism if they are personally affected.
But, they have a firm belief that Trump is here to help them, to insure there are no "socialistic" programs enacted as he lives in a house provided by the taxpayer, is protected by those paid for by the taxpayer and is afforded medical care courtesy of the taxpayer. Hmm. Sound socialistic to me. Perhaps our dear leader is a hypocrite?
6
I've noticed that this years political TV ads, particularly those by republicans, have also reached new levels of distortion, misdirection, and outright lies. It seems it is OK to say anything to get elected these days.
10
"Why do Republicans think they can get away with such blatant lies? Partly it’s because they expect their Fox-watching followers to believe anything they’re told."
I remember that when Obama took office, he called out Fox News as not being a legitimate news source, but rather existing to peddle pro-Republican and anti-Democratic propaganda. For this, Obama was roundly criticized, including in this paper, for "attacking the news media" or some such drivel.
Well, here we are in 2018, quite possibly watching the beginning of the end of the United States. If and when that happens, Fox News will have played a major part in its destruction.
12
Paul,
I am so tired of reading the paper, the truth is turned on it's head and the rabid base applaud.
Elections have consequences for all, the Democrats have failed to control the narrative in regard to truth or honesty. The Republicans have five stars, they have muscled, stolen and lied to gain control of the entire Government and the results will become the reality of consequences. Sadly, the American experiment in Democracy has been burned to ashes. We are nothing more than a banana republic with an Authoritarian Government for the wealthy, who will become more wealthy.
Sadly, the Republican base will lose, they have voted against their best interests but all citizens we reap the results of these elections for decades or forever.
7
I will never understand how so many modern people continue to act on primitive emotions. It is evident how politicians manipulate people based upon their fears and prejudices. The mystery to me is how can so many abandon their ability to think clearly and blindly accept such lies. Even cursory examination would show that what they are being told is not only untrue, but also harmful to themselves as part of the American public. Am I giving too much credit to the assumption of a level of intelligence that may not exist?
5
The biggest threat to Obamacare (the ACA) is now the lawsuit wending its way to the Supreme Court. It's easy now for the new conservative Court majority to declare Obamacare unconstitutional, illegal, null and void. The first time the issue came before the Court, Chief Justice Roberts saved ACA by holding that it came within the taxing power of the federal government. Because those choosing not to enroll had to pay a penalty that was called a "tax." But the Republican Congress eliminated that tax. So now is the time for the Final Solution: the end of the ACA, saving billions of dollars and costing millions of lives.
5
@Richard: Thank you for using "Final Solution" for that is what the rightwing is all about. Let's stop beating around the bush as to what the right in this country has truly become. History repeats itself.
1
Another example: Wisconsin’s execrable Governor Scott Walker cut more funding from the state’s public education than any other governor in America, destroyed teacher unions and pay so badly we have a teacher shortage, even tried to change the Wisconsin Idea, the motto and foundation of our university system. His opponent, Tony Evers, was an actual teacher and our current state superintendent of public instruction. How is Walker running? As the “education” candidate.
6
The "blatant lies" actually work. Most people don't know how insurance works, they simply grumble that they have to pay for it when it is mandated.
Medical insurance is probably the most divisive. A lot of people want to return to the mythical days of Marcus Wellby who never seemed to bill for anything and was such a nice man. What the Democrats fail to explain is that without universal access to medical care, we all pay the price. Sick people come to work or school and infect others, serious illnesses only get treated when they reach crisis proportions and then the bills are exorbitant and the outcomes dubious. Businesses suffer because sick people are not effective workers, sick students are poor students, et cetera.
America will never go fully to a single payer system. At best we will have a hybrid system with both pubic and private providers. It will be somewhat unequal but there will be access and getting sick will not always lead to bankruptcy (which we also wind up paying for in the end).
If you like the idea of your tax dollars going to pay for somebody else getting medical care and paying top-dollar by all means eliminate all those government programs and live with the consequences.
3
Republicans see Trump getting away with 6 or 7 lies a day without any repercussions from his base so they think they can get away with it too. But, while 40% of Americans love the lies 60% of us don't. Thus they have become the minority party, headed to the dustbin of history.
4
Of course the Big Lie will work. Then when Medicare is gutted, they will blame the Democrats. The sad part is that the minority (Republican voters) that runs America will believe them.
3
"Letting Trump express his opinion is one thing; giving him a platform for blatant lies is another. And as fact-checker Glenn Kessler of The Washington Post put it, 'Almost every sentence contained a misleading statement or a falsehood.'”
If democracy dies in the USA, it will be with the complicity of the mainstream media, including USA Today.
6
The Republicans may win the midterms. The results would be horrendous. Trump and Republicans would be entirely unleashed, to continue their merry way of ignoring the needs of minorities, seekers of asylum and separated children, Democrats , and those who are trying to rein in climate change. Good-bye abortion rights, affordable medical care, student loan aid, and all suggestions of helping the desperate (socialism!!).
What is the great advantage of Trump and his cohorts. They are immoral, unethical, with no regard for truth and no shame. It is like a boxing match where one fighter is honest, never aiming below the belt and wearing honest gloves--while the Trump fighter constantly aims below the belt, has his gloves filled with lead, and constantly accusing his opponent of not following the rules. You can't win this kind of match if the referees aren't smart enough to see what is happening. With an uneducated electorate (the referees in any election) who do not have sufficient intellectual sophistication to spot the blatant lies, an electorate concentrated in those states where a person's vote carries more weight than a person in a large urban center , the results of gerrymandering , the Republicans have the advantage of lacking shame and lacking ethics . Very depressing, when the other side does not fight fair.
5
Cable News appeared in 1980 and the Fairness Doctrine disappeared in 1987. Wait 30 years and you end up where we are.
Fairness and Truth always go together. Today, we have very little of either.
It seems people need to be forced to be fair and forced to tell the truth to do so. So be it.
530
@JohnV We'll never know, but Im skeptical that the Fairness Doctrine woudl have survived a Supreme Court 1st amendment challenge after the proliferation of cable TV and news on the internet. The rationale for upholding a policy that is not content-neutral was limited space on conventional TV bandwidth auctioned off by the federal government. The doctrine was a good thing. I just don't think it would have survived regardless of what administrations did.
1
@JohnV
The story line is more like Reagan appointed a republican to chair the FCC who just abolished the Fairness Doctrine because "it didn't work" to promote fair discussion. Congress passed legislation to replace the regulation. Reagan vetoed it.
So, it's not just the passage of time that explains republican claims of fake news or a swelling populist interest in republican ideas, it's the result of leadership policy to abolish truth from the discussion.
1
@JohnV Tell that to MSNBC and CNN. Totally biased "reporting".
2
So let's just lie to Republicans. You're welcome.
2
So USA Today prints Trump’s lies!! How does this fit in with Maribel Perez Wadsworth’s stated goal: “I can help to bring out some of those important stories that maybe are going uncovered otherwise”
Guess “balanced coverage” means balancing truth with lies??
4
How about newspapers including the NYT use the word “lie” in the headlines.
Recent examples:
—Dems have gone wacko lies Trump
—The Feds have gone loco lies Trump
Other examples:
—That speech was meant to get a laugh, lies Trump
—I’ve got the biggest crowd, lies Trump
—I did not pay Stormy, lies Trump
—Putin is a good man, lies Trump
—Coal is clean, lies Trump
—The tax cut for the middle class, lies Trump
—Mexico will pay for the wall, lies Trump
—I am a billionaire, lies Trump
—Obama is a Kenyan, lies Trump
Not calling a lie a lie - as in the journalistic lingo of “without evidence” - is perpetrating that lie.
—Obama is a Kenyan, lies Trump
...is vastly different from...
—Obama is a Kenyan, says Trump without evidence.
Trump gets away with lying because the press is not calling him out on his lies.
It would also help to prefix his name with “The electoral-college elected president and serial liar Donald J. Trump” followed by “in a speech full of lies delivered in the United Nations was met with derision in the form of laughter by the UN delegates when he lied about his non-existent accomplishments.”
17
@Opinioned!
Great idea. How about one or more pages in a reputable paper like the Times or W.Post (probably need more than one page)---with the following large-print banner headline: TRUMP'S LIES OF THE LAST 12 HOURS (frequently it would have to be shorter than twelve hours--too much material .)
3
@Opinioned! According to a WP columnist, "But when it comes to the real barometer of presidential truthfulness — keeping his promises — Trump is a paragon of honesty. For better or worse, since taking office Trump has done exactly what he promised he would."
Because he is unconventional, because he is not married to bureaucratic ways, his methods somehow work, to get the job done. Perhaps we haven't seen that in a long time, so in a most bizzaro way, he is showing us how crazy Washington methods were before he got there.
1
@Opinioned!: totally agree. Because 'Lie' is the truth in such headlines.
1
You could accurately shorten the caption under the picture of Pres. Trump by ending the sentence after the word lies.
4
Excellent and timely article as a reminder of what is at stake for all Americans and what does not impact Trump or Congress personally. They have FULL, I repeat, FULL healthcare coverage so none of them have to worry just destroy.
It may be just me but I think more and more people are making Trump irrelevant to our every day lives, because he actually is for one thing. He has lost credibility among the majority of Americans and quite a few polls back my statement.
1
Trump lies so much, that if he were Pinochio, he would be tripping on his nose by now.
4
One of the biggest lies they get away with regarding single payer healthcare is the supposed long lines and wait times to see a doctor in those countries. Two years ago I was in London for a conference. I was walking around London around 9 AM and I came a cross a medical office. It was very similar to our GP offices. It was empty. I walked in and asked if they were open. The receptionist said yes. I asked where are the patients. She said being examined. I then stated "do you mean if I wanted to see a doctor right now I can"? She asked what is ailing you and I said nothing but if say I was feeling ill I could see a doctor immediately. She first said you are from the US, correct. I said did my Pittsburgh accent give me away. She laughed and said no, but yes if you were sick we would see you right away. I the asked hypothetically what would it cost me to be examined. She said 5 pounds because you are not a UK citizen, free if you were. She then went on to explain that US citizens fall for the myth that there are long lines here and long wait times for treatment. She also acknowledged that yes if you needed a surgery or something that was not life threatening or not causing extreme pain you may have to wait longer then in US. By contrast the wait time to see you PCP in US is a month or more and no walk ins allowed. This wait time lie will continue along with we have the greatest healthcare in the world.
10
Let's hope the democratic leadership and November’s democratic candidates make healthcare a top campaign issue, pointing out that Trump, his administration, and the republican party has shown contempt for the working middle class, poor, and seniors receiving any government sponsored healthcare regardless of cost.
The republican party’s end game ultimately is to eliminate social security, medicaid, and medicare.
Anyone who doesn’t know this has had their head in the sand for years or is against any government program providing healthcare services to the 99%.
Too many times in the past, democrats have snatched defeat from the jaws of victory because their leadership and candidates were poor at messaging and getting out to vote.
Please vote November 6, 2018!
12
Everything Krugman writes here is true, but he omits the financial support that enables Republicans to promulgate and disseminate these lies through paid political advertising. Further, twitterings and sound bites are all now that many in our nation are able to assimilate.
31
They have reached a point where nothing is off limits. Trump has allowed The Right to let their hair down and they feel good about it.No longer do they have to pretend to be defenders of God and Country. Trump has brought the beer to the tailgate party and The Right are feeling drunk with their power. It is no longer required to be politically correct. When The Right wakes up from their blindl love of Trump will they own the damage they have done? I recently noticed they have run out of blaming Obama for everything.
6
National Healthcare
Secular Education
Evidence-based Policy
Vote Democrat.
32
It has become a biological ecosystem: GOP republicans and Trump depend on Fox news that depends on Fox News viewers who in turn depend on Trump and the GOP. Add in republican donors money, corporate interests, lobbies, sellers of survival kits, guns, sexual enhancement pills….
It will be very hard to get rid of this plague, despite it being so scary.
8
The 2.0 of "plus ça change, plus c'est la même chose"..." the more things change, the more they stay the same".
Repackaging dishonesty is now in the art form category.
6
Republicans everywhere running for office have learned that blatant lying does not hurt them, in fact the bigger the lie the better. With Fox and the entire right-wing media empire being an echo chamber the most demonstrative lie becomes truth to the Republican base, who really don't care either way anyway. Fools and deplorable fools are the Republican base.
9
Every time I read an article like this I'm reminded of John Dean's book, Conservatives Without Conscience. Why are Republicans in power? They will tell any lie, commit any atrocity to win elections and we the voters let them. Republicans have a majority in the House, the Senate, on the Supreme Court and a madman in the White House. Who put them there? We the people. Wyoming has a population of 573,720. California has a population of 39,776,830. Each had 2 votes to confirm or deny Brett Kavanaugh's appointment to the Supreme Court. As Pete in the movie, O Brother, Where Art Thou said, "That don't make no sense."
34
The November election will tell us if Americans can judge the performance of the Republicans as the governing majority. Did Republicans deliver on what matters to voters?
Trump keeps repeating “Promises made, promises kept,” as if it’s true. (Another lie!) But in the election, voters don’t decide “the truth about Trump’s claims”; they decide whether their lives are better today than two years ago.
Repeal and replace? Replace didn’t happen. Protection for pre-existing conditions? Didn’t happen. Lower health care costs? Nope. Reduce my taxes? Not at all. Take away deductions? Oh, yeah, those are gone. Cleaner air, cleaner water? No, sir! Strong response to natural disasters? Paper towels!
Things aren’t better for Trump voters, so Trump keeps making them angrier. That’s his real message: “others” are causing your problems, and Trump will attack those “others” on your behalf.
Solve problems? No way! Just keep telling your base that they’re victims, that Trump is a victim, that America is a victim.
And health care and the deficit and the minimum wage and government helping people in time of need? Trump and his Republican majority argue they just won’t be able to get their job done till every Democrat has been voted out of office. His majority just cannot rule as long as there is a minority that can oppose them.
Haven’t we heard this story before?
9
“Things aren’t better for Trump voters so Trump just keeps making them angrier.” Boy oh boy, did you ever hit the nail square on the head.
In Michigan's 8th Congressional District Republican Congressman Mike Bishop is running ads accusing his opponent, Elissa Slotkin, of trying to destroy Medicare. This is an old Republican tactic: accuse your opponent of doing or trying to do or wanting to do all the bad things the Republican has done.
10
We have been living in The Looking Glass meets 1984. Everything the admin says and does is PROJECTION! Dems are the mob, GOP is the mob chilling journalists and locking up a senator etc. Will electorate see? Women see a woman and another woman to risk their life and life of a their family to do the right thing as their civic duty, the GOP see a man that has been wronged by a woman! Women have been told to shut up and sit down, that includes women surgeons, women lawyers, women who work to discover new medicines, women who are serving in the military. It is time women get the credit for their contributions. They will not sit down and shut up this time!
7
Thank you so much, Mr. Krugman, for this invaluable information. Unfortunately, there is no reasoning with the followers of the Cult of Trump. They have clearly passed the point of no return. If he led them to a remote area and literally asked them to drink the orange kool aid for a one way trip to Valhalla, I think we all know what would happen. More than a few would happily slurp it down.
I would like to know whether all of these state attorneys general and members of Congress will be in a position to pay for their parents health care if Medicare is destroyed.
7
Your article in razor-sharp in revealing republican hypocrisy, faithfully guided by the liar in-chief Donald J. Trump. All this sounds laughable...if it weren't so sad, stupid and serious, and affecting health care for the majority of U.S. citizens. but especially those vulnerable, those already ill and with pre-existing medical conditions, the old, the young, women, and certainly the poor. Given that vulgar Trump and his republican minions, all wealthy, have such a large social distance, they cannot walk in other's shoes. I said hypocrisy is their modus operandi, given that they are willing to deny others what they themselves take for granted, affordable quality health care. Voting these mafiosi out of office is an imperative...unless one thinks a klepto-plutocracy is the way to go.
14
USA Today should be ashamed, and should be printing an apology for publishing that Trump Lie.
But all 24-hr news TV should also be ashamed for the cheap attempts to amp up viewers with debates about actual facts like Climate Change...as if the truth is merely an opinion.
Most members of the media, like Maggie Haberman of the NYTimes and Chuck Todd of Meet The Press hotly deny this. Until individuals recognize the problem, the media will continue to be a major part of the story, rather than reporters OF the story.
4
Huge tax cuts for the wealthy, financial and environmental deregulation, the nomination of two conservative supreme court justices and a significant reduction in government sponsored healthcare are rolling America down the road of autocracy.
These changes are happening because the American voter seems unmindful of the GOP using the courts to make his/her life more miserable. As the gravel slams down in America favoring the rich and powerful, it is also alas changing European and S American politics as their politicians jump to take advantage of the American voters disregard of democracy, by saying this is the way to make their country better and then fill their pockets, .(Hungary, Poland, Guatemala and Venezuela and now Brazil)
Before the net, newspaper editorials could change readers viewpoints, but now that the net overwhelms newspaper editorial with commentaries, the NYT is flooded with commentaries strongly disapproving of the GOP, making it impossible for NYT editorials to consider favorably some bias with t he GOP or even Fox News.
Not that the above would occur, but in passing worldly cheers to Socrates and all those Susans, Annes and other NYT commentators for making it less likely the GOP will destroy democracy and that in some future a Hilary like beats a Putin.
4
The lies come at us so quickly and regularly that it’s even hard to focus on one. It’s like zoning in on a single snowflake.
7
There never was any spin with DJT. The ability to tell bald-face lie after bald-face lie without spending an atom's worth of moral capital is DJT's one true talent.
Trump and Bill Bush got into a disagreement about the ratings of his Apprentice show, with DJT telling everyone he has the highest rated show on NBC. When Billy Bush challenged Trump as to this, he said come on Donald you know that simply is not true, and Bush listed the other shows with much higher ratings to DJT.... Trump's reply was: Billy, you just tell them it is and they'll believe it.
8
First the good news: some in main stream news have woken up to the massive raw lies in the administration. Besides the NY Times being considerably woke there may not be two credible sides, you have strong efforts at times at the Washington Post, the Wall Street Journal, as well as MSNBC news and CNN.
Paul is less lonely a voice on this than just few years ago.
The bad news is the presumptive bald face lie may be more effective than prior extreme Republican exaggerations. My analogy comes from communications with advertising. Advertisers have known for decades the extreme, the bizarre, and the outrageous are effective because they are memorable. The last fact is a property of the human mind.
Sadly, clear unemotional rational exposure of these lies can be unmemorable. My recommendation is Paul Krugman and the NY Times just keep what they are doing hoping reason will eventually triumph again.
But maybe some Democratic deep pockets could fund some more emotionally gripping, colorful, and dramatic internet communications. This could intersperse short dramatic video clips, with great graphics and powerful words. After-all this tale of the possible fall of our democracy has as many twists and turns as the scariest spy novel.
5
Only utter blind ignorance or insanity would lead anyone at this stage to believe anything from Trump.
In the age of fingertip information facts are easily measured. Doesn't exactly instill confidence in the American public does it, that those great believers of his are incapable or unwilling to learn. Kind of reminiscent of the Catholic church; people still dogmatically go, making them complicit in the years of denial.
Everything Trump does is right out of the National Socialist playbook. Even to the point of his OpEd.
6
What America really needs now, though it may be too late, is for every city and town in this country to have a Socrates, not just the one in downtown Verona,N.J.
7
When faced with a paradox, look for interconnections. In this case, the paradox is healthcare, how can the GOP successfully argue to the public that more expensive care with limited options and several types of exclusions is superior to care at lower costs with no exclusions and expanded service. How do they turn less into more, politically, if not materially?
The silent worldview/interconnection of the GOP's harm agenda is build on a single idea: race, the ideas of fear and harm tied to race are hardwired into its base.
The idea of the greater good, Obamacare, is translated through their lens as greater benefits for a limited few, the poor and people of color, who the narrative says are lazy, undeserving, and after free rides at others expense.
The healthcare paradox reverses Pavlov! The dog salivated when the bell rang; with race, the food is circled and protected and sharing is denied, even if it means the protectors themselves must suffer. An occasional lie is enough to keep the worldview intact. A series of lies is a call to the gates!
Racial division (only one part of racism) has obvious political and economic benefits! Deny persons by color/race or language/heritage to concentrate power, accumulate wealth, preserve prestige and privilege.
Healthcare is a main intersectionality of race, politics, and wealth. It determines, distributes, and disables who has life and prosperity. The creep factor, deny the sick/raise rates/lie, is greed! Blame is absolution.
10
@Walter Rhett
Healthcare and interest rates have share in common the use of myths pretending to be facts.
The Fed rate increase is 0.25 percent. That's not a quarter on a dollar (many think so!). It is one cent on every four dollars!
The business press would have us believe a penny raise on every four dollars borrowed pushed world markets into turmoil. That penny more on every four borrowed from the Fed supposedly spiked fear and panic.
That penny more on four was for a full year! Pay back in 6 months, its half. Blame is the new absolution; so blame the Fed, they "have gone crazy."
The real culprits are the weaknesses introduced into trade through tariffs and threats. Already, Ford projects a billion dollar loss and thousands in lay-offs.
Touted as good, tariffs are taxes that take money out of the economy! They change the internal/external pricing, disrupting supply chains.
The new trade deals are disruptive! In agriculture, the government allocates farmers $4.7 billion to offset loses from US tariffs, with no guarantees of future markets or long term contracts. That $4.7 billion is added to the deficit.
With no good news on the horizon, other issues of consumer/investor confidence and computer algorithms precipitated the third largest single day drop in the equity market's index history--during the week of the landing of the third largest hurricane. Investors are not sure capable managers are in place. Calling this a correction shows they are not!
3
I read Donald trump's USA Today piece and it sounded to me like he did write it. And I was ashamed of the editors for running it
I am a general internist and have considerable experience with Medicare. The fee schedule is not lavish but the rules are fair and the coverage is excellent for those enrolled. A public option could be priced in a budget-neutral fashion and over time even the cherry-picking enrollment practices and obstructionist care "management" rules used by Humana, Aetna, United Healthcare and yes, Blue Cross, could not compete with the low overhead and efficiency of this government-run program.
No need to push single payer. Pass a budget-neutral public option and let the market decide.
15
Since at least the Reagan Adminstration, the GOP has issued a constant drumbeat vilifying government programs. Donald Trump is the inevitable result of that surprisingly effective strategy — a strategy made possible by the Reagan Administration’s abandonment of the Fairness Doctrine and the subsequent establishment of partisan “news” outlets like Fox.
This development would not have been possible if, early on, reputable news outlets, like the NY TIMES, the WASHINGTON POST and others had mounted a more vigorous pushback against what was clearly misleading reportage. Instead, and in the interest of “objective journalism”, these bulwarks against truly fake news responded by treating a growing chorus of abject falsehoods by Fox, Limbaugh and others with the same respect and coverage given to legitimate news.
So, when the Bush Administration claimed that tax breaks were designed to help seniors, legitimate news outlets accorded that blatant lie the same consideration as the actual objective — giving wealthy donors a tax break.
So Mr. Krugman please forgive me for suggesting that saying you’re shocked… shocked that Republicans are lying to us is a bit disingenuous. This has been the M.O. of the GOP since Reagan’s “welfare queens” and “states rights.” The only difference is that the veneer has been removed — the party no longer needs coded language to express their true objectives.
29
Paul, carting out the Gingrich ‘Contract for America’, that moth eaten GOP trope of service for all does not even bend an ear. This was back when “the Professor” roamed the halls of Congress with a book under his arm. The Reagan crew held their noses in dealings with Newt. James Baker, ever the statesman cautioned the White House to arms length Newt from any signing ceremonies. His proclivility to saddle up to Reagan for a “best bud’s” photo op constantly pulled Nancy’s chain.
Newt likes to gloat about his “special relationship” with Regan. Those who were present know the truth. Newt’s been toxic for decades and the current Trump strapper on spokesman persona is the same worn binding.
4
The issue is, as Dr. K pointed out in the subhead of his piece, black is white and up is down.
Now, if I point to the sky and ask whether I am pointing up or down, anyone, Republican or Democrat, would answer up. That's a matter of observable fact.
By contrast, if I ask if God exists, then believers will answer yes, and the rest of the population will answer something else.
Whether one is Black or nonBlack, Democrat or Republican or Independent is pretty much immaterial. People of faith accept as truth anything that they themselves believe. Capitalism, communism, socialism, racism...all ideological tenets. "Isms" are ideas, and ideology is a system of ideas. Ideas = beliefs.
The same people who believe in not killing fetuses also believe in capital punishment. Contradictions are meaningless to people of faith.
So, when an idol, or leader, speaks, he or she is believed even when he or she contradicts him- or herself.
It is my belief - which may well be wrong - that we search for reasons that things are the way they are. Why do bad things happen to good people, and good things happen to bad people? Why is the sky blue? At some point, some of us become people of faith because we cannot tolerate the idea that some things simply cannot be explained.
At the other extreme, some of us study the world through the lens of science - aka knowing - and understand that things just happen. Trump was elected President. It was an unlikely event, but sometimes stuff just happens.
Greed and racism are powerful inducements to suspend one's critical thinking. Traditional Republicans have put on the blinders about Trump's lies -- so long as he signs tax cut bills and deregulates. Meantime, Trump's base is beyond the reach of logic and truth -- so long as he keeps bashing immigrants and black NFL players. So blatant lies are an effective political tool in today's United States.
This election may be our last chance to save America's soul. Vote Trump's enablers out while we still can.
7
Even our uninformed American public will see through this Republican lie. The Republicans spent too much time, both in the media and in Congress, trying to destroy Obamacare---that truth is baked in---only the Trump base would be gullible enough to buy this misdirection play.
4
Republicans, hand out a daily dose of lies, really a term called cognative dissonance. It’s wishful thinking that has an added dash of truth since a leader repeats it over and over. People want Trump, and the Republicans, to be for Medicare so he simply lies and say he is, despite all the evidence to the contrary. It allows the Trump voters to hang their hat on something. “There, see, he’s for us old folks too!” It works.
8
I admit, the dissonance from the Republicans, for the last 20 years and more, have been beating up on, dissing, trying to defund and even privatize not only Medicare, but Social Security, SSI and Medicaid in all out, major dog-whistle attacks, that have only gained in volume, shrillness and completely lost dog-whistle.
The Republicans have tried to remove the ACA in so many ways, yet there are too many protections given that Americans do NOT want taken away from them, on either side of the political divide.
The Republicans, with their extremely visible attempts over all this time renders absolutely moot the fact taht they are trying to Now rally around Medicare and blame 'them nasty ol' Democritters' for POSSIBLY going to attack Medicare...
Say WHAT?
The Major Party that has had a war against medicare, Medicaid, Social Security and Supplemental Security is suddenly using it as THEIR Shield and saying they are the Heroes of Healthcare?
Talk about utter hogwash and lipstick on pigs. This one does not pass the sniff test as it smells like 3 day old fish from a quarter mile.
After Forcing their version of RomneyCare on Obama as the Only thing they would take, the R's went and filled it with poison pill clauses at a rate of amendments double that of the D's, and then still voted against it so as to blame all of it, even their toxic additions, on the Dems.
Well, some of the toxics got stopped by the courts, but the major points of the ACA the people really Love.
GOP Beware!
4
I never knew there were so many stupid Americans. My own brother has a difficult time admitting that his voting for trump was a mistake and he is an educated attorney, but there are millions of Americans who bow down to trump and the republican party who never have understood the the ACA is the same thing as Obamacare. The wealthy individuals and corporations who own our politicians find it easy to convince Americans to vote against their interests. I see these people at trump's zombie rallies and now understand what a failed educational system has brought us to.
11
Three words that no longer have the meaning they used to. Three little words that symbolize the nation. These words were the glue that held a nation together. Through war, famine and economic collapse as well as victory, peace and prosperity. When we lost their meaning is debatable what’s not is the result of the loss. A divide people can not stand and this our enemies count on. So regardless of your political color stand firm in the knowledge that if you hold fast these three little words the nation will survive. Have you guessed my three little words yet? If not it’s ok I’ll tell you. They stand bolder ,taller the the rest of the words on the old document and they are the strength ,unity and resolve of this great nation. You know them and now speak them...WE THE PEOPLE...
5
Aside from the obvious...Trump lies...what is really upsetting is that so much of America is acting like he is normal. When a major newspaper gives him not only coverage, but another FREE expression of a political opinion, they have lost their credibility. When Trump speaks, or tweets, it is not opinion. It is his dictate on where the country should go.
It is one thing to cover the news, and report on what he says. and even to refute the untruth of his quotes. It is another to cede to the president a forum that is usually left to opinions. He is the president. He establishes the direction that millions of Americans lives take. He is NOT the norm, and USA today put another nail in democracy's coffin.
5
The 'debate' about socialized health care in America has been going on for generations now. Meanwhile, the developed world is chock full of examples of successful socialized health care plans. At this very late date, with so much on the line and so many aspects of US society essentially falling apart, I have come to the point where if Americans STILL cannot grasp the very obvious, easy to understand benefits of 'Medicare for All' then they will simply have earned the inferior predatory system they have. Sorry!
19
.'What do they lie about? Lots of things, from crowd sizes to immigrant crime, from steel plants to the Supreme Court.' But detail, the nuts and bolts, of these supposed lies so as they can be unpicked and debated.
'As I said, what they’ve chosen to do instead is lie, insisting that black is white and up is down'. Some might argue that is exactly what the 'other' side are doing.
'Why do Republicans think they can get away with such blatant lies? Partly it’s because they expect their Fox-watching followers to believe anything they’re told.' But surely this also applies to CNN et al followers and the avid followers of the 92% hostile media coverage of Trump.
What one will find out in a few weeks (Mid-Terms) is whether the people of the US have bought into the supposed journalistic sensitivity of broad brush anti Trumpism - that attraction of repulsion. Indeed the Mid-Terms might show good feelings winning as opposed to the current US world of discord, the Mid-Terms may show a world in which father and son, black and white are reconciled and stand united; in which the classes of society come together; a world of union and brotherhood/sisterhood. The upcoming votes may show voters volte facing on partisan views across a broad front. My confidence is minimal that this comment will be approved, now I wonder why that is.
“War is peace.
Freedom is slavery.
Ignorance is strength.”
― George Orwell, 1984
"I also made a solemn promise to our great seniors to protect Medicare. That is why I am fighting so hard against the Democrats' plan that would eviscerate Medicare."
... Donald Trump, 2018
Irony is not limited to the world of fiction. From the vantage point in his gilded tower, Mr. Trump sees each of us mere mortals as clones of Winston Smith.
4
I remember years ago canvasing for Russ Feingold, and the prevailing lie then was that Russ was going to take away Medicare. It worked. There was no convincing these vulnerable people that it was a blatant lie. They trusted their sources (then tv ads) over any liberal that would tell them otherwise.
2
If that Trump op-ed's breathtakingly self-evident (and unapologetic) dishonesty didn't amount to a high crime, it was at least a misdemeanor.
Lock. Him. Up.
7
As Mr. Krugman says, the surprising thing here isn't that Trump lied--he always has and always will, since he's a terrible human being--but rather that USA Today helped him facilitate those lies. Until the media--and this often includes the Times--learns to stop covering Trump in terms of "he said, she said" or by reprinting Trump's claims without outright calling them lies, nothing is going to change.
5
As I watch the ever worsening political farce evolve it seems increasingly clear to me that each and every one of us is grossly modest in our abilities. We utterly rely on sources we can't directly verify. Put off in the northern woods without either tools or companions or experience every last one of us would perish. We all utterly rely on each other to survive and to make progress beyond the apes. Our advancement and progress is derived from our ability to record our experience and progress in learning. When you seriously ponder these simple facts it becomes clear that the most toxic social problem is the misrepresentation of the truth. Vince Lombardi said winning isn't the most important thing, it is the only thing. He was a great football coach but as a social philosopher he really stunk. When we undermine the truth we are wrecking the very foundations of civilization. Each of us terribly limited and utterly rely on information from others to make progress. That progress is impossible unless it is based on the truth. And in truth, it is a bit more complicated than that because we also unavoidably rely on a wealth of assumptions. In my view, we need to be open to reconsideration of some of our assumptions when things aren't working to the overall benefit of society. And we need to avoid ridicule of the individual assumptions made by others because generally behaviour results in a complex way from a whole constellation of assumptions rather than from any single assumption.
1
I believe, in fact I am confident, that all those who claim to be Republicans are neither rich nor even middle class. Why are they voting for Republicans? Voting against their own self-interest? They are no more healthy than Democrats, they need healthcare as much as Democrats; so, why are they voting against healthcare. A vote for a Republican candidate, congressman, senator, or President, is a vote against healthcare, against themselves, against their families, against their parents, against their children, and against their grandchildren.
Wake up Republicans! Why are you destroying your families by voting for the wrong party?
7
Thank you Paul. Regardless of the subject, people will accept blatant lies if they believe it's in their favor. It's a corollary of 'there has never been a democracy whose members won't vote themselves more in benefits than they are willing to pay.' Your benefits are earned, while it's the other person who's 'cheating,' especially if they don't look, sound, or believe like you. As William James famously said 'piety is the mask,' which explains why DJT's bedrock supporters, the 'evangelicals' can hypocritically claim to have faith, and compassion while denying benefits to the less fortunate. Until we hold up a mirror to these 'faithful,' their lies will empower those who lie both to and for them. DJT could not become the 'Liar in Chief' without them. Goldwater warned us about religious fanatics, and Johnson created an Amendment to keep politics, political money out of the pulpit, but the broadcast lies of Robertson, Graham and Falwell (followed by the more secular Limbaugh and Fox) have seduced generations to believe rather than question, much less examine. That's how we have millions accepting the bodacious lie that the Republicans are the pillars of Medicare.
2
There are some wide open events that cannot be lied about:
Hurricane Katrina, Hurricane Harvey, Hurricane Maria, Hurricane Michael.
Add in the California wildfires.
At least nobody can lie about them, they are plain facts for all to see. I have friends and acquaintances who have lost homes, members of family and even become homeless. Are they still listening to Trump's claims of Hoaxes?
2
I'm so sick of the daily onslaught of distortions, misrepresentations, and blatant lies presented as "alternate facts". I'm sick of bragging, gloating and hate; bigotry masquerading as patriotism. I'm sick of having lackeys explain what Mr and Mrs Trump actually meant when idiocy, disinformation and hypocrisy spew forth every time they open their mouths or tweet.
There is one indisputable truth about the ACA: 20 million more people have health insurance with it than without. By any standard that makes it an unqualified success. Thank you, President Obama.
Nov 6, 2018. Vote.
5
And what if those flat-out lies and Orwellian-speak fed by President Trump to the American people win in a few weeks? We are sick of being fed alternative facts and political spin from the White House. The American people (except for Trump's colossally ignorant base) no longer believe a word Trump utters. Our 45th president's legacy (read epitaph) is being written now in the dissension and raw emotions he is sowing among a divided American people. The lies about Medicare and Obamacare -- and anything to do with Barack Obama's two-term administration -- are legion. Trump has despised and tried to minimize the 44th President's legacy since he declared his demented "Birther" theory that Obama wasn't born in the United States. Today Trump calls Democrats "Evil People". What will we the people call him tomorrow?
Most shocking today (though every day brings more shocks to us), is Trump's desire to remain friends with his great pal Mohammed bin Sultan of Saudi Arabia, and not to put sanctions on Saudi even given the truth of the MBS-ordered assassination and dismemberment of a Saudi dissident, reporter Jamal Khashoggi, of the Washington Post, who entered the Saudi Consulate in Istanbul for his ghastly appointment in Samarra last week. President Trump has called journalists "the Fake Press". This event in the Middle East between two enemies of America, Saudi Arabia and Turkey, will resonate long past the Mid-Terms.
1
This lying about Dem intentions on Medicare seems to be the systemitized GOP strategy. I've received several mailings boldly proclaiming that my Dem senator "would cripple Medicare", a blatant falsehood.
3
Lying, deception and suppressing votes - it’s the only way Republicans win elections. And winning elections is all that matters to them. People of integrity have left the Republican Party.
2
The Republicans lie, cheat and yes, steal. And Prez Trump is the touchstone. Obama made a glaring error when he said "You can keep your doctor..." But I'm prone to believe he thought that was true at the time. See how that works? If a politician is known to tell the truth then you give them the benefit of the doubt. But the Republicans made that one error a talking point during their failed Obamacare repeal effort. So now when my Trump supporting_FOX news watching step-mother tells me that the Democrats want to ruin Medicare for her and her friends (in Texas), I try to reason with her. But it seems that the propaganda fueled "news" network has more away than her beloved stepson.
1
They lie because they are not held accountable by the voters for their lies. So long as their supporters will tolerate virtually anything to keep them in office, this new, troubling new political normal will not change.
These voters would never tolerate this type of behavior from their children, spouses, work colleagues, pastors and friends is deemed just fine for GOP political leaders. If the same guy was sitting in their living room and lying to their face about something, they wouldn’t tolerate it. Or at least, they would never invite him over again.
But here, many Trump supporters will say they know he lies but don’t care—so deep is their belief that they are “losing” and need a guy who will make them “win” again.
More tax cuts for the billionaire Koch Brothers and Sheldon Adelson, but no pre-existing medical coverage—or preferably to the GOP, no health care protection at all—for the construction worker, nurse, teacher, fireman or working poor.
Trump and the GOP says all of this gives the people freedom of choice and the free market will give them what they need. And freedom is in the Constitution and the Founders wrote the Constitution, so no health care for you must be what the Founders intended! Freedom, freedom, freedom!
One great big lie piled atop a mountain of other great big lies.
3
"So if you’re a voter who cares about health care, it shouldn’t be hard to figure out where the parties stand."
"So will the G.O.P.’s Big Lie on health care work? We’ll find out in a few weeks."
Those two passages say what is wrong with America. Voters care about healthcare, but in the end they vote based on whether they feel that white people or culture are aggrieved. If so, they vote for the party that gives voice to those feelings.
James Carville needs to update his famous quote:
It's not the economy (or healthcare), stupid!
2
Last year 4,800,000 Americans had to declare bankruptcy because they could not pay their medical bills. 45,000 died because they had no medical insurance. 12% of American adults still have none. The best solution is to move to a country that has socialized health care.
2
If a voter is unable to discern that Paul Krugman is telling the absolute truth here, what does that say? I believe he is right that many FOX watchers and Trump lovers do not vet information or fact check anything they are told. They might as well be parrots.
What kind of intellect believes that the party that created Medicare wants to destroy it? That the party that has opposed any government programs to make life better for citizens since the 1930's is the defender of Medicare? Why are some of us impervious to lying grifters and others swallow blatant lies wholesale as the truth, no critical thinking ability and no curiosity about researching if a statement has any validity.
Like Jefferson said, you cannot have a democracy when ignorance prevails. The decline in the quality of American education since Sputnik scared the pants off us and math and science was beefed up out of competition with the Soviets is woeful.
Dumb down the country and you get--well, what we have!
719
@David Shapireau
Yep, that was their plan and it has worked. Even the President's IQ is questionable and he had a college education, I guess???
@David Shapireau Our schools obviously don't teach critical thinking.
@David Shapireau...I don't have any critical thinking ability, so help me out here, Dave. What is the difference, if any, between your "absolute truth" and just plain old truth? I's so dumb I didn't know that truth had various shades. Thanks. Being ignorant (actually, we're stupid, but y'all can't seem to get the difference) you need to explain the absolute truth of Professor Paul's scientific observation that global financial markets were going to collapse and NEVER recover. Thanks, but more help, please. What did Dr. K mean when he said the End of Civilization was upon us? One last favor. Would you rewrite your penultimate sentence? It rambles incoherently. Thanks, again.
I've been seeing one of those lying political ads. An elderly woman says that she wants Washington to keep its hands off Medicare. She goes on to say that the Democrat who is running in the NY 22nd Congressional District support Medicare for all. She says that will end Medicare as we know it. It will also make the national debt explode.
The local TV station that runs that ad will never take an objective look at whether it's true. The local newspaper also seems reluctant to challenge any of the assumptions. I suspect that a lot of voters are getting chain emails, that's a way to affect a significant portion of the demographic in Central NY. I worry that prospective voters take the passion of that woman who loves her Medicare as truth about what Republicans plan.
2
Trump tells blatant lies 5 or 6 times a day. The lies haven't cost him any support at all. His people love the lies.
Politics, Trump style is telling people what they want to hear. Trump good. Democrats bad. Trump good. Hillary bad. Trump good. Pelosi bad. That's it.
The strategy works. This just goes to show how unbelievably gullible vast sections of the population are. Of course his people will counter that Nancy Pelosi lied about one thing or another and then there is the email server the you can keep your doctor. That makes it all better for the Trump crowd.
How many saviors have there been in the last 3000 years? By savior, I don't mean in the biblical messiah sense, but someone who would deliver prosperity and paradise to the masses. Hundreds, maybe thousands. They were all cult figures.
Trump is a cult figure. He can do no wrong. He can utter no lie. He is The Trump! He is The One and Only! He says the lies simply because he knows he can get away with it. The rank and file GOP goes right along with it because Trump is the only game in town and they are only too happy to play by his rules.
Cults cannot be fixed. The true believers will never relinquish faith in their new savior. Earth calling America, you have a problem. How do you read? Over.
960
@Bruce Rozenblit
Five or six a day. But those are only the ones that he tells in public. Can you imagine how many he tells his staff or his family?
1
@Bruce Rozenblit
"There's a sucker born every minute." (Attributed to P.T. Barnum).
No wonder the right hates public education. Public education teaches critical thinking. Critical thinking is anathema to the right. Obedience to authority matters.
1
@Bruce Rozenblit
Tell them what they want hear and repeat it every day and they are yours.
"The party hates, just hates, the idea of government action to make essential health care available to all citizens, regardless of income or medical history."
Yes, they do. It might subtract the amount of money their rich donors give them courtesy of the Citizens United decision. It might force them to share the health care they get with the rest of us. If the health care we receive, high deductibles, co-pays, a limited number of doctors, constant denial of claims, highly fragmented, etc., isn't good enough for the GOP members of Congress it shouldn't be good enough for us.
If the GOP members can live without pollution on their property, where their children go to school, in the water they drink and the air they breathe we should too. And if they can send their children to good public schools we should be able too as well. If they can't share a neighborhood with us, or shop in the same stores we shop in, or bother to walk among us outside of election season they can't truly represent us no matter what they say.
The GOP has lied to us for decades. The Red Scare in the 1950s, the silent majority, welfare queens, repealing and replacing Obamacare (ACA), you name it. There's a GOP lie for every action that can be taken to improve the lives of 99% of us. The biggest lie is that Trump is making America great again. That's true only if one is rich, white, male, and susceptible to flattery.
844
@hen3ry
Don't forget that these services also eat into the tax cuts for the wealthy.
1
@hen3ry The Republican Party has for about the last 30 years worked strategically with lies, voter suppression, every dirty underhanded trick they can concoct to turn America into a one party ruled nation and the foolish middle class workers in America have helped them. Along comes the Grand Inquisitor Don the Con Trump and the Republican Party has pretty much achieved their goal.
2
@hen3ry The idea that the rich will be able to live without pollution, with breathable air, and with potable water is a fiction they tell themselves. We all live on the same planet and will suffer the same losses as climate change continues to progress. It may come first to us at the "disposable" level - the poor, the young, the old, those who are already sick - but no one will escape it. Wealth does not guarantee immunity, it can only delay it for a short time. The GOP playbook on so many levels is one that ends in the same way for everyone, which is essentially death.
3
It is beyond belief that anyone who is poor or a member of the middle class would even consider voting for Republicans given their decades-long effort to make their lives miserable. Affordable healthcare is essential, and yet they vote for Republican candidates who are opposed to it. An economy that runs on clean energy and advanced technologies would help lift them into higher paying jobs, and yet they vote for Republican candidates who are opposed to it. Sensible government spending helps stimulate the economy, maintains our infrastructure, and pays for vital social programs, and yet they vote for Republican candidates who are opposed to it. Reducing taxes for the 1% contributes to a widening gap between the rich and the poor, and yet they vote for Republican candidates who are in favor of it. Republicans in the White House and Congress have consistently pulled our economy downward for many decades, and yet they vote for Republican candidates. Maybe it will be different on November 6.
736
@Jeff Yesterday the NYT ran an interview with evangelical Texas women who planned to vote for Beto O'Rourke instead of Cruz. One of the women said she and other evangelicals vote on one issue only...abortion. She said until the children were taken away from their parents at the border, she never even considered other issues besides abortion.
People vote again their self-interest because they only vote on the one or two issues they care about.
59
@Jeff The poor don't vote. Aside from the (successful) efforts to keep them off registration lists, gerrymandering, etc, there are the everyday hindrances that make anything beyond making a meagre living almost impossible. Such as transportation to the voting venues and time to get there. If, that is, the voting venue is open outside of the voter's working hours.
1
@Jeff You point out an interesting Truth: it is not, actually, The Economy, Stupid. Or it is only in a weird, twisted way.
Economics is hard. Most people don't understand it, which makes them ripe for believing what they want to believe about it; easy, because often reality does not follow common sense based on poor education about economics. After all, common sense told people, for thousands of years, that lightning was because some god or other was angry.
No, it's really about who can be successfully blamed for your problem with the economy. Compounded by the difficulty humans have with planning beyond a year or two out.
Health care? Lies there stand until someone personally experiences contradictory evidence. E.g. you can keep your doctor (not sure that's not just being wrong more than an actual lie). How many believed the lies about Obamacare, until they found out the healthcare that they love called ACA is one and the same? How many felt in their gut that the higher premiums they were paying must be due to Obamacare, without seeing that 1) they'd probably be paying even higher premiums without the ACA, and 2) Republican efforts to sabotage the bill's implementation have crippled its effectiveness. Including repealing the mandate.
Then, the insidious thing is to attack belief in the media that tries to expose the lies. Even more, set up your own version of the media that reinforces the lies.
Alternative facts. (Shudder.)
1
I blame the press.
We are almost 2 years into this administration (with a year + of this President/then candidate campaigning) & STILL the press is incapable of using the word ''lie''.
Of course there were some that still are using the word, but in all likelihood the press uses: ''factually incorrect, falsehood, or misspoken''. They also use the terms: '' like, sort of, kind of, & perhaps'' in conjunction as well.
These are all characterizations as if the candidate/now President does not have a grasp of the facts (he doesn't), while he spews his lies. (4000+ verified lies and counting). He says them often (even again and again in the same sentence), and does so as many times as possible, thinking that the more the public hears the lies, the more they are going to believe them. - this is actually true.
Then he has spokespeople that go out and repeat the same lies. If they are called on them. then those spokespeople merely defend it by saying it is what the President believes. If the President is called on it, then he says he was told that. Round and round we go.
Then the press repeats them again and again and again, while using the dainty words other than lie. This compounds the problem.
Then the press must, at all opportunities present a false equivalency, and/or ''debate'' said lies, giving equal airtime to both ''sides'' of the equation. No wonder people no longer have faith in the system while feeling they are no longer heard.
All part of the republican plan.
1192
@FunkyIrishman I think the press you're referring to must be the real fake news? I saw the word 'lie' or 'lying' at least eight times in this article alone. The press in this case is our friend, as opposed to the executive, legislative, and judicial...
5
@FunkyIrishman -- When the print media, or the networks, publish Trump spewing his "alternative facts" and then continue with the article or video clip, its upsetting. What *should* happen is that if an article quotes Trump, then *in the very next sentence* it says "This is a lie."
Although I admit it would be tiresome seeing that phrase dozens of times in a typical article, it is necessary. When the news shows show Trump giving one of his rabble-rousing "campaign rally" incitements, the talking heads should next face the camera squarely and say "This, this, this, and this in the last video clip of Trump are all lies." and then continue with the story.
Only by making it clear, as the lies are presented, that they -are- lies can it be clear just how deep and wide their deceptions are. Trump and his fellow Republican politicians have no shame, they have no guilt about misleading the public - it is how they choose to persuade voters. If Republicans ever tried to present their actual intentions and plans for future policy "if elected", they couldn't get 10% of the votes... The entire Republican platform is based on deflection, deceit, 'whataboutism', and lies.
The media must make their lies visible in real time, to take the truth back. In a nod to the sure-to-respond 'whataboutists' -- when a Democratic politician "spins" or spouts a lie, the media must do the exact same thing as with Trump and his Republican cohorts.
1
@FunkyIrishman
Don't forget the excruciatingly dishonest "I think the President has made himself clear on that" in response to every challenge to a policy outrage, a moral abomination, a challenge to a lie or a question trying to pin the President down on where he stands on an issue he has never personally discussed. The press always just moves on. I expect immediate and contemporaneous challenges to all this mendacious lying.
3
It isn't single-payer, or universal healthcare, or Obamacare that the Republicans hate, Dr. Krugman. It's the black president who took it out of the test tube where it was hatched in the laboratory of the hard-right Heritage Foundation.
What most anti-Obama American citizens fail to understand is that the 44th president wasn't a left-wing psychopath who "palled around with terrorists" (when he was eight), according to Sarah Palin. Mr. Obama was a moderate with a capital 'M.' So what Republicans did, intellectually dishonest from first to last, was attack the "author" of the Affordable Care Act. They did not point to the Heritage Foundation as the fons et origo for the program. President Obama's skin color gave the Republicans all the ammunition they needed to attack every stitch in the act's tapestry.
What Republicans "hate, really hate," as you write, Dr. Krugman, is the ability of Americans to think for themselves; to make their own healthcare choices. They lied when they told folks that the program was "death panels" behind the green curtain at Oz. They lied when they told folks that they would have to surrender their generations-long family doctors for some indifferent stranger. They lied some more when they said it would destroy Medicare.
The danger lies in the liars Rush Limbaugh and Sean Hannity. Their audiences are comprised of folks who believe what they're told. Anything associated with President Obama is inherently evil.
It's easier than thinking for yourself.
1924
@Soxared, '04, '07, '13 - Yes, which is why they insist on calling it "Obamacare." Or, Vice President Pence's long version, "the abomination that is Obamacare."
Which takes us back to Mr. Krugman's point. You can't battle to get rid of the Affordable Care Act and do everything you can to demean it, but then claim you want to safeguard protection for pre-existing conditions.
Well, maybe you can. Mr. Krugman gave a number of examples of where this is playing out. Another is here in Wisconsin in Senator Tammy Baldwin's reelection campaign. Tammy is fairly pointing out that her opponent would get rid of protection for pre-existing conditions, and her opponent is feigning outrage.
8
@Soxared, '04, '07, '13
I believe you're mistaken. A sizable faction of the super-rich have been trying to undo the New Deal, especially Social Security, since it was established, and they simply add to their hate list Medicare, Medicaid, food stamps, and any other social program as it appears. This faction has now grown very large and taken over from the more thoughtful super-rich.
11
@Soxared, '04, '07, '13
Yes, the Republicans used the racism of their base to thwart Obama--but don't forget what they also did to Hillary when the Clintons were in the White House and she worked on healthcare. They'll use whatever means necessary to gain and retain power because for them it's not about governing, it's about winning.
5
As an observer of your current political debacle I have difficulty seeing a path back to anything resembling normality, morality, integrity and yes, good old-fashioned political spin. Trump controls the narrative now, stacking lie upon lie, seemingly with little consequence, other than fact-checking which he'll dismiss as all lies!
Words cannot adequately express how blessed I am knowing my universal healthcare is there no matter my condition, pre-existing or not! The difference here is our core belief that everyone deserves the right to healthcare no matter their financial circumstance, it really is that simple. I see little hope you will ever get there, you are simply too divided, (that’s until the republicans become a distant memory perhaps). Republicans have always brought out the socialist boogeyman to scare you, and then it's on to the next thing.
We are hoping, (along with you) that your midterms will signal
an opening and a way back to where up is actually up, it's time
for some balance. My worry is that if there is a blue wave and that Trump will declare the results as a big fat lie.
33
@Holly And you Canadians will have another concern if the Blue Wave gets crushed again by republican lies and tricks. There will be an even larger wave of us trying to move to Canada and at least get a taste of living in a sane country.
When I was younger I never considered myself to be that smart or exceptionally well educated (I have an advanced degree in science, but am woefully under-educated in history, geography and politics). After the past two years I feel a bit relieved because I don't think I am quite as stupid as I once thought I was. But I am also terrified because I have realized how uneducated and down right stupid many of the people in this country are. Surely entire states were not completely covered in lead-based paint??
16
Lying about one’s political position is purely Orwellian. It is a ruse to deceive the voters with the assumption that they are ignorant and have no memories. It is amoral and despicable. It subverts the idea of a true democracy which requires a true dialogue of ideas and political positions. It will destroy our Republic with its cynicism and contempt
for facts and the truth. How will America survive as a working democracy when there is no decency and respect for the truth and the intelligence of its citizens? To me it is insulting and tells me that the Republicans think that campaigning is all slogans and propaganda! Where is their honesty and Patriotism and respect for the voter? Government cannot work effectively this way! It is truly cynical and contemptible!
6
Lies are nothing new for Republicans or Trump. The Bush swift boat campaign against John Kerry, who served honorably in Viet Nam, angering a few diehards for his first hand knowledge of war and chose anti war action when he returned. A Republican party lied to protect a president who served in the Alabama National Guard.
Trump is arguably so much worse we forgot the eight years of the other electoral college win, by a Court his father appointed. Who started two wars. Nothing new here, just more obvious. Where James Carville said it's the economy stupid, the Republicans learned it's really the cultural war that makes one stupid enough to vote against their interest.
15
The Republicans have always been able to dupe their base into voting against their own best interests. They wrap their lies in "a flag carrying a bible." They sell patriotic fervor and faux religious piety. They sell them the sizzle and the wealthy get their steak. They tell them that government subsidized health care is that dreaded word "socialism" and the base will eagerly vote for the Republican politician promising to end that evil. The Republicans have continuously told their cheering base that they will overturn the ACA, and Trump has just about accomplished that. Now, when they become ill and unable to afford health care, the Republicans will tell them it is the fault of the Democrats, just as they always do, and the base will believe every single word.
The Republican base appears to be brainwashed and Fox News is complicit in accomplishing that.
18
There are two parts to a lie -- the liar and the lied to.
The liars we know about. Truth is toxic Kryptonite for 98 lb Supermen. We'd be disoriented if anything remotely true came from their mouths.
That they care about Medicare is a whopper, which sells because it sizzles and pops. Those on a steady diet of whoppers will die of heart to hard and brains to mush.
There's no shortage of whoppers thanks to the Whopper in Tweet with his dedicated social media crew (Thought Trump does his own tweets? Imagine his fingers pecking on a made in China smartphone. It's like Trump said himself about being drunk on alcohol (instead of power?) you don't want to go there.
Among the more outlandish whoppers is the "Republican Party" which I think some Philosophy professors now substitute for the classic "Time Flies Like an Arrow" as a multiple meaning sentence contingent on definitions of each word.
Republican means denotatively "One who thinks a common-wealth without monarchy the best government"(Samuel Johnson). Connotatively the word means in America a member or supporter of the Republican Party.
But Republican means neither these days. Republicans swear fealty to King Trump and his monarchy of corruption. Party means beer, boofing and assaulting women. Party is what Kavanaugh never did but he likes beer.
The lied to are finding out they can't eat lies. Instead they eat crow but lie and say it's overdone steak.
Pass the ketchup. Reagan said it's a vegetable.
10
Trump said he loves the poorly educated. I don’t think all of his base are poorly educated but I think they don’t bother to educate themselves about facts. They rely on Trump’s repetitive, outrageous lies backed up with what’s reported on Fox. Hold on. In order to do that I guess they must be poorly educated.
Just VOTE, people!
6
Can we talk about the elephant in the room? If Republicans keep trying to sell the same programs which rob from the poor and the middle class to give to the rich by deceiving, dissimulating and flat out lying, why do so many people continue to believe them? If we go back just ten years ago we find a situation very similar to what we have now. A federal government driven to dysfunction, a reckless foreign policy, and an economy on the brink of ruin (and yes, that will be happening soon, in spite of Trump's boasts). So what gives?
Maybe, just maybe, we get the politicians we deserve. Everyone, without exception. knows that Trump lies all the time. But have his supporters penalized him for it? On the contrary, they love it. No wonder Republicans who once seemed semi-honorable like Lindsey Graham now shamelessly imitate the Trumpian style.
We can blame a lot people and lots of organisations--Murdoch, Limbaugh, Roger Stone, Fox News and most of the right wing media, along with the Republican Party would top my list--for the recurrent cycle of horror which always springs up in American politics. But the true threat to any democracy is when enough people prefer to be told lies that they want to hear over facts that they would rather deny. And this is where we find ourselves now.
9
Sexual assault is a joke
Men are victims.
Democrats are evil.
Trump, his Congressmen and his followers want to live in an alternate America. This is an America where equality is situational, voting is not a right and the President is a liar and a bully.
I want to live in an America with a representative government, universal healthcare, an equitable simple tax code and education for all. I believe that liberal values provide the best life for citizens.
Conservative policy results are inequality, poverty, poor education, corporate Congressmen.
Enough.
46
This goes back to the old saying "Fool me once shame on me, fool me twice shame on you". How many time do some people need to be fooled? I am especially shocked that any seniors or middle class still support trump and pals.
14
Democrats are failing to show voters how they are harmed when they vote against their own interests.
Economies with a national health care system have removed profit from the health delivery system.
Their students who graduate in the medical sciences do not end up in debt.
The taxes paid to government health care programs are lower than the cost of the insurance premiums and deductibles that Americans pay to 3rd parties who have an upfront inbuilt conflict of interest.
The heath delivery system in the US is so costly and unproductive that no other prosperous country has copied it.
Republicans want human misery to turn a profit. Democrats need to explain this to the American public. When Republicans misrepresent their policies they need to be called liars.
16
"So will the G.O.P.’s Big Lie on health care work? We’ll find out in a few weeks."
It just might work because I don't hear Democrats or the media calling out Republicans for their lies. Trump has his bully pulpit in the form of his campaign rallies and press conferences, and Democrats seem to have no response. If people hear Republican lies long enough without a forceful rebuttal, then many people will begin to believe those lies.
38
The Democrats are way too slow to respond to Republican lies with the degree of vehemence that the magnitude and brazenness of the lies demands. Here's the political ad I'd be running: "The Republican party now claims to be the defender of Medicare and healthcare for all. Everything the Republicans have done for decades puts the lie to this claim. So here's a toast to my Republican opponent, who now reveals him/herself to be an excellent liar in the best Republican tradition. "
11
Reality TV was the end of reality as we knew it. Truth was never easily discerned and, even when perceived, rarely easy to digest.
Made up reality, junk food for the mind, is crunchy and appealing, but lacking substance. Our current political disease, a president created by Reality TV, is an illness for which Americans have no defenses. They simply can't see what's happening. In their bafflement the lies seem real, and are much easier to believe than the truth. The more blatant the lies, the easier they are to believe.
Democrats weighed down by their burden of conscience, simply cannot stoop to the same levels of deception as the Trump enabled Republican party. The crime and the shame of it is that, in their blind quest to be "winners", Trump and his band of feckless followers are destroying life on planet earth.
17
The cynical and devious mental gymnastics required to keep these (lies, fibs, falsehoods, misstatements) afloat, will implode at some point. My husband and I are on Medicare and we buy supplemental insurance. It is wonderful, and all doctors in metro Phoenix accept it. Expand Medicare, establish a public option, people in this country will love it for the elegant simplicity. And it can follow the person through life instead of tethering them to an employer. Vote blue or we’re heading down a very dark and undefined rabbit hole.
21
The complete frustration of Paul Krugman with Donald Trump and the Republican party is felt by essentially every Democrat and by every responsible journalist.
It is not only that Trump -- a bundle of ignorance, prejudices and insecurities – is doing a bad job, both domestically and internationally.
It is not only that Trump is increasingly annoying, as he regularly seeks refuge at pep rallies in the hinterland, doing his stale comedy routines in front of the adoring members of his cult.
The real source of exasperation is that Donald Trump and nearly every Republican running for political are creating a false reality with their lies, and not enough people seem to care.
The Republicans are gaslighting all of us. Their outrageous conduct makes us question our own sanity, because as we speak up against the lies, millions of Americans don’t seem bothered by the daily fiction.
We have to keep the faith, speak the truth and vote on November 6th.
12
I'm all for Dr K setting the record straight and calling the GOP out, but why aren"t the Dems out there 'spraining their plan themselves, with as much intensity as the Republicans are putting into their lies?
15
@William Dufort The biggest lie Republicans tell is that Democrats don't have alternatives. Instead of believing the lies, why not just listen to what the Dems are actually saying.
2
@BC The problem is they aren't saying much. Bernie and the Progressives are for single payer and very vocal about it, but most of the moderates aren't so sure and are mostly silent. And that's a big problem.
The problem is that the blatant lies work, and when they do, democracy has become an illusion. There will be a re-arrangement of the chips as nothing stands on lies forever.
6
Right you are! It's like Koch-bros arguing that the GOP should be supported because they are for protecting the environment and the left is for destroying it - how do they fashion those arguments? They say, by reducing environmental regulations businesses thrive and are in a better position to protect the planet, and by increasing regulations businesses and the economy will decline leaving us with no way to fix the environmental damage done. It's another example of up is down, black is white .... and tragically, too many people buy into those self-serving arguments.
13
Unfortunately, too many Americans are gullible and the GOP figured this a long time ago. They not only figured it out but have decided to take full advantage of the hopelessly gullible millions --one reason Trump is in the White House to "Make America Great Again."
5
Thank you Paul. You are one of the few commentators, even here in the NY Times, that calls a liar a liar. Too often, people describe what comes out of trump's mouth (of fingers) some euphemism to soften what it is. We must say it consistently, often, and loudly -- trump and the republican party are LIARS. We have them on tape and in their own tweets.
13
There are two parts to a lie -- the liar and the lied to.
The liars we know about. Truth is toxic Kryptonite for 98 lb Supermen. We'd be disoriented if anything remotely true came from their mouths.
That they care about Medicare is a whopper, which sells because it sizzles and pops. Those on a steady diet of whoppers will die of heart to hard and brains to mush.
There's no shortage of whoppers thanks to the Whopper in Tweet with his dedicated social media crew (Thought Trump does his own tweets? Imagine his fingers pecking on a made in China smartphone. It's like Trump said himself about being drunk on alcohol (instead of power?) you don't want to go there.
Among the more outlandish whoppers is the "Republican Party" which I think some Philosophy professors now substitute for the classic "Time Flies Like an Arrow" as a multiple meaning sentence contingent on definitions of each word.
Republican means denotatively "One who thinks a common-wealth without monarchy the best government"(Samuel Johnson). Connotatively the word means in America a member or supporter of the Republican Party. But Republican means neither these days. Repubs swear fealty to King Trump and his monarchy of corruption. Party means beer, boofing and assaulting women. Party is what Kavanaugh never did but he likes beer.
The lied to are finding out they can't eat lies. Instead they eat crow but lie and say it's overdone steak.
Pass the ketchup. Reagan said it's a vegetable.
5
I'd like to thank Dr Krugman for exposing the ugly truth that presidents lie. Actually, in the political world, another word for lying is "spin." Maybe Dr Krugman has heard of it in his many travels. Exactly what part of presidential lying is supposed to shock anyone?
@sharon5101: When the President of the United States, reading off a teleprompter a speech that has been prepared/written for him by Stephen Miller, says "There is an Open Borders Bill sponsored by Diane Feinstein and ALL the Democrats have signed on to this bill" and it is just a big, fat LIE, then, yeah, I'm shocked. It wasn't an ad lib. It was written for Trump and Trump said it and it was just one of many thousands of lies he tells every day.
How can one trust a liar? How can a government be run on lies? Answer me that.
2
I get the sense that the incessant, blatant lies emitted by president Trump are like the full glass that continues to have water poured into it: It won't get any fuller. That represents Trump's "base".
However, the constant stream of lies from from Trump and Republicans should be powerful and growing motivation for voter opposition outside of that deranged segment of the electorate.
Resist! November 6, 2018.
8
For now, at least, truth in advertising laws exist to prevent blatant misrepresentation of consumer products. No such laws exist to protect voters from the blatant mistruths uttered by politicians. If candidates can get away with lying during campaigns, they seem to think that they are in the clear to continue doing so once they are elected.
Why is that? Could it be because it is the very same politicians who write our nation's laws, and because outlawing their own lies is anathema to them and not in their self-interest? Could it be because they believe that enough Americans are too stupid to discern their lies, allowing pols to get away with them? Could it be because, for some silly reason, enough Americans believe the imprimatur of Fox News, while decrying other MSM media as purveyors of fake news?
All of these no doubt contribute to the increasing prevalence of mistruths cast about in our political arena. And that's the God-honest truth.
4
Trump's name is on it, of course, because his base amazingly believe that he and only he tells them "the truth." Sadly, by time they figure out the damage (not "miracle") that Trump hath wrought to the bank accounts and even their very lives and well-being, he will be relaxing in Florida with all his wealthy partners in the fleecing of America.
22
53% of eligible voters participated in the 2016 election. The electoral college is still the law. We have most likely passed the chance to combat climate change.
All is lost.
14
Then move away and let real patriots take over.
1
I've been voting Democrat for decades, and many of them have stabbed me in the back and lied to me. So I don't think the GOP invented lying. That's not the only issue. The issues are the coming economic meltdown due to tax breaks, endless war and deregulation, the dismantling of our safety net, the cap on Social Security for the rich - and even the fact that wealthier people collect more Social Security benefits than the poor. The GOP had help from the Democrats in creating a society that rewards the rich. The architects of the crash of the 1980s were tried and punished. The architects of the crash of 2008 received tax subsidies.
18
And so you think the answer is to vote for the GOP so they can end your Medicare that you've paid into all these years and use your Medicare payment money to subsidize the GOPs recent and future tax cuts. Yeah. That makes sense.
3
I notice that @Stephanie Wood doesn't disagree with Dr. Krugman ... instead she just changes the subject.
1
@Stephanie Wood
And during both bad economic times, the Republicans blamed people who were receiving unemployment insurance payments for the problems with the economy instead of the crooks who were responsible. Reagan even started taxing unemployment benefits. Sorry, but the Republicans are substantially more hateful about this stuff, hands down. The "both sides" false equivalency carnard is getting tiresome.
1
Mr. Krugman,
I'll always remember your preface to health care commentary in "Weakened at Bernie's" during the 2016 Democratic primary:
"On health care: leave on one side the virtual impossibility of achieving single-payer."
What has changed? The political winds?
11
@Matt -- If you were interested in facts, you'd know that we don't have single-payer health care.
What has changed? Concern over facts?
2
@Dan Styer
Does that make it impossible? It seems quite a few other countries did not get that memo.
Sure, you can say anything, and the mop heads will soak it up, and believe it, since their reality gives no sign of anything being different than what they are being told. They do not feel the pain. Will they eventually? With certainty! In the mean time, they are being entertained, and they enjoy that.
It really doesn't matter what they say. No one can do anything about it until election day, and maybe not even then because of all the restrictions being placed on the right to vote.
The only thing that seems less than direct in this article, and maybe because this will sound like wealth bashing (and who really can be against wealth?), but Republicans are opposed to anything other than private health care because sickness has been one sure way to turn a profit, and they want the business back. Combine that with a lower tax rate, and it is a bonanza. The Republicans called it tax reform, when in reality it was a tax giveaway to business and the wealthy.
It's no longer important to have a new idea, when it was the old ones that made all the money. You could make a fortune on addressing climate change, but it is easier to just continue polluting. It's a money maker.
Don't we understand by now that most, if not all, government policy is designed to benefit the wealthy, and that any benefits that it might have for the middleclass and below are purely accidental? Capitalism has run away in our society, and it needs to be reigned in before there is serious and lasting harm.
46
"Why do Republicans think they can get away with such blatant lies? Partly it’s because they expect their Fox-watching followers to believe anything they’re told."
Paul, this is precisely what will actually happen. Trump's large base of evangelicals and conservative Christians have spent their entire lives, and, generations before, listening carefully on Sunday to a preacher telling them what to think.
So, that group of Americans are uniquely prepped, by practice and culture, for "believing" in Trump, and, then, believing everything he tells them to think.
Trump actually understands this phenomena and is using it about 1000 times better than Reagan did, although Reagan understood as well.
So, you should worry when you see a Trump written article. It will be quoted all over the country this coming Sunday, and, people will nod and believe.
Aside: One of the most common occurrences in that community is the preacher caught running around with a parishioner's wife. Here, prayer groups form, and, forgiveness happens, and, usually, the wife of the preacher moves out of town.
That approach is also applied to Trump.
59
@Michael
Yes, of course. Evangelicals and conservative "Christians" are perfect matches for the Republican Party, and especially Trump. Why? It's not just that they've spent their lives being told what to think by preachers, it's that this is a cohort of people who have already demonstrated that they are willing to believe wholeheartedly in something for which there is not one iota of evidence. Blatant lies? No problem.
6
The very rich are, as the saying goes, different. However normal Americans who vote Republican run a significant risk of signing death warrants for themselves or their families.
For Trump and the Republican Congress, being an average American is a pre-existing condition punishable by cancelling their health care a
64
People know that Republicans wanted to cut the number of insured and they sought to abolish coverage for pre-existing conditions. In the unlikely event that Republicans claim the opposite, they will not get away with lying.
6
@michjas
Not to be gloomy, but they've got away with quite a lot of it so far!
There are three reasons for Republican's success at convincing the public;
You are right about the first; blatant lies, outright lies. The Republicans know that their long term followers believe anything they say because the followers like them. It's really quite a sinister strategy by the leaders.
The second is that Americans are trained to view their televisions many hours of their free time and the Television industry employs sensational and presumably psychological techniques to draw in and hold the absolute attention of the audience. The visual sense is the most indelible. The tribal appeals are seductive and satisfying.
The third is the Republican's cultivation of hatred and anger in the nation that renders their followers instinctively seduced and lacking thoughtful consideration of what they hear. The followers simply react instinctively in a "Fight or Flight" fashion. Consider the success of the old lynch mob leaders.
All these combined since the Newt Gingrich "Republican Revolution" declaration in 1994 has built up so far and so badly that the Republican leadership actually convinced their followers to vote for them so they could take away the health care that keeps them alive and living longer.
Don Trump follows the NYTimes and the comments and has learned all these techniques over time and has been employing them.
He who has the most Television coverage will win this election. Trump knows. He practices using the Television.
The Democrats should know this
26
I applaud your frank column Mr. Krugman, and you do not have to tell me to vote for Democrats. That said, how, oh how do we get around the fact that the elected or possibly to be elected Democrats are more often than not, controlled by THEIR corporate or the very wealthy donors .
Republicans are gleefully spitting on well informed voters, with their reverse psychology ploy. The crumbs from the Democrats are much better, but come on have you heard any corporate Democrats say they were for Medicare for all?
Only the much maligned progressive Democrat candidates who have won their primaries have Medicare for all in their platforms. The Democratic party has not supported them or welcomed them and often tried to thwart them in their primary bids. But darn it they won anyway, and do not take the big bucks which have ties that bind. The are not corrupted.
I know both sides often have the same donors, so is this election up to them? Are the Oligarchs and Wall street really running this show?
The only hope for me is that the uncorrupt Democrats get elected and that will change the ball game for us little people That and that not every voting machine is rigged.
And why do the Democrats need Joe Manchin?
18
A more fundamental question is this: why do Republican office holders/seekers, start with the guy who sleeps in the WH, lie? The answer is not just because they can - the argument use to invade Iraq. The answer is because so many believe them.
Dr. Krugman, ask yourself. If I keep selling you bridges and you keep buying it, is it your fault or mine - I am not talking about morality here when I say "fault"?
Don't we always say democracy depends on an educated electorate? So what does that tell us about our state of democracy here in America?
As the column says, we will find out in a few weeks.
17
Part of how the Trump and Republican thing works is the idea of a great deal: people are looking for something for nothing, or at least cheap. People want to think that they're are going to get special deals and favorable treatment from these people so that now they're going to be put toward the front of the line.
And, just like winning the lottery, it's just going to happen to them. Just because they deserve it. They want someone to pull the strings and cheat a little to make this happen. So you need people who can do this. The old game hasn't worked too well for them. In their eyes the other guys have cheated so now it's their turn to get some unfair advantage.
2
The isolating influence of ideological silos is at issue above and beyond anything else. Journalists of all political persuasion need to remember that the most valuable perspective comes not from the confines of a newsroom but from taking to the road in the spirit of Jack Kerouac — or even Lisa Ling. Media personalities have, too often, become just as much of a polarizing influence in this country as the subjects of their scrutiny and criticism.
Hyperbole on all sides has contributed to mutual paranoia — a divide-and-conquer mindset. When fear and hostility informs journalism, propaganda is the end result. There can be no other result!
Make no mistake: This is not a conservative vs. liberal problem — it's an "us problem". A collective mental illness has taken hold, driving otherwise intelligent people to the peripheral of rational thought — into the realm of accusation, intolerance and hypocrisy. The "blatant lie" is to delude one's self into believing that this is a partisan affliction with a political answer.
We can search for scapegoats — in this case President Trump — but that in no way excuses our own complicity. Each and every one of us — America's gatekeeper's included! — must be willing to elevate the discussion and lead by example. Instead we are living in a regressive climate in which petty, juvenile and hostile behavior is coming from people who, in the pre-social media era, would have "known better". The adults have left the room.
11
@NewsView
Thank you. Very well stated.
@NewsView: The adults have left the room and America is set, by Trump's own administration, to reach a 7 degree F temperature rise by 2100 - which is not very far away. And yet regulations to control carbon and methane are going away faster than you can say jiminey crickets! It's as if Trump just wishes to ignore it all to stay in power as long as he can, elections be damned. Keep his cult base in the dark long enough and soon they will ALL be in the dark, just like the lefties they hate (such as myself). And that hatred of lefties will give them small consolation when their grandchildren are dying around them.
It's really too late, I fear. The UN Commission comes out with their report and Trump acts like it's just a nothing, can't even begin to comment on it, just like Kashoggi - nothing to see here folks, but if there is, Trump will choose a 'promise' to buy 110 billion dollars worth of military equipment to kill more Yemeni children. The funny part is all their systems are American so they won't be going to the Russians or the Chinese to buy, as Trump indicated.
He just lies and lies and lies and it comes to fast and hard, like being hit in the head by a baseball several times a day. Hard to recover from that kind of onslaught.
Trump is the most dangerous man on the planet and he's all ours.
Vote D only, women preferable, on November 6. If there is a glimmer of hope, we will know then. If not.....then I sure feel sorry for the babies born today.
2
It was the Democrats who defunded Medicare to the tune of $0.8 trillion, which has resulted in retirees paying higher premiums.
It is unfortunate that Mr. Krugman choses to lie in order to stir up his readers and increase political division.
Obamacare was designed to be a gift to big medicine.
It forces the under 45 participants to pay two to five times the actuarial value of their health insurance so that the 55-64 participants to get a 40% discount. That applies whether or not the early retirees are wealthy, and can afford to pay full freight or are struggling. Ant the taxpayer covers the rest of the cost. Why was it necessary for the under 45 to pay more than the value of their insurance? Wouldn't it have been fairer to price insurance rationally and then offered taxpayer subsidies? The reason Democrats didn't do that was that they'd have had to admit how expensive their scheme is. So they crammed down a hidden tax on working people under 45.
Republicans do not object to Obamacare because they do not want people to have healthcare. They object because Obamacare invited drug manufacturers, pharmacy benefit managers, hospitals and insurers to increase their profits without providing any incremental benefits to anyone.
As predicted, hospitals in rural areas in both expansion and non expansion states closed because Democrats stripped away the supplemental payments since they didn't have anyone at the table while the spoils were divvied up. They cancelled SCHIP.
6
When it comes to 'misleading' Democrats have no room to talk. A tax cut is a return of property to its rightful owner, not a 'giveaway'. A transfer payment, like free healthcare for people who never earned it and never will, is a 'giveaway'. Democrats rely on giveaways to buy votes. That's the real reason the left is so desperate about the upcoming election, they really 'need' to win so they can get their hands back into the cookie jar to hand out freebees to their supporters as pay-offs to them for their votes. Without pay-offs their supporters don't bother to vote for them. Should the productive taxpayers agree to pay for this?
8
@Ronald B. Duke: So only the wealthy deserve healthcare, otherwise it is a "giveaway?" Why do Canada, Britain, France, Sweden, Norway, and Denmark disagree with you? Why do millions of decent, moral, compassionate Americans disagree with you? Health care is a right, not a privilege. A basic, decent standard of living is required for all if a nation is to call itself civilized.
163
@Ronald B. Duke You seem to find obscene the notion that society has a responsibility towards those who, for whatever reason, can't afford health care. The end result of that belief are the worst streets of Calcutta in old times.
However, you seem perfectly happy with the fact that, in America, society is obliged to maintain golf courses through municipal subsidy. Your priorities are exemplary.
79
@Ronald B. Duke Actually, the Govt, as in Federal Reserve and Treasury, actually OWN all of the money. We merely get to use it and taxes are part of the rest, interest is another part of the rest. NOBODY is Entitled to Extreme Wealth.
Many HAVE worked for and thus Are Entitled, literally, for their Social Security and Medicare. I am on SSI and Medicaid because the VA keeps only coming up with half of my record at a time,for decades now, as I slowly fall apart living on $750/mo with $180 in foodstanps and Medicaid. Recently got assigned caregivers since my health is to that state.
But for the Republicans who have nicked, dimed ad backtracked so many times, removing benefits any chance they get, so that Medicare cannot bid for proper pricing on drugs, people have to pay out of their Social Security, when the Medicare should be free and paid for as well, just like Medicaid.
Get rid of the Insurance companies and you can then pay doctors and nurses good wages, pay for their training and expand care for everyone since there would be no middle man leeching the money away with a huge siphon. Single Payer is the only way to go, and it will bring Tort Reform and Malpractice insurance under the Govt, instead of private, for profit insurers. It would be based directly on actual care and problems in treatment, which would be better, clearly documented with a single payer, single record type system.
All of which is clearly anathema to Republican Goals of Yuge Profits for middlemen
45
But what do we do when our fellow citizens hear the truth, know the truth, and then choose the lie?
Progress isn't inevitable, even when it feels like it is. It needs to be encouraged, demanded, fought for and protected.
I honestly can't tell if my children's generation will be better off than mine. And my blood boils with frustration.
I share the same skin, the same gender, the same religion as so many of my countrymen who have given themselves over to hate, to xenophobia, to being used by the lies of the right wing. Yet I can still acknowledge the humanity, the beauty, the dignity in people who are "not like" me. And I want to fight for those who do not enjoy the privilege I did nothing to earn, for those who choose different lives than I chose.
The reality is, the only differences between any of us humans are the ones we make.
54
Thank you, DP
“These people” do not deserve your compassion, because they are completely selfish. They not offer to you the same compassion that you offer them. Sorry to say, they are not “Christians,” whatever that is supposed to mean.
The republicans tried to scuttle affordable health care. They have no better solution and did not even try to offer one. Millions of poor people, and people with pre- existing conditions would have lost their health insurance. Trump and the GOP have not stopped trying to destroy affordable care. They can say whatever they like but those are the facts. They are incapable of making bold plans. Just tax cuts for the billionaires each time, and lately trade protectionism. They lied for years about ‘deficits being very high and our grandchildren will be paying for it’ and recklessly increased the deficit by 1 to 2 trillion. Only their supporters believe their lies. They live in an alternate universe of lies and delusions.
25
There is a two-fold problem here: 1) Americans don't know what to believe anymore from any source; and 2) Americans are so used to being lied to by politicians, that it has no impact anymore.
9
I don't believe it will work. Perhaps my faith in the American public is misplaced, but it will be good to see it put to the test by this election. Republicans got away with it before by playing on white fear of a black president. Remember the signs? "Government hands off my Medicare!" Oh, lordy.
The big problem is that the more the Republican base feels pain, the more they vote hard right. Congressional leaders can enact policies for their donors that hurt their base voters with impunity. They just blame all the pain on liberals and immigrants.
The other problem is that democrats have abandoned the field in these red states so there's no one there talking sense. If Beto pulls off his upset in Texas, there might be hope.
Climate change reality also gives me hope. It's one thing to lie about abstract complexities like healthcare policy. It's a whole other thing to convince people that all these fires, floods, hurricanes, and droughts are a liberal conspiracy. Lived experience has a way of clarifying the mind.
23
A Trump quote from a recent rally :"Radical Democrats want to tear down our laws, tear down our institutions in pursuit of power, demolish our prosperity in the name of socialism and probably worse," The President's attacks on Democrats are increasing in frequency and intensity with the midterms pending, but also continue because there is no check on his outrageous claims . He has called Democrats evil, too dangerous to govern, and crazy, among many other epithets. So the "leader" of our country has, at least, a daily platform to assault the opposition party with almost criminal lies and exaggerations that over time do have impact. As has been his practice, if he repeats things enough they become normalized and accepted, especially with support of the propaganda arm of the White House, Fox News. Being kept on the defensive and refuting the constant lies makes it more difficult to present a strong, coherent message, a distinct disadvantage for democrats that is unique to this president and his party.
33
I used to think no top Democrats has told Trumpian lies. Then I read how Harry Reid said during Romney's campaign that Romney paid no taxes for 10 years. If we're against Trumpian lies, we must disqualify those who tell them from leading our party. Too late for Reid, but we must do it going forward. Else we'll get our own Trump.
3
@Ilya Shlyakhter If you will remember, Romney showed us Revised reports and paid for extra exemptions taken he had not earned, yeah, he paid it all quietly and then had his 'amended' papers to show. It was pretty tissue thin at the time, still is.
@Ilya Shlyakhter
Because he didn't pay any taxes for a decade.
Romney is a sleazebag. A very wealthy one at that. One with with all the weapons to hide and shift his money to avoid taxation.
"Why do Republicans think they can get away with such blatant lies?"
It won them a victory in all three branches of government, didn't it? Is there some other test I should be looking for for success of a political tactic?
31
@Salmon
They lost the popular vote by 3M votes. The Electoral College vote is now controlled by key States in which gerrymandered voting districts is now a fact. Republican pols have bragged about gerrymandering. It is also a fact that the GOP is a minority Party with demographics going against them. The U.S. is no longer a country in which white citizens outnumber those of mixed ethnicity. That is a good thing, if it means that we will be rid of men now in power: old and white. The Whigs were once in power, as were Tories. Segregation and lynching were once practiced in the South. Child labor was once the norm in mills.
1
Republicans are mistreating the American public and the international community. Clearly, they will do and say anything to disguise their objectives of privatizing government programs for the benefit of a few. The Russian oligarchs could easily become the American oligarchs who control healthcare (insurance/pharmaceuticals/technology...), social security, education, military, prisons, immigration, etc.,etc. They will lie or purge voter rolls or gerrymander districts or deny college students the opportunity to vote to improve their chances of winning elections. The Republican party does not intend to serve for the benefit of all, but to rule and increase the wealth of a few. We should be very frightened of their intentions to make money for a select few. As long as the GOP allows Trump to ignore the emoluments rules we know this party does not care to defend and represent all Americans. Their concern for protecting the wealth of carbon producers is an outrage against the future health of people and our planet. Vote!
18
You omitted the big lie, "No Collusion."
Exposing the Republican attacks on health care is important for sure, but Trump's degradation of our elections seems more important.
21
It does appear as though republicans have discovered--the Trump supporters anyway--that they can follow his lead and spin whatever lies they want. In broad daylight, with very little concern of the party faithful. Trump has trained them to swallow conspiracies and a daily dose of lies, and his minions are learning the lessons: The democratic conspiracy against Kavanaugh (instead of republicans conspiring to limit any investigation), the Times penning the 'anonymous' op-ed, the ridiculous claim they've shouldered the burden of defending Medicare, Hillary as the one colluding with the Russians, policies and laws for billionaires, with scraps sold as some historic boon to the working class. I never thought I'd see the day where a major, national party's key figures could lie with so little guile, such indifference to any integrity, and their rank and file supporters would eat out of their hands.
There's just not much left of democracy at the point when millions of people have bought into a patently con man's personality cult and a morally bankrupt ideology. The GOP's role in the downfall of the US as a world power will merit its own chapter, along with a flag lapel pin.
24
I’m an advocate for free markets and less Government control in every area except Healthcare because even a cursory look at the developed world shows that systems that are far more Government controlled than in the US provide better, cheaper and universal care.
Republicans simply can’t bring themselves to admit they there are exceptions to rules that they cherish so they are stuck advocating for health care policies that clearly won’t work.
36
I have access to both Republicans and Democrats and over the years since the advent of Newt Gingrich, Conservative Think Tanks, Conservative Mass Mailers, Conservative talk radio, and Conservative T.V. networks, I have observed that Republicans and Democrats have created alternative realities to support their public policy positions and the interests of their donors.
In my discussions with conservatives on their lies and distortion of the reality, they don't believe or feel like there are benefits from recognizing the real reality and the impact of their policies on the welfare and health of the people who they represent.
One notable departure from the real reality is the impact of emissions from the combustion of fossil fuels (coal, natural gas, tar sands, and oil) which are saturating the atmosphere and the oceans much faster than the Earth's natural "sinks" can absorb and these gasses are trapping heat energy from the Sun.
The buildup from fossil fuel combustion has been going on for about two centuries and this buildup affects the climate that our species adapted to prior to the industrial revolution so it is extremely urgent that World's governments cooperate to develop and implement sources of non-fossil energy and technologies to capture massive amounts of carbon combustion emissions before the warming observed in our earth climate observatories begins to runaway from the thawing of the Arctic permafrost which holds billions of tons of frozen greenhouse gasses.
26
@james jordan
"In my discussions with conservatives on their lies and distortion of the reality, they don't believe or feel like there are benefits from recognizing the real reality and the impact of their policies on the welfare and health of the people who they represent." -- James Jordan
That sentence merits repeating many times. For what political issues in our time does it not apply?
20
This lifelong Republican is voting Democratic while still trying to changing the GOP policies to realistic positions.
55
Good luck, and thank you, although it may be too late!
8
@Hank
Thank You! Our republic needs all the help it can get.
Give it up, or else accept moral defeat.
Take away the truth: what do you stand on? If things fall apart, how do you stand up?
For many, expressions of hate are examples of courage! Witness the phone calls: about people sitting in coffee houses, cutting lawns, caring for children, eating lunch, reading; shot in their apartment, cars, on the streets, walking. Those who thrive on power and submission pick targets, firmly hold power.
Trump's target is women, he hates them. Scorn and vitriol, disrespect, shame are his favorite tools. Trump boxes women into a set of nasty choices, determined by men. Should a woman raped or assaulted be silent and suffer or speak up and be shamed?
The new tolerance supports intolerance; none of those times police were called were a crime. Yet agents and police are deployed as authority and symbols of a civil society gone crazy. For sitting, eating, reading, for working, for being family, citizens are stopped and questioned.
For picking your children up from school or seeking asylum, adults are deported and children "not detained, but supervised" are put in cages--never mentioned in Trump's stand-up spree, nor Omarosa and Stormy's books and offered pay-offs, or Aunty Maxine (she's a better dozens player!). Nor his lie to Emma and the Parkland students, he would strengthen gun purchase background checks.
An inner core of cruel, broken men who call themselves victims, whether incels or judges, know policy can destroy and kill. And policy scatters the statistics.
100
@Walter Rhett
One of the toughest paradoxes is the mirror-reversal; it happens when the guilt or corrupt party points the finger at those who bring the charge. We have seen the reversal happen with students who were the survivors of mass shootings; rather than empathy and compassion, they met with doubt/belligerence/harsh personal attacks. It happened with Gold Star families, with widows of veterans; with women especially.
This strategy is popular with the oppositional-defiant because it involves denial and blame, threats and pain, power and hate. Trump has now used it with healthcare.
His new group appeals blame Democrats have but also have deep impulses in blood and sex. Cruelty drives the laughter and chants.
The lumpen, Marx called them. Sociology looked at their marginality. Humphrey Bogat said we could find them everywhere, "Knock on any door."
When truth is blame and denial--and elevates itself into power and becomes the interlogic of national policy, policy will not be for the benefit of the many, and in healthcare even the obvious victims with preconditions and catastrophic illness are the vanguard of a mean-spirited plan that extracts wealth and creates waste--and scatters the statistics.
10
Shooting someone on Fifth Avenue is chump change. How many will die too soon from what Trump et al want to do with our health care? And many of the victims’ last political acts will be to assist their killers!
120
I don't see the problem: poor people who don't want health care won't be getting it. Who's making them not accept health care?
1
They're actually scared. Republicans are actually scared that a majority of the electorate wants Democratic control and Democratic policies, so they're making one last desperate and utterly phony attempt to paint themselves as liberal as the voters who are falling out of their grasp. Power is all they want, and if these wolves have to put on sheep's clothing and yell, "Baaa," they won't hesitate.
102
@Mark Lebow, not one last attempt. They will never give up until their billionaire-class base runs out of money. When will that be, I wonder?
42
There will be no blue wave. The gop has nothing to fear; they have this in the bag. The question is: what will the dems do when this travesty befalls us?
1
Yes, blatant, unashamed lies are the norm in this govt.
Who could not agree with Krugman here? Again and again it's Big Bad GOP/Trump. Protect ACA from Trump attack--- but without admitting it’s an inferior health care system. We need more complete truth.
Lamentably, the political center approves that ACA uses our taxes to support insurance profits.
Then big insurance uses some of that profit to donate big money to our elections, to keep the influence system going. Our taxes help support this. We can’t compete. But both parties compete for corporate donations.
Is this representative govt? How can we break this cycle?Could Krugman address this?
We have the world’s most expensive and most profitable health care and elections. That’s the only system that can get approval in the US.
In most other world democracies, their conservative parties wouldn’t offer ACA to citizens, and their voters wouldn’t put up with it if they did. They’re used to low cost, truly universal medical care.
We put up with 2nd rate protections, and Krugman rationalizes this to stay aligned with the Democratic Party, who look so good compared to the atrocious Trump. That’s the vicious cycle that our blocks progress.
Will Dems, fearful of the ‘left wing’ label, really advocate Medicare for All, a policy that dozens of countries started in the 20th Century, but we still can’t pass?
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@Meredith, still, there are Democrats (and non-Democrats) pushing the party a bit towards the left (not "to the left"; that might suggest arrival, which is far from so). Can we keep that up?
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@Meredith For clarity's sake, I think it important to note that Krugman's point is not to offer a full-throated defense of the ACA but to point out the hypocrisy of Republicans who are campaigning as advocates of heath care policies that, in reality, they are trying to eliminate.
I agree completely that the ACA---especially as it exists following GOP attempts to sabotage it---has more than its share of flaws. That it became so popular with the American public when Republicans threatened repeal may well have less to do with it being seen as a long-term solution than with the fact that it is so much more comprehensive and effective than the abysmal excuse for health care policy that it replaced.
But, again, as you imply, it is flawed.
Obama probably got as many considerations as he could get in framing what became the final ACA bill that was passed into law. The tortured history of its passage includes Democrats pushing hard for a public option against GOP opposition strong enough to prevent House approval if it remained in the bill.
Krugman's defense of the ACA has never been unqualified. He has suggested various "fixes" and has certainly expressed support for various forms of single-payer---he notes different options in the column. His "rationalizations" have been grounded in the political reality that Republicans have owned the House since 2012 and, for Democrats, defending Medicare/Medicaid has been Issue One.
If the political reality changes, however...
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@Meredith These folks have to get elected, you know, every two years for some and six for the rest. They are going to do whatever they think will get them reelected.
So, it does no good to rail against the representatives of the people.
What you need to do is convince the people of the correctness of your ideas.
Politics is the art of the possible. PPACA was all that was (barely) possible in 2009. What is possible in 2021 will depend on how convinced the public is that it is the right way to go
3
They get away with the blatant lies by sticking together and not breaking ranks. As our con-man in chief said, healthcare is complicated, and most people aren't going to follow the details that closely.
Which brings us to Trump's enablers outside of Congress and Fox News. The supposedly reasonable people who refuse to call out their friends and colleagues. People like Gail Wilensky who refused to admit that Republicans were lying about the ACA. People like David Brooks and Bret Stephens, who, no matter what criticism they may have of Republican leadership behavior, no matter how odious their methods nonetheless endorse their agenda time and again and rationalize giving them legislative victories. One false note or hint of partisanship from a Democrat puts them in high dudgeon, but I have yet to read one word critical of Mitch McConnell.
That's why they get away with it. They know their's strength in numbers. They make their own reality.
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@DebbieR, very true. That piece by Gail Wilensky was especially fetid with lies.
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Just got out of a telephone poll that was supposed to be independent but wasn’t. The questions were framed to praise Dana Rhorabacher’s (R - 48th U.S. Congressional District in Orange County, CA) stance on health care and how he’s in favor of health care - not true. The poll also states that his Democratic opponent was in favor of higher property taxes for home owners - he’s not, and that is a state decision, not Federal. Very misleading. I’m sure there were other fantastical statements but I hung up. This election - and the whole political atmosphere - is toxic enough without listening to outright lies when you don’t have to.
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In addition to your well considered position, I want to know what OUR Rep. Rohrabacher was doing at the Ecuadoran Embassy in London. Oh, yes, I forgot, maybe the 48th is in Ecuador or London. Right.
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@Barbara Snider That is what's known as a push poll. It has nothing to do with polling, just a tactic to try and change people's mind. It's a campaign that paid for that.
Let’s be frank for a moment. I believe there is tremendous support for universal access to healthcare in this country. At the same time there is real fear that what is being presented as “Medicare for All” is really going to lead to “Medicaid for All” except for those lucky few who can buy their way into high quality, personalized, care. Seniors are right to be worried that the system they have come to depend on will be negatively impacted by reallocation of resources to younger people. Democrat, Republican, whatever, very few people trust the government to be able to divise a better system while at the same time destroying the old.
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@TW Smith Obviously, the Republicans have no intention or ability to "replace" what they want to repeal, but there are several Democrats' ideas that could work, as long as the Republicans don't mount a sabotage attack as they've done with the ACA. But of course they will, so we need to get a lot of voting weight behind the effort. (All my life I've wondered why the USA can't manage to develop a single-payer healthcare system like every other nation, but of course, in America, everything has to make a profit.)
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@TW Smith
In my opinion, Dems advocating for M4A don't intend or expect to "destroy" Medicare in its current form, but rather to expand it and improve upon it. It won't be the same program when it includes vision, dental and hearing in addition to current coverage, and when it covers people under 65 as well as those older. They think it will be better.
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I have done the following calculations to determine if a “Medicare for All” plan would be to my advantage.
With an income of $140,000 and a current Medicare tax rate of 7.65%, I pay a total of $10,863 in Medicare taxes.
Although I am now on Medicare, which covers 80% of my medical expenses, I must get supplemental health insurance for $6,387 per year to cover the remaining 20%. Both plans, which total $17,250 per year, cover all medical expenses and drugs; there are no co-pays or additional charges.
If all my health insurance costs were covered solely by Medicare, the Medicare tax rate would have to be increased by 12.3%. However, since Medicare then would cover everything, I would no longer need to pay for a supplemental health insurance plan. Such an increase would be acceptable, since it would not exceed the total amount that I am now paying for health care insurance.
Not a bad idea, especially since there would be no exclusions for pre-existing conditions.
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@Phillip J. Baker
You may want to take another look at your math because in almost all areas Medicare is a better deal than even the 80% you cite. In reality it covers 80% of the Medicare "allowable" which brings coverage to well over 90% of the bill.( In my area it is about 95%coverage)
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@Phillip J. Baker 7.65% ??? The current medicare tax rate is 1.45% for employees and 1.45 % for their employer. What supplemental Medigap insurance costs $6387? AARP United health is about $200 per month per person for the best plan currently available, Plan F.
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@Phillip J. Baker I do not like this simplistic type of reflection but I must agree with your analysis of the system in its current application. But if you look at a more general and global pattern you may find a lot of savings in administrative costs, hospital and professionals salary, medication costs and so on and on.You are currently paying more than any given country for your health care that result in a lack of care for a lot of your citizens ...Your life is important and your health care should be a given right.Good luck, you are hard working people and you serve better, a lot better.They are lying to you
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A British Columbian with cancer, diabetes and COPD would pay $40 a month for 100% coverage. The rate drops for those earning less than $42,000, prorated down to 0 for those earning $26,000 or less.
And for those Americans who assume poor qualities of care from government programs, the B.C. Cancer Agency outcomes for childhood leukemia are the best in G7. The results for breast and prostate cancer are the second best survival rates across 67 countries.
Health care cost induced bankruptcy in Canada is basically nil.
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@Lloyd Geidt
The B.C. Cancer agency is doing outstanding work. Most Canadians are so glad to live in a country where health care isn't a cause for constant concern, but a reliable resource, both compassionate and highly competent friend in times of need.
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@Leigh
Healthcare in Canada costs around 11.5% of its GDP, compared to the US, where healthcare costs around 17% of GDP.
Despite spending billions more on healthcare in the US, Canada has far better healthcare outcomes, such as life expectancy and infant mortality.
Surely from an economic and social viewpoint, the US should look at moving to a healthcare system similar to the Canadian model.
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@Lloyd Geidt Same goes for the province of Prince Edward Island, where I resided from 2007 until 2012. BTW, PEI has a population that is lower than that of many small cities, but still has freedom even with the "burden" of universal healthcare. Of course no Republicans are citizens there.
Even after the failure in 2017 to pass the GOP's last ditch effort of the so called "skinny repeal" of the ACA law Trump has repeatedly flat out lied, telling us all that it was actually repealed.
Months ago this year, during a speech in Wisconsin, Trump not only specifically stated that Obamacare had been repealed but that it had been replaced with some kind of great new health care plans...another lie.
These multiple lies are documented on video, that's what is so bizarre and unbelievable to those of us with the ability to know what the facts are.
I'm convinced the majority of Trump supporters don't even know that "Obamacare" is a federal law called the Affordable Care Act and NO it was NOT repealed in Congress. I'm even further convinced that his base voters could care less about reality & truth.
It will be up to the rest of us to restore reality by showing up at the voting booth.
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I guarantee you most trump voters who have insurance through the ACA aren’t even aware of it. Or, if they are aware and they’re happy with it, they believe it’s been improved by trump.
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What's Trump's single worst characteristic? There are so many, but to me it's his CONSTANT lying. How can his followers ignore this fact, which is easily verified?
His denial of climate change may hurt us most in the long term, but his daily lies are exhausting and depressing.
This isn't original...and it's exaggerated...but this is what runs through my mind. "Every word he says is a lie, including 'the' and 'and.' "
This country is driving off a cliff, with Trump at the wheel. Unless voters slam on the brakes next month, I don't want to think about the consequences.
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After all, why did USA Today approve this piece? Letting Trump express his opinion is one thing; giving him a platform for blatant lies is another.
Good question! USA Today disgraced itself and ruined its credibility going forward in purveying outright falsehoods of such consequence to American healthcare without comment. Everything Trump and Co touches soon turns to ashes.
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@Leigh
Ever read the letters to the editor section of USA Today, or its online comments? Try it. That will provide the answer to the question: why did USA Today approve Trump's op ed? Trump was speaking directly to USA Today's majority readership.
1
Thank heavens I haven't subscribed to USA Today. I find it unconscionable that it would publish that article. I hope they publish a retraction, or there is something additionally very wrong with that periodical.
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I watched the doco about Trump's golf course in Scotland and realized at once that he was an inveterate liar - why is this not more widely obvious, particularly in the USA?
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@Keith
It is obvious. People just choose to ignore it for a their own reasons.
1
@Keith Johnson
It IS obvious, Keith. His supporters know he's lying. They just don't care as long as he keeps abusing the people they hate.
@Keith Johnson
Keith, Please, please don't think that it couldn't happen to you..
The "open embrace" of lies that are obviously mutually contradictory is a hallmark of authoritarian regimes, according to Timothy Snyder, eminent historian of the holocaust, in his book On Tyranny (inspired by Trump's election).
Democrats will have big government take over all health care!
Democrats will destroy Medicare!
I wonder again why it's left to the opinion pages, and Prof. Krugman, to point out these obvious lies.
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This is a coordinated campaign and not just limited to Don the Con. Here in flyover land we are getting the same message. The RepubliCONs running for Congress are all using the fear monger approach that the Dems want to take away Medicare. And in the Governor's race, the same types of things are being "sold". Sorry, I'm not buying.
Vote Nov. 6 and vote Dem all the way. The lying has to stop.
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It is time for the Democrats to start using Republican tactics. Disenfranchise voters, gerrymander and make better use of fake news. If they ever manage to gain control of Congress and Presidency, job one is to eliminate the electoral college and make the US a true democracy.
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@lvzee
Yes re the Electoral College. But useless unless we also get rid of Citizens United 'and' go back to paper ballots hand-counted so we can trust the voting. Also outlawing gerrymandering would be a 'very good idea'.
We all know many of our elections are crooked and that the voting machines are hacked or originally programmed to miscount our votes - and that since 2000 there have been Reps in state offices who've helped the fraud along.
If we're going to fix our problems, let's fix all of them.
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@lvzee
So we should get rid of the jerks by becoming jerks? Sounds like getting rid of crime by robbing houses. I just can't see myself becoming another Donald Trump. That life wouldn't be worth living.
I think the biggest Republican party lie of all is that they are anti-abortion. I don't think they care enough either way. Pretending to take that position just ensures the evangelical vote. A group that got stuck on that single issue at the expense of their followers pressing issues.
Churchgoers would otherwise be Democrats. They would be best served by Democrats. Who would promote community free clinics for the poor with health checks, contraception and STD care.
Republicans pull off this lie so easily because they don't mind starting a fight and stepping back to watch others fight about it. Abortion is only an issue for the poor afterall. Affluent women can always get help. The GOP anti-abortion stance is a straw man and it's just one big lie that gains votes.
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@Anne
Anne, I can see good reasons to oppose abortion but the religious can never make a proper case for their side because it will always fall back upon a religious answer for support and most other people aren't going to accept that.
Nevertheless it is not well to dismiss their concerns.
I believe that their unsettled feelings have validity even though they may not be able to express them in a persuasive way. A greater (perhaps endless) debate is necessary but cannot be accomplished while they live exclusively in their religious world. Also you assume that, lacking the abortion issue, they would all be natural Democrats. There are some among them who see their wealth as proof that they are God's chosen a conceit that is hard to abandon and suits them well to be Republicans.
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@Anne
Not all Republicans are anti-abortion, but all Democrats are pro-abortion. Evangelical Christians were reliable Democrat voters until they were evicted. After they were evicted, they were demonized by Democrats. It's going to be tough to bring them back to voting Democrats after decades of excoriation.
Republicans are the party of the big tent. That's why Republicans are in the majority. Before you comment that Hillary won the popular vote, recall that 48% is not a majority.
@Anne
"I think the biggest Republican party lie of all is that they are anti-abortion."
There are so many big lies to choose from. They certainly don't believe in a lower national debt.
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As on all issues like health care, the Dems are conspicuously quiet. It would be great if we knew where they stood or at the least, defend their positions.
They have a treasure trove to make noise about every day with this presidency yet they're nowhere to be found.
Chuck? Nancy? Say something please.
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@caljn
Did you read the article? They "stand" where Republicans are nowhere to be found. You seem to like referring to Chuck and Nancy. , . as does the patronizing Trump.
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@caljn Their positions are clear. Some people’s not being aware of those points of view may be a communication problem with Chuck and Nancy, or it may be problem with those people’s hearing caused by cranial thickening.
@Alan J. Shaw
You're darn right I do. Merely looking for some accountability and "strategery" from my leaders. Apart from fund raising.
Trump's lies serve his interests: his supporters don't mind being lied to, and some of the others might fall for, or at least tolerate them, thinking that the "system" is being shaken up.
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@smartypants
When Obama ran for office, he said there would be no individual mandate in his universal healthcare, he was opposed to same sex marriage and would bring hope and change. the change he brought was not for the better..
His followers knew he was lying and voted for him anyway.
Trump promised to roll back regulations, reduce taxes, repeal Obamacare, renegotiate trade agreements, withdraw from the Paris Climate Accord, etc. He's well on his way to meeting his promises. His tweets are entertainment.
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@ebmem.
Since you appear to be fact-challenged, here are a couple of facts:
1. Obama never said there would be no “individual mandate.“ He never even used such language.
2. Republicans now agree — like the utterly corrupt Republican Tom Price — that the individual mandate saves everybody, including the government, money.
3. When Obama said he was against same-sex marriage, his voters took it literally. Many that he would grow and change his mind, which he did. Changing your mind on same-sex marriage is not the same as saying you lowered taxes when you didn’t.
4. About those lower taxes, get yourself a chart of who benefited from the $1.3 trillion tax rollback. The upper 2% get 74% of the benefits. That’s the last number I read and it came from a Republican think tank. More specifically: 0.44 percent of all tax filers, those earning $1 million or more, get 17.3 of the cuts from the bill now; by 2027, 0.6 percent of Taxpayers will get 82% of the benefit. Trump promised a cut to benefit the middle and working-class. He lied. The rich got most of it.
5. Trump promised to roll back the ACA. So far they’ve managed to dent it but not gut it. Admittedly they are still trying. If this makes you feel good, congratulations. You can be proud your fellow Americans suffer without healthcare.
One final fact. Contrary to your implication, Obama didn’t bring about same-sex marriage. The Supreme Court did. In case you missed that the way you missed a few other things.
1
Many of my contacts in the Bible Belt have told me in the last few weeks that Demand crafts “are no longer patriots. They just want to make America into Venezuela.” In other words, the lies are sticking.
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It's clear Republican leaders and those who emulate them think the American people are stupid. The elections of 2018 and 2020 might tell us if they are correct. As a retired educator (51 years in the classroom), I see the continuing dumbing down of our society as frightening. It is the rare college student who is aware of George Orwell today.
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@Robert Fine
Thank you Robert for mentioning Orwell. From shooting an elephant to the lost pleasures of not having central heating. Orwell and much more could easily be presented in late grade school and I'll bet kids wouldn't want to miss it. It's not the kids who are dumb. Some how I don't think Harry Potter measures up.
@Robert Fine
The majority of voters with a college degree voted for Trump. The majority of voters who lack a high school diploma voted for Hillary.
It is clear that Republicans are the party of the educated, as has always been the case.
@Robert Fine.
Rare college student? What about the graduates? But more to the point, ask college graduates if they’ve ever heard of Papen or Hindenburg. Ask them if they know how Hitler came to power. I guess the best you can say is, most of them have probably heard of Hitler. Of the rest of the story, most don’t have a clue. I’ve met truck drivers in Ireland who are better read then most American college graduates I know. As for high school graduates, I was given books to read in high school that most high school students today have never heard of. Ask any of them to tell you what the Constitutional Convention was about. They don’t have a clue. I was taught that in the 10th grade. Beginning with Ronald Reagan, American public secondary education was starved of cash; it was one of the first things he did. In the years following his administration teacher salaries fell off a cliff, driving the best and the brightest away from teaching. We have a great illusion this country: we care about educating our children. We don’t. Republicans want them stupid and not educated because that’s how they get their votes. In that particular respect, Reagan was no dummy. Kill public education and raise the Republican Party straight up. God bless America, may she rest in peace.
I'm waiting for Trump, his GOP collaborators, and their "amen corner" at Fox, talk radio, and "people of faith" to start Holocaust denial. It's all part of the same authoritarian script.
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@Carl Ian Schwartz
Democrats defunded Medicare to the tune of $0.8 trillion [with zero Republican support] and you believe Republicans are a threat to Medicare. Bush and a Republican Congress, with bipartisan support, introduced Medicare Part D and you claim they are a threat to Medicare.
You are entitled to your own opinions, but not your own facts. It is unfortunate that there is not a single Democrat Senator in the tradition of the Democrat Senator from NY, Moynihan. He was honest and capable of carrying on a rational discussion, even when he disagreed with those across the aisle. Like JFK, he would not be welcome in today's Democrat Party.
Democrats are in denial. They believe they are in the majority, facts to the contrary.
The other day, a number of us, in the comments boxes of another article, were bemoaning the Democrats lack of effective messaging and inability to reduce things to a simple several word sound bite, along the lines of the vastly effective "Morning in America" and "Make America Great Again".
So, simply, how about just "REPUBLICANS LIE".
I know it. You know it. We all know it. What you gonna do about it?
Repeat this over and over. Emblazon on bumper stickers and T-shirts. Leave the explanations and details for those wonks who are interested.
Just say Republicans lie. Let's see if this is more effective.
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@Glenn Ribotsky
Exactly correct!
Call the liars on their lies. Say it over and over and over again.
There's no time to be polite. Everyone should say Republicans HATE preexisting coverage for AMERICANS.
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@Butterfly
Republicans don't just hate preexisting coverage for Americans. If you look at their pet policies it quickly becomes clear that Republicans hate Americans. Not all Americans, that is true. Just those who are not wealthy, which of course is most of us. Just look at their attitudes toward workers. Again, this is most of us. No other "developed" (it's time to start using scare quotes when using that word to describe the US) is as hostile to its own workers as the United States. And no other American entity is as hostile to American workers as the Republican Party (except perhaps the US Chamber of Commerce). Given that the overwhelming majority of Americans work, are retired from working, or will someday work for a living, it's accurate to say that Republicans hate Americans.
@Glenn Ribotsky
Hillary was not successful with her messaging that Trump and anyone voting for him was evil. He ran on reducing regulations and taxes, ending the unpopular Obamacare, exiting the Paris Accord, imposing sanctions on Russia, Iran and North Korea.
Had Hillary run on whatever positive she was planning to do, she'd have had a shot, and she just lost by a few votes. It is never a good idea to insult people you want to vote for you, and she lost big time with both traditional Democrats and Independents.
As a Republican, I implore you to go ahead with your "Republicans lie" messaging. No one is going to remember the "I did not have sex with that woman," "It's a vast right wing conspiracy that my husband is having sex with that woman," " When I was first lady, I deplaned from a military jet under fire during a diplomatic mission," or "I invested a $1,000 loan and made $100,000 trading futures within nine months by reading the WSJ."
In the second Congressional District of New Mexico the Republicans are running an add saying that Medicare for all would double individual taxes. In fact the best estimates are that Medicare for all would save the country on the order of $400 billion dollars annually on healthcare. The savings would come from savings of the profit margin now extracted by for profit healthcare and on a reduction of the cost of paperwork. Further reductions might be achieved by Federally negotiated drug prices. For the record, single payer healthcare in Canada costs 40% less per person than healthcare in the U.S. A 40% reduction in U.S. healthcare costs would be a savings in excess of $ 1000 billion dollars annually.
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@W.A. Spitzer Thank you. Another telling argument includes the fact that none of the citizens in those other countries would trade systems with us. Hmm...I wonder why? Also, my Canadian friends once directly told me in person that if any Canadians at least in Ontario chose to have some procedure done sooner than they'd like in that province, then the province *reimburses* them! You don't here that kind of thing from the insurance companies' propaganda here.
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@W.A. Spitzer
The U.K. health care system saves its citizens more than $6,000 per person per year compared to what Americans pay. For perspective, the entire federal income tax bill for a median income family of four in the U.S. is about $5,000. That's for four people. And the U.K. system yields better health results. And people in the U.K. like their health care system, understandably, better than Americans like ours.
Yet Republican voters complain about their federal taxes while backing the party most responsible for perpetuating the incredibly expensive system we have now. Go figure. Chalk it up to anti-government zealotry.
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@Jon
The median household income is $60,000. If that is for four people, the first $20,000 is eliminated by the standard deduction and the balance is taxed at 15-20%, with two $2000 child credits and two $500 tax credits. So that's $5,000. Which is $500 less than under the old tax rules.
Americans spend $10,000 per person for healthcare, greater than the $6,000 per year Canadian cost. Even if your magical program were to cost $6,000 per person, that median household would have to come up with $24,000 to cover their household. So they would go from an after tax income of $55,000 to an after tax income of $31,000.
Don't expect the wealthy to chip in. Warren Buffet pays a lower tax percentage than the median family.
Dear Paul, we already know if the GOP's "Big Lie" on healthcare, or taxes, or immigration, or wars, or...will work.
The GOP's lies do work. Time and time again.
The question remains, if what the Republicans hate and what the Democrats love, is really so popular (and in the absence of insanity, it would be), why are the Democrats so entirely helpless in helping the country understand that?
While the Kochs and Adelsons certainly deserve their fair share of blame. Democrats need to do that old mirror thing. And examine ineptness, lack of coherent organization, failure to plan long-term and failure to focus intently on the grass roots.
Democrats are right.
Republicans are winning.
Just waiting "to see" results from the next election is a bit of a surrender.
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@AJ AJ - There is a reason for the "ineptness" of Democrats. Money from insurers, the pharmas, and doctors doesn't only flow to Republicans.
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@AJ
"why are the Democrats so entirely helpless in helping the country understand that?"
The Democratic leadership is too old to compete with the Republicans and Democrats are okay with that: witness the loss of the Presidency, the Supreme Court, the House, the Senate, and 70% of the State Houses.
These are Undeniable Facts yet Democrats deny them to avoid necessary change and sacrifice.
Democrats have their own set of lies. They do not hold their leadership accountable, which is an absolute requirement for high performance. Their leadership accountability is replaced by entitlement and excuses.
Democrats are as programmed as Republicans - they still think She won. They think still Pelosi is just great.
Their amazing losing streak will continue until they get out of their alt-Reality of denial and replace their leadership.
The Democrats have lost so much, a reality based analysis would conclude that the Democratic leadership are secret Republicans. Look beyond the labels and realize that both party leaderships work for their common corporate donors. Whether you vote Republican or Republican-lite you get corporate rule.
Given what Trump and the Republicans are doing, anything other than landslide wins of the House and Senate must be considered another Democratic loss and trigger drastic change.
Instead, we all know what will happen - the Democrats will set their bar so low a tepid win of the House will continue their deadly denial into 2020.
1
@AJ AJ correctly diagnosed what is wrong with Dem politicians, strategists, talking heads, voters and, frankly, progressives. One must note that folks on the left of the GOP have always behaved as if they were hapless political dilettantes. Outwardly, they express passion for worthwhile issues and policies. But, strategically, they lack the zeal for doing what it takes to get their issues enacted: argue cogently for their issues and then vote passionately. A defense lawyer accused the GOP at the Clinton impeachment trial in the Senate of always wanting “to win too much.” A sober look at that remark shows that the GOP - from its politicians, activists, evangelicals to Justices of the Supreme Court – will do whatever it takes to win. (Examples: the “X File” and South Vietnam’s refusal to join the 1968 Paris Peace Talks; Iran’s release of US hostages minutes after Reagan’s inauguration and later US sale of arms to Iran; the widespread GOP gerrymandering activity; voter suppression laws in many GOP-ruled states; evangelicals choosing their political issues over religious ones; the 2000 Court ruling in Bush v. Gore, which some of the affirming justices have since regretted; the GOP’s different treatment of Chief Judge Garland and Associate Judge Kavanaugh of the same court; and legendary activities of Segretti, Atwater, Rove, Stone, Bosse, etc.) Too many progressives, at election time, forget that voting results have consequences. Against dilettantism, the GOP wins!
1
As I have stated several times previously, you need a graduate degree in lying to be a member of the GOP. We have more than enough proof going back for decades, we see that it has a hard core of "True Believers," read Eric Hoffer's book.
We do not even have to ask why they do it, the GOP has found how to infect the minds of a certain segment of the public that wants to be lied to, to be told what they would like to hear, to be assured their bigotry and ignorance is vindicated. Republican minds have concocted excuses for their treatment and dislike of minorities by making up repulsive tales about them, to justify their treatment of them.
This is how they justify their hatred of the ACA, creating specious criticisms, it satisfies their own hatred of themselves. There is a basic human need to think well of ones self, to believe you are a good person, to avoid believing you are basically worthless, the basis of self esteem. So they invent spurious contrived reasons for their opposition to programs that benefit others, that make life easier and more enjoyable.
These kinds of people do not like seeing others happy when they themselves are emotionally miserable. You have seen me comment on the makeup of personality here frequently, I look at human behavior from an introspective view. We all do, so just consider how a Republican looks at human behavior. They have left you all the information you need to examine their motives, it is not a pretty view.
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David,
“Puritanism: The haunting fear that someone, somewhere... may be happy.”
- H.L. Mencken
Grand Old Puritanism 2018
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@David Underwood
This is also an attack on reason and critical thinking, it is meant to get you to doubt your own senses and perceptions, to give these Republicans the power to shape your own thinking.
It is what demagogues have always done, make you doubt your own mind, and you are in their power. They can find just enough ambiguities int he ACA act to create doubt as to its veracity, what it is supposed to do, and what kind of conflict they can create in your mind.
Let them do so and you are in their sphere of influence. We all know people who say they like Dishonest Donald the Mad, ignoring just about every despicable thing about him. Their minds have been brought to decay by his and the GOP's tactics, you are no longer an independent thinker, you are that same collectivist they claim to be saving you from. As Dr. K says, up is down,right is wrong, slavish following is independence.
How nice to be a Republican, you can solve the worlds problems,or so they say, just raise your hands in the air and say" I am saved," and pray to the great god, geed and avarice, and you will be saved.
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@David Underwood I've read Fromm's book "Escape from Freedom," which from 1941 describes dangers of creeping authoritarian/ fascism astoundingly similar to our times. He describes the mentality like in the "True Believers." I'm a semi-retired psychologist and agree with your points, although I would also more explicitly include the group that fosters delusional thinking among those believers--the ultra-rich who certainly know better, through their stooges in politics and the advertising industry. You know the trend of income distribution, enough money now going to people who can buy just about anything, including truth.
Sadly, Trump will win 2020
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Not if Americans wake up and get off their butts and their iPhones and vote, Mixilplix.
Democracy is possible, even in this rigged Russian-Republican oligarchic state.
America is much better than a nationwide version of the wretched Trump University.
"it's always darkest before the dawn"
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Not likely after he runs the economy into the ground.
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@Joel Stegner
Are you relying on Krugman's economic predictions? He did predict that the stock market would collapse upon Trump's election.
Mr. Krugman, your observation of a shift from "spin" to blatant lies is absolutely correct and astute. I'm so glad to see this oped, because media everywhere need to start coming down hard on political lying. Democracy cannot exist in a system infested with political lies. What good is people voting if they have been misled about the issues and who stands for what? The truth does indeed make us free, but if so, then lies imprison us. Some people castigate those of us who see that the Trump government is going in the direction of Nazi Germany, or of Orwell's famous novel, 1984. To them, there has to be a Holocaust for there to be Nazism. But the big issues have always been, how did Germany get there? How did a man like Hitler and the Nazi ideology gain power? By what means, what gradual transitions, did they maneuver the German people to accept extreme cruelty to their follow human beings? It was through lies — and, as in Orwell's 1984, by turning the truth literally upside-down. Hitler said a Big Lie would be believed before a small lie. And the really big lies are the complete opposite of the truth. This was perhaps THE major technique — that enabled Hitler to manipulate people to perpetrate crimes against their neighbors. Lying ought to be severely castigated in the media.
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@Anne Sherrod Very apt and accurate. In Mein Kampf, Hitler coined the term Big Lie in admiration of it's effectiveness. Perhaps Oscar Wilde satirized it best with the following quip: “As for believing things, I can believe anything, provided that it is quite incredible.”
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@Anne Sherrod the average person should be capable of discerning what lies are being told and of critical thinking. That they don't is because it's not taught in schools or colleges. If it was we wouldn't have so many intelligent, highly educated people believing the lies the GOP tells on a daily basis.
The reason republicans get away with it is because their base are racists. I have never met a racist that is not a stupid person.
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