I have a neighbor who last year put a Trump placard on his lawn on a block where political posters are never displayed, a sure sign that it's liberal.
Maybe it's my Chinese DNA but I've been polite and civil towards him. It's easy to write him off as an angry white guy who sees Trump as his revenge, even though he's a high income professional and doesn't seem as if he's experienced much economic insecurity -- judging from his ostentatious display of Tesla and Range Rover and a home that dwarfs everyone else in the neighborhood. He says the tax cuts paid for the cars.
He also owns guns, a lot of them, which he mentions whenever I encounter him.
As Trump has slithered further into the slime, my neighbor (five house down, luckily) has become more belligerent and obnoxious, like Trump, spouting Fox fake news. He targets me because my other neighbors avoid him. I made the mistake of engaging him on gun control before I learned he was a gun nut. He complimented me on my English saying most Chinese, even the engineers he works with, are barely comprehensible.
I saw him yesterday taking out the garbage. I said it was garbage day for the country and Trump was halfway in the bin. Your guy is officially a crook I said fully expecting him to take a swing at me. Instead he looked wounded and didn't reply.
I made a placard that said Mueller For President and planted it on my lawn. This morning two houses had Hillary placards up, opposite the mega mansion.
The worm turns.
118
It's so disheartening watching the Democrats flounder around in the face of a situation as desperate as the Trump presidency. There are a thousand things they could do to boost voter turnout and I see very little being done.
If you are staunchly determined to do everything you can to give Democrats one or both houses in Congress, simply do this:-
Commit today that you will persuade ten people every day from now on to vote Democrat in November and each one to commit to persuading ten more people themselves each day until the election, and on and on, exponentially.
Do the maths on that and man! that will blow your mind!
If one person did that successfully, you would have 100,000,000 people committed to vote Democrat in November in 8 days! That's just staggering.
Say that you will put in $10 if everyone else does towards having a big party on the night of the election to celebrate or commiserate accordingly. Imagine the pool. Big bucks!
You will make heaps of new friends (to more than make up for any you lose - and would you care?) and you will have an enormous sense of achievement.
And say you recruit one person a week and you get them to recruit one person a week. Do the math. The impact that would have on American democracy would be awe-inspiring.
The point is - SOMEBODY NEEDS TO DO SOMETHING!
How many people read The New York Times to ensure they are cutting edge when it comes to being able to destroy any Trump supporter? Get one other person to vote! He's DONE!
19
when tax cuts are on the table their proponents tend to deny that they’ll increase the deficit, claiming that they’ll provide a miraculous boost to the economy....
When are Republicans going to quit using the proven fake idea that supply side economic works. Reagan economic advisor David Stockman now admits it's reckless and immoral.
https://www.businessinsider.com/david-stockman-hank-paulson-reaganomics-...
All it's accomplished is to take us back to the Gilded Age with horrendous income inequity. The richest 1 percent bagged 82 percent of wealth created last year - poorest half of humanity got nothing.
*https://www.oxfam.org/en/pressroom/pressreleases/2018-01-22/richest-1-pe...
End the insanity. Vote this November for candidates who believe in facts.
18
Unless they are rich, old people who support the Republicans are boneheads.
26
Why not just hand over the social security and medicare trust funds over the Kochs, the Mercers, the DeVos' and their ilk for safekeeping and be done with it.
8
Grover Norquist founded Americans for Tax Reform (ATR) in 1985, a conservative advocacy group dedicated to “oppose all tax increases as a matter of principle” with the stated goal, according to Norquist, of reducing “government to the size where we can drown it in a bathtub.” In furtherance of this goal, ATR requires that any politician who seeks its support sign a pledge to “oppose and vote against any and all efforts to increase taxes.” The overwhelming majority of Republican politicians have signed this pledge since it was instituted 1986, and Democrats have refused to make this pledge a campaign issue.
The failure of Democrats to make this pledge a campaign issue has made it possible for Republicans to argue that Americans are overtaxed. This argument has stood essentially unchallenged at the center of the American political zeitgeist for well over thirty years, and the extent to which politicians have come to embrace it is truly amazing. This is particularly so when you stop and think about what Norquist is saying when he says he wants to drown the government in a bathtub. He’s saying that he wants to destroy the American government. The idea that we can save the country by destroying the government is utterly absurd on its face. And, yet, Norquist and his conservative friends, with the acquiescence of Democrats who refuse to make this pledge a campaign issue, are well on their way to accomplishing this end…. (Cont:. http://www.rweconomics.com/htm/OLPC.htm )
22
How in the world can anyone claim anyone in DC is starving the beast? We bring in more money almost every year and spend more money EVERY year. Simple google search of federal tax revenues...
1960: $93 Billion
1970: $193 Bln
1980: $517 Bln
1990: $1.03 Trillion
2000: $2.03 Trl
2013: $2.77 Trl
2014: $3.02 Trl
2017: $3.32 Trl
2019 (F): $3.42 Trl
8
Democrats candidates, pl keep in mind the main themes are Obamacare, SS checks and Medicare. Immigration is a double edge issue.
13
As Abraham Lincoln and P.T. Barnum said...
5
And the stock market was supposed to crash after Trump was elected.Thank you for your incredible insight Mr. Nobel Prize winner.
6
Maybe those coal miners in West Virginia will have enough sense to wake up one morning in a couple of years and realize they still don't have their jobs back. Same for those uneducated white males in the rust belt. Their election of Trump was their protest. It is like saying I don't like my house, so I am going to burn it down. Guess what deplorables, now you don't have anything.
12
"What will happen if the blue wave in the midterm elections falls short? ...[if] rural, white voters who still have faith in President Trump....prevail.? ...the unindicted co-conspirator in chief will continue to be protected from the law."
Like a Don Trumpioni (see The Times on his role models) protected by his groupies and their culture--ranking the mafioso above the law--a superlaw.
One part of the law--the ballot box--protects an obvious criminal from another part--the justice system.
Majority rule (votes or electoral college votes--it doesn't matter) without rule of law is not good government--including constitutional law--demarcating separation of powers due processes etc. Bureaucracy really, instead of democracy as majority tyranny.
It's like "jury nullification": a guilty defendant is found "not guilty" because the jury doesn't like the law or
because it's corrupted somehow--bribed, threatened or deluded.
The delusion may be due to centuries of god story indoctrination, normalizing mythology as overriding reality.
It's not just religion vs science. It's faith based belief overriding evidence and logic--which governs all academia. Nor is it limited to god stories and politics. We get overdosed by hyperbole (truthful or not) and fraud in advertising of all sorts.
Rule of law depends on proof and evidence law; so does reality itself. They all get trampled by harmful fiction.
7
How does this keep happening?
For 40 years the Republicans have defined the Democrats brand from tax and spend liberals to Nancy Pelosi worshippers. Unfortunately many people vote by brand and not performance.
It's time the Democrats fight back.
It's the economy stupid!
Republicans are rigging the economy for the rich and against average Americans.
Republicans voted against affordable healthcare insurance and for high premiums, high deductibles, low maximums and no preconditions. Republicans are rigging the healthcare economy against average Americans.
Republicans voted to eliminate regulations that were put in place after the bankers crashed the economy but made billions for themselves. Republicans are rigging the banking and investment economy against average Americans.
Republicans voted to lower taxes for corporations and the rich and give the rest of us a trillion dollars of debt. Republicans are rigging the tax economy against average Americans.
If the Democrats can't form a positive message to counter the Republican assault on the American people they don't deserve my vote.
18
Re: "The puzzle is why Republicans keep getting away with this bait-and-switch."
There is no mystery about this. It's because Democrats refuse to make a campaign issue of it. When is the last time you heard a Democrat in campaign add tell the voters that they have a choice between raising taxes or cutting Social Security, Medicare, education, police and fire protection, road and bridge, repair, etc., etc.
You don't hear them campaign in this way. Instead they pretend they can provide these kinds of government services without raising taxes which reinforces the Republican propaganda on this issue. See: http://www.rweconomics.com/Deficit.htm
7
With his doctrinaire ideology, Krugman is valiantly fighting the Republicans. But, why shouldn't we examine Social Security and the government debt from an ethical point of view?
For many, taking into account the incidence of Social Security taxes, it is a bad deal, especially for those with lower life expectancy, paying in during their working lives, but collecting less.
So how do the rulers get the losers to consent? They don't! They take their money without consent and give vague promises. And, at their whim, they raise the retirement age, double crossing the masses, while avoiding calling it "default."
Predictably, things are very different when it comes to the moneyed class who voluntarily loan money to the government. Any suspension of interest payments, or "haircut," they proclaim unacceptable "default."
Since the government victimizes innocent people, it is illegitimate. We are ethically warranted in preventing those who give aid and comfort to government from benefiting from their evil behavior, preventing them from collecting any interest or principal payments. Furthermore, we are justified in applying the correct penalties commensurate with their evil behavior.
Krugman's milquetoast critique of Republicans is unappetizing bland. Rehashing his own views from two decades ago shows his competence, but hardly shows any personal progress.
4
Difficult to think it is as easy as lumping all good and all evil into one basket especially when one considers both Democrats and Republicans are rather equally sharing the spoils, emanating from any industry which is affected by our so called legislative process.
They are all up to their ears in muddied money which is why none of them is voicing a peep about the tax cuts.
Representative democracy? My foot.
2
Thank you, Dr Krugman, for this wake-up call to all of us. Vote in November, and if you prefer sanity in your daily news, vote Democratic. Your future may hinge on how the November elections turn out - so please, Turn Out!
9
The "GOP's true intentions" are simply to eviscerate our social and economic protection programs by bankrupting the government. Since the constitution, for now, prevents conservatives from walling off people of certain backgrounds from benefits, they're willing to see them deprived by a government that will be too financially crippled to provide.
Conservatives denigrate the government simply because its protections happen to include people they detest. They harbor a fantasy that when the money runs out, the black and brown people will for all intents and purposes disappear.
3
GOP to-do list, 37 years, and counting:
1. Gift billions to millionaires and billionaires.
2. Bestow trillions in debt on working Americans.
3. Assure suffering workers that they have been saved.
4. Lose power.
5. Blame Democrats for betraying workers.
6. Win back power.
7. Go back to 1. and start again.
12
The party of fake christianity and family values will cut Social Security, Medicare, Medicaid and Obamacare if they stay in power since they could care less about most Americans. They only care about staying in power and fleecing the taxpayers behind our backs. They can't even summon the energy to keep our democratic elections secure.
16
People, Dr. Krugman is not Chicken Little. During my 70 years as a sentient adult, I've seen this GOP strategy played out over and over again. It rarely works, but it's always overtly and unapologetically there.
The GOP always seeks the moral high ground as a cover story for their real intentions. Remember "The Moral Majority"? How about "Family Values"? Does anyone remember the "welfare queen" in her "Cadillac"?
Beneath all that schlock has always been the GOP agenda: cut taxes (especially for the wealthy), build up a world-beating military, and turn the safety nets into sieves.
Slash enough social programs and you can cut almost all the taxes you want. Slash enough social programs and you can build up a military capable of taking on the entire world at once.
Those "ideas" are feasible because we ARE the richest nation on Earth, by far.
But what kind of nation do we want to be? Do we want to embrace those GOP visions, or do we want to care for our old, our poor, our disadvantaged children, our disabled? Do we want to build walls to hide behind, or the walls of schools, hospitals and decent retirement homes?
In November, you pass judgment on a collection of decent, dedicated people, or common grifters and frauds.
Know the difference, because In November, your vote is the LAW!
23
Good thing you have that 15 year old article to link to today. Too bad no one seems to have read it and so few will read today's.
As the thousandth or so person to comment on today's message, I feel lost in the mass of human understanding.
I'm near the middle of N.N. Taleb's Skin In The Game, where he refuses to imagine that having markers for suffering, the 6 Trump bankruptcies for his example, seems to have made Trump somehow better at governing than a person who wants to do the right thing for the people.
He's a really smart guy, but gosh, don't those of us who put in our time and paid into social security deserve a leadership that honors their obligations rather than one who is out merely for his own survival and aggrandizement?
4
Since we can find the money to fund wars and provide tax breaks to the wealthy and corporate America then fixing Medicare and Social Security should be much easier. The old adage you can have anything you want but not everything you want applies. Balancing competing interests lies at the heart of finding the common good. The art of governing requires finding right mix of solutions. Or you could to the really important things, fire the House Chaplain.
3
And let's not forget that Alexander Hamilton , a founding father and first secretary of the treasury and right hand man for George Washington, advocated taxes in order to fund the central government. If Hamilton could spin in his grave a tornado would be created.
6
@Robert Haberman: The meaning of the word "federalism" has been dyslexified since Hamilton was a federalist.
2
If the thieves in Congress cut Social Security and Medicare even the Republican base will be up in arms when they wake up to what is happening. Perhaps the Republican politicians should be reminded that much of America is packing heat and can be pushed just so far.
5
@Carole A. Dunn
Unfortunatly trump and republicans will blame Hillary or Obama and his followers will believe it as they are lost and probalby never coming back to facts and reality.
3
We'll see just how far Republican voters are willing to support their tribe when the tribe votes to cast the elderly among them overboard. Just a wild guess -- that's when they draw their line in the sand (or in the boat). Medicare and Social Security are perceived as white programs earned by years of working, unlike Medicaid and food stamps. I don't see Republican seniors going quietly into the night, no matter what Fox tells them to think.
3
The truth of this was brought home to me this week when I was reading our company's Washington lobbyist's report which is circulated to all employees. In it, he says that if Democrats become the majority in Congress they might reverse the tax cut, which supposedly would cause or hasten a recession. He points out that the tax cuts have caused huge deficits that might become a problem if Congress does not cut spending. So this is clearly how Republicans are thinking - don't reimpose taxes on the rich and corporations (which never resulted in a recession during the Obama administration), just cut "spending" (read: social programs).
9
I’m sick and tired of people asking “why do they vote against their own self interest?” as if maintaining racism as an institution isn’t a self interest or these voters’ primary electoral motivation.
117
there are a lot of one issue voters who don't much consider anything besides their pet concern.
Republicans knows this, and harp for years and decades about not just cutting the "onerous tax burden", but -
abortion!
illegal immigration!
crushing regulations!
guns!
integration!
welfare!
school prayer!
war on Christmas!
zoning and redistructing!
massive voter fraud!
scientific hoax!
threat of foreign terrorism!
government takeover!
Socialsm!
Feminism!
Communism!
their platform is a Chinese menu of hatereds and fears and they don't even have to make sense; they're playing a numbers game, hoping to scape up enough cranks and misanthropes to achieve a critical mass of voters, aided and abetted by their well honed voter supression programs.
6
@Liz These white racists (I am white) need to keep in mind that in another 20 years or so, whites will become the minority in this country. Often what goes around comes around, so just beware.
3
The critical dynamic here—re: “why Republicans keep getting away with this bait-and-switch"—is that marketing buys votes of those who can’t understand the problem, but love the atmospherics of targeted political marketing, which is scientifically gauged to miroaudiences who have been glad to not have to get too much education.
The more education one has, the less vulnerable to targeted marketing one is. So, privatize education, defund the teaching profession, etc., etc., and you maintain a constituency. T
Tax cuts just bolster freedom to market intensely to unwitting voters in the upcoming election.
It’s like drug ads for high-risk, high cost drugs on TV: Happy people go about leisure-filled days, framed by zippy music while a fast-talking, low-volume voice recounts the deathly risks that only a medical specialist can appreciate. So, “talk to your doctor.” Vote for the pleasure of simple "truths".
2
To reach even the most diehard republican, Democrats must stay on message: Healthcare, Medicare, Social Security,separated mothers and their children and a living wage.
We can't be distracted by the daily nonsense that is trump. He deflects while the congress passes legislation that hits the middle class in the gut. The congress plays a shell game while we listen to the constant barrage of treasonous activity committed by trump and his minions.
We must vote blue. We must gain control of the house and senate.
8
The Republican party has for a long time been the party of the rich and greedy. Their goal has been to minimize the role of government, pensions, and unions. Whey? To shift money from the less well off Americans to the already hugely wealthy Americans. Their money keeps Republicans in power. While there are perhaps some who actually believe that providing less makes the lower classes work harder and strive more, how this applies to the disabled or aged is highly debatable.
2
"... the attack on the social safety net probably wouldn’t stop with a rollback of Obama-era expansion: Longstanding programs, very much including Social Security and Medicare, would also be on the chopping block. Who says so? Republicans themselves."
What I would like to know how would cutting back on entitlements, aka "the social safety net," would help reduce the budget deficit.
My understanding of how Social Security and Medicare are paid for is that there is the so called Payroll Tax. this tax is used to pay for Social Security and Medicare without any funds from the income tax, which pays for all the other bill the federal government makes. And I also understand the Social Security and Medicare trust funds are the results of the Congress borrowing money from the Social Security and Medicare funds that are not spent every year.
So, if the Congress cannot spend the Payroll tax without reimbursement, how will cutting back on these programs reduce the deficit? Please, please, someone explain this to me and the public.
It obviously was a mistake for Social Security and Medicare to be included in the budget. They were better off budget. Being off budget, they could not be accused, falsely, of being the reason for budget deficits.
Just in case all of you have forgotten. The one trillion dollar plus budget deficit was caused by the tax reduction just passed by the Congress.
3
"In a recent interview with CNBC’s John Harwood, Representative Steve Stivers, the chairman of the National Republican Congressional Committee — in effect, the man charged with containing the blue wave — declared that, given the size of the budget deficit, the federal government needs to save money by cutting spending on social programs. When pressed about whether that included Social Security and Medicare, he admitted that it did."
Now that non-expiring tax cuts have been secured for the 1%, the pain for the 99% will be doubled, with the cuts to Social Security and Medicare AND the expiration of the tax cuts on December 31th, 2025. Combine that with the repeal (NOTHING DONE TO REPLACE) the ACA.
There is already an increase in the number of people over 65 declaring bankruptcy. It does not take a PhD in economics to see that this situation is about to get dramatically worse.
2
The widening gap between rich and poor, together with fundamental changes in our 21st-century economy and failure to address global warming may undermine our competitiveness in the world.
The greed and manipulative activities of our wealthiest citizens, politicians, and corporations are in direct conflict with the best interests of the majority of Americans. As more Americans slip out of the middle class and find themselves without healthcare or enough income to feed and house their families, we will lose ground to those countries that strive to make the lives of all of their citizens better.
What will it take to create a national movement to reverse these destructive trends?
3
@Randomonium, Reagan's dumbest move was abandonment of Metric Conversion. No single nation can go it alone with its own unique measuring units in a small world like this.
I went from selling semiconductor processing equipment to selling empty factories during the Reagan heyday.
3
Republican leaders: We'll keep America as white as possible.
Republican voters: OK, do what you want with the economy.
3
Liberals liberate, conservatives conserve, and presidents preside. I don't want to be where Trump presides.
1
Democrats need better messaging. The message should be that Republicans by cutting taxes and for the rich and Social Security for everyone else are redistributing wealth from the Middle and working class to the very rich. As this is exactly what is happening, Republicans want to use the savings of the of most Americans contained in the Social Security Trust fund by instead of returning those savings as promised using them to offset huge tax cuts for billionaires.
1
Social security is not about saving. It is an intergenerational Ponzi scheme. Current and past retirees receive a good amount molre than they paid in. TYhe next generation not so much.
2
@Jack P
Social Security is the most popular and successful Government program in human history. It has about a 5 year "bubble" due to high number of baby boomers retiring at the same time but is otherwise sound into perpetuity. That said, I will leave to Professor Krugman why Republicans must demagogue a successful program that is paid for by the working class for the working class.
2
Why do Republicans keep getting away with this bait and switch ? Because they keep getting elected due to gerrymandering but mainly because they believe what they see of Fox News and hear from Limbaugh.
The Republican party orthodoxy has been implanted in the mind of the nation's children from the day they were born, it is their religion. Critical questions and skeptical thinking are out.
1
@R. Littlejohn: Having children pledge allegiance to a nation "under God" is a subtle way to reinforce passivity and helplessness in people trained to believe themselves predestined by fickle forces beyond their control.
3
I have recited the pledge so many times during school many years ago that even then I remember thinking the words became meaningless.
1
I think that the popular conversation over economic policies is all fanciful without any effort by most to be serious.
It's interesting to consider what is fair about tax policies, economic inequities, the role of government, and the like. However, public policies necessarily dictate what is relevant in consideration of useful ones.
Taxes are the means to enable government to serve the needs of the people living in polity. A modern state in which great numbers of people must be able to live safely and prosperously requires a lot of government and high taxes. A primitive state with few people requires little government and low taxes. A big modern state with low taxes will have to not serve all the needs of the citizens to exist and will only serve needs of some.
In the 1950's taxes were much higher and so was economic expansion, and that was fine. But a strange thing happened thirty years later, taxes were lower and still asserted to be too high while economic expansion was much less. The cutting of taxes has not accelerated expansion. It does create deficits and public debt. Capital is necessary but insufficient to enable economic expansion.
We might reduce government deficits and public debt by eliminating Social Security, Medicare, and pensions for public employees. But will the costs to our economy also disappear? Will they be less, the same, or more? Nobody asks such questions. If the people served do not need what these provide, then all that money will be freed.
1
Veterans and seniors must finally learn to accept Republican personal responsibility for their health care instead of relying on the economic evils of socialism free stuff and government handouts. We need more tax cuts for job creators and productive Americans. There are too many cradle to grave entitlement thinkers who believe they paid taxes therefore "entitled" to government handouts. Veterans health care, social security and medicare are another piggy bank "ripe" for the taking to pay for more job creating tax cuts. Greed is actually great and is key to help make the motherland great again.
2
satire, correct?
1
We do not have one person, one vote and so a minority will be able to fool enough of the people to retain power and actually hurt those who voted for them.
@Dart1305 Americans don't seem to have any real grasp of how few people can change the outcome of a scheme as fundamentally flawed as the Electoral College, which arguably discards the majority of votes cast in every US presidential election. But mathematicians like Robert Mercer seem to know all about it.
2
What I can't understand is why the Democrats in office don't seem to be able to communicate these utter fallacies to the public and convincingly bring to the fore these vexing issues. They'll go out and talk a lot about doing things for families, protecting healthcare, and talking about the economy, but as presidential hopeful Avenatti points out so vividly, no one in the Democratic Party seems able to get down in the dirt and fight these ideological battles with the same intensity and viciousness that they deserve.
Just an example would be Trump's daily lies and falsehoods. Instead of farming out these outrages to the TV/cable networks to sort through and try and explicate, each and every Democrat in office with access to the press should be spending a good portion of their day counteracting these fictitious and ever convoluted narratives and correcting the record and fighting these disastrous policy initiatives tooth and nail.
We need a new class of uber-intelligent political attack dogs, Fox News Fact Correctors, and a whole host of articulate spokespeople out everyday whittling away against this constant barrage of garbage and hypocrisy being spun from all these cable news programs and the Republican propaganda machinery.
There seems to be a disconnect with the reality and urgency of these problems and a meek old-fashioned sobriety that is always on display. My preference would be taking a Howitzer to the gun fight.
Democrats need to up their game bigly.
6
@Harrison: The Democrats don't do talent scouting and development. The Republicans make an economy of it.
2
To me, it should be a simple argument: The Republicans borrowed YOUR money (increasing the deficit), then gave you back a small portion of it, giving the rest to the wealthy and to corporations. But YOU are going to have to pay most of it back. It's as if a friend took you to your bank where you took out a loan and gave him the money, then he gave some of it back to you saying, "There, now don't you feel richer with that extra money in your pocket?" And maybe you do, until the installment payments start coming due.
6
@Elliott
Almost half of the population pays 0% federal income taxes. (some are even negative - meaning they get paid).
I reside where Trump presides and the Congress runs and hides from the unregulated militia it abides.
They call it the land of the free and home of the brave, but one can adjust to the misrepresentations with experience.
1
The aging of the American populace demands a strong safety net. The GOP is oblivious to the needy in the United States. It is the wealthy white GOP against the liberal needs of the majority of our voters. Conservatism is an idea that must wither and die.
3
Expropriating the wealthy's riches may be a worthy goal, but it won't begin to fund the promised safety net.
I paid into SS and Medicare for years. If my paid for benefits are impacted, I will fight it out in the courts along with everyone else that would be injured.
117
@Time2play - Good luck with that - the courts are being stacked by the GOP, and their judges will rubber stamp Social Security cuts just like they ignore the obvious criminality of gerrymandering and voter suppression.
3
@Time2play: Perception of reality depends on which judge you draw in the US. Many have beliefs they hold to be sincere that don't necessarily comport with establishments of science.
1
@Kevin: And the worst of the worst have been hand picked to turn a blind eye to the existence and all violations of the strict constitutional dictate "Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion". People who don't get that shouldn't be on any bench judging anyone.
Excuse me, Mr. Krugman, but we’re’t you the guy who predicted that the economy would crash and never recover after President Trump was elected? Why would i ever listen to a word you say again?
8
@William
Why should you listen to Professor Krugman?
Because when Professor Krugman makes an error, he acknowledges it honestly. He did have a column on his error in prediction. He listed the assumptions he made that led him to a wrong conclusion. He apologized for his error.
If you would rather listen to unapologetic Fox lies, fee free to fill your head with propaganda instead of reasoned examination and assessment of facts, and honest conclusions.
2
Seems the main theme of Trump voters, other than the blind Social Conservative ideologists and self-interested money class, is self-annihilation. Maybe there's no way out of this until that cohort literally disappears. They clearly can't discern their own self interests and are in thrall to a charlatan who is hastening their own demise.
But then what?
It seems quite grim in both the short and longer term. Once the majority middle-class disappears a winner-take-all , survival of the fittest, society seems almost inevitable. That augers for a true caste society in America. (In some ways I think many angry Trumpists sense this but just can't get past their prejudices to connect the dots properly.)
Hope that desperately bleak prediction is dead wrong.
3
@Allen Keeling, Trump seems to have collected everyone in the US who believes the millennium hasn't rolled over yet because scientists miscalculated the calendar.
3
I’m a strong supporter of MEDICARE and SOCIAL SECURITY. However how does one explain the ridiculous FICA social Security taxable income cap set at $128,400. Whether you make $128,400 or $128 million, you pay the same amount of Social Security tax. It defies reason !!
11
@Ken O, It was structured this way to be sold as a pension plan where the benefits are scaled to the contributions of the participants. Since the maximum benefit is capped, the maximum contribution is capped as well. This is what makes it an "entitlement".
4
@Ken O
The payouts for Social Security are capped, just as the tax is. Now, what you receive from SS is increased using the CPI, while the cap for the taxable income uses the National Average Wages.
2
"...the U.S. electoral system gives excess weight to rural, white voters who still have faith in President Trump." Krugman, have you not heard of Majority Rule in America?
1
@Nreb, That is the rub. Why should it matter where one resides in the US when voting for its only elected national officer?
3
@Nreb
We do not have a democracy = Majority Rule = MOB rule.
We have a representative republic. Thank God so that a simple 50.1% could lord over 49.9%.
They keep getting away with it because after each financial collapse during Republican administrations, the Democratic ones bail them out.
3
@Alan J. Shaw, When they take over and blow it, they say we poisoned it before handing it over.
2
I would expect that Trump's tax cuts would not be good for wage earners because it diminished the relative tax advantage from paying wages. Prior to the tax cuts, in a 35% bracket, if you paid $100.00 in wages, your taxes would drop by $35.00. Now, with a 20% of net profits deduction for non-corporations, the tax savings is $28.00. A business owner was more inclined to increase wages before the Trump tax cuts because paying an additional dollar of wages used to cost 65 cents from the owner's pocket and now it costs 72 cents. The same argument applies to the lower tax rate for corporations from 35% to 21%. I have read that wages are not keeping up with inflation and there is an increased downward pressure from the Trump tax cuts. Not to mention that while non wage top earners are paying less, someone else is going to have to pay the national debt.
2
No Gonna Say, "growth" is supposed to dilute the national debt, the presumption being that there are no limits to growth.
@Steve Bolger , I understand, but where is the data that supports growth as a way out of a $25 trillion national debt? One of Trump's many bankruptcies seems like a more likely option.
Republicans and conservatism will one day be remembered as having been the authors of a great deal of pain and suffering for this nation, if not the actual reason the republic fails, if it ever does. If one takes a long look at their behavior and rhetoric and programs and policies from 1968 until the present day, it is clear that all of our ills - from social division to massive deficits and natl debt, to endless warfare and a near police state - all stem from the same well of political malevolence. They say the same thing about the left, but then they also say so many other things that are projections meant to fool the easily fooled. Like they are the fiscally responsible, though they own most of our national debt. Like they are the party of family values, though they elect and worship a trump and seem to constantly be under indictment for all manner of bad acts. That they are the party of national security, though they would leave our forces in perennial endless quagmire, though they increase military budgets only for the contractors and pay private forces ten times as much as our military men and women. And on, and on, and on...
2
Paul,
I think you identified a core reason that socialist democrats are on the rise and their agenda is more popular than ever - it is the only way that equity will be given back (eventually) to the majority of the American people. Continuing down the path we are on will only exacerbate what we already see and for the VAST majority that is a dead-end.
1
@ZigZag
The USA was not built on the promise of "equity" but on the promise of life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness.
Yes, the goal clearly is to reduce/eliminate Social Security and social programs. That is why it is vital to vote Nov. 6.
1
It’s really very simple. The voters who are fooled by promises that tax cuts will miraculously transform the economy, then get told that “entitlements” will have to get cut to reduce the deficit are fooled because they want to be fooled. They want to believe that cutting taxes for the wealthy will generate fabulous growth. This story appeals to people who believe in a hierarchical society in which the top rung is occupied by the very wealthy who deserve to be there because they are wealthy. The true believers don’t need to get a big bite of the tax cut immediately because they believe that with merit they will earn a big slice of the trickle-down money and rise a few rungs themselves. This outlook fortifies a connection between wealth (power, genuine liberty) and merit in a way that reinforces the existing social arrangement while offering the individual true believer the promise of personal social mobility. They are fooled each time the same way people who are promised the end of the world or the return of Jesus are fooled. They want to believe so badly that all it takes is a messenger to get them to try again.
4
Can't fault Krugman on economic arguments, and enjoy the articles, but complaints about the electoral college, as popular as they may be, are misplaced at best. Those of us in flyover states without this system would be just that, flyover citizens. The horrible consequences of the 2016 election are a symptom of a cultural problem, not the cause. And answer to the problem is not to blame the electoral system. That's a simple answer.
I can't explain why my neighbors in Iowa see the current world on a separate channel than I do. Maybe the decline of middle class, we have always considered ourselves that, in the middle. Maybe there is more desperation here than I have felt. Desperate people look for simple answers, and they sure found the simple answers in Trump.
To blame the electoral college is also a simple answer, it was put in place for a reason, as was the senate. The reason remains.
4
The electoral system didn’t work as designed. The system should have eliminated trump because of how unfit he was to serve office. Millions of votes are meaningless. States that attract the most educated among us end up on the losing end when it matters most.
1
@Pablo I've lived my whole life in a "flyover" state, and I have no idea what you're talking about. Even when I voted for the person who ultimately won the presidential election, my individual vote didn't matter because the entire state went to someone else. It's disheartening. As a Tennessean, my vote isn't equal to a citizen of Wyoming's, or a citizen of California's, or a citizen of Texas, etc., etc., etc. The only states that matter currently are about a dozen "swing" states (Florida, Ohio, etc.).
Can you explain why some people's votes should be worth more and others less? Why shouldn't it be one voter = one vote? The Electoral College was put in place for reasons that made sense to land-owning white male elitists in the 18th Century, but those reasons have no place in modern America, where people who aren't white, aren't male, and aren't property owners can also vote. I'd love to vote on an equal plane with everyone else in this country. I don't know why you and others who DON'T want to get rid of the Electoral College are afraid to do so.
..............Oh wait, no, I think I *might* know.............
For anyone interested:
https://www.nationalpopularvote.com/sites/default/files/eve-4th-ed-ch-9-...
1
At some point SSN and Medicare will have to be dealt with simply because the math has changed. We no longer have the multiple workers per retiree that we had when the program started. We live much longer.
4
@CHM But, in many parts of the world we are procreating without any adjustment for reduced mortality rates and longer lifespans, and everyone wants to live a life that consumes tens of kilowatt hours per day of energy per person.
Neither party is going to touch Social Security or Medicare, but how they would improve healthcare in America is anybody’s guess. We look forward to hearing more.
My elderly mother, who never paid much attention to politics, is suddenly engaged after I informed her that the Republicans will take away Social Security and Medicare if they win the 2018 midterms.
As much as I hate to scare my mother like this, it's true, and the Democrats would be wise to run on this issue alone. (And add the A.C.A. to the list.)
8
@L
Who in the world is taking anything away from your mother??? Blatant lie.
If anything changes, every politician says it is only for younger workers.
1
I think part of the problem is that a lot of the members of the national news media are part of the higher income people that the Republican Agenda serves. As print news media has declined, the middle class reporter for the local newspaper has largely disappeared, and his voice has been muted where it still exists.
Replacing him have been better-paid reporters with national audiences.
I don't have any statistics on my hypothesis -- they're probably not kept, as such -- but there has to be a little bit of conflict of interest for someone making even low six figures income in reporting that a tax cut that benefits him is a sham.
And how much of the typical American's news information -- and particularly national news information -- comes through such people -- ?
I have seen some pretty fantastic writing from journalists at small market newspapers -- probably they're qualified to write anywhere, but that was the position they were able to get -- but I suspect their readership is minuscule and they are really struggling financially.
2
@Basho, career development is a matter of collecting the "right" credentials. Access is selective.
1
The Democrats allow Republicans to increase the deficit by cutting taxes. There is no screaming about deficits, even now, from the out of power party. Only the Republicans scream, and not when they have the controls. Democrats have been outmaneuvered for years, whether being gerrymandered out of power, losing judgeships, or losing control of the budget conversation. They have the attention span of a teenager while the Republicans look at the power struggle as a 100 years war, and they are winning.
5
@Greg I have never seen such an enduring and sanctimonious drive to make cheating the raison d'etre.
(That is "reason to live" in French. French and English co-evolved in a competitive relationship.)
1
The Democrats fought against the horrible and stupid tax giveaway. They lost, but certainly have not given in. Even if they win in November, they will not have the strength to force a correction. Therefore it is simply a waste of time to bring it up now. Yes, I agree the Republicans have been playing a long game. But as for the Democrats having lost, that is not correct. It is the people who have lost.
2
On average, a family of 4 with an income of $75K per year will get $2,000 back from the tax cut. Those are middle class families, but Krugman, just like Obama, wants to eliminate the middle class so the wealthy can benefit and the poor can be controlled. Sad what the Democratic Party has become.
4
@Jerry
Source?
I think what you claim is just not so, which makes you either ignorant or dishonest.
The Tax Policy Institute gives savings for the middle quintile of $930 and for the second highest income quintile of $1,810; I think your $75K falls somewhere in there.
And that's for 2018; having learned from George W. Bush's 2001 tax cut that if you game your numbers by having benefits for the wealthy disappear after 10 years, then they might really disappear if you don't control the government at that time, this time the Republicans gamed their numbers by making the benefits for the poor and middle class disappear after 10 years, so in 2027, they basically get no savings at all.
https://www.taxpolicycenter.org/publications/distributional-analysis-con...
1
Is it possible to spread this message to all voters who need to know this? How can this be done? Any creatives out there who can untie this gordian knot? Americans will suffer, even die if repubs can keep this ruse up.
1
The poor are undoubtedly much poorer under trump and the gop.literally. The gop is trampling on them with their feet in the tax bill. Gas prices are up. Consumer prices are up by 3 peecent. Inflation is up by 3 percent. Wages are flat or negative after inflation. Poor and sick people in wheelchairs are made to work, for food stamps and to pay for their medicines. They have no savings and their safety net is being shredded. Houses are unaffordable for them. Rents have kept rising. So have drug prices. They cant afford medical premiums after trump and the gop wrecked obamacare. Many of these poor, getting poorer all the time because of trump and the gop, are trump voters.
3
Actually, Emerson wrote that "a foolish consistency is the hobgoblin of little minds--" not just any or all consistency. Some consistency (such as Democrats' always striving to make life better for the poor and disenfranchised) is quite healthy and admirable.
2
@Andy, a fractal consistency underlies every self-assembled system.
The big donors who fund both parties (see: Grand Bargain/Boehner/Obama) do not NEED Social Security and Medicare, and they bitterly resent having to pay an extra tax on the first $128K (a tiny fraction) of their incomes to cover people who earn far less than that (and who must pay the tax on 100% of their income). That is why "entitlement reform" is the zombie that cannot be killed. These people are compulsive hoarders. No matter how much of the fruits of our labor they seize, it will never be enough for them.
3
@Frank F, Sheldon Adelson has no idea how much of his income derives from retirees playing his one-armed bandits. It is all manna from Heaven to him.
2
@Frank F
Evan with the present lower progressive tax, honest salary income earners beyond $128,000 face 24% or more in marginal income tax. Looks like a wash to me.
1
Read Paul Krugman, then do the opposite.
4
@Leo, If Dr. Krugman errs in economic theory, he's probably over-estimated the thought Republicans have put into it. Trump's lawyers have commented on how little thought he has put into his legal strategies too.
3
Democrats must convince the American people of Republicans' fiscal malfeasance. A personal issue that *everyone* relates to would be good place to start: All Democratic candidates in the midterms should DEMAND that their Republican counterparts DEMAND that Mr. Trump release his last decade of tax returns.
Of course no such tax returns will appear, but the effort should help get potential voters thinking about whose side Republicans really are on.
7
The tax-cut con is just one part of the more general con, which enough Americans seem ignorant and blind enough to fall for, generation after generation:
Manafort and Cohen are only different from the rest of the "business leaders" now infesting our government in that -- after two long years of investigation, resulting in final conviction for what many of us already knew were crimes on January 1st, 2017 -- they got caught. Sort of.
It's an open question as to whether they'll even be "punished," at Club Fed, for a few years.
Fox News is a good part of this, but the people listening to Fox News are ultimately at fault. They don't want democracy. They don't want to pay attention. They want a dictator, deciding their fate for them.
Most businesses run in the same fashion; they are corporate tyrannies, run by people of little imagination with plenty of money to buy the impression they are otherwise, who are mainly great at looting and stealing.
We are a nation of con-men (yes, men, by a huge margin), profiteers, carpetbaggers, liars and criminals, and all this loose change has fallen squarely into the camp of the GOP (while the more elegant criminals look on from the shreds of the old Democratic Party).
It's self-evident to anyone who has eyes and ears, and yet enough millions blind themselves to keep the cowards of the GOP playing see-no/hear-no evil, because it's all to their benefit.
Watergate. Iran-Contra. Bork. Clarence Thomas. The beat goes on.
5
@Steven: Trump is the focal point of several networks of cronies.
1
I'm not saying that I'll abstain from contributing to candidates, but countless times every day we are exhorted to make a donation to this or that candidate, or another unfortunate victim of our heartless health care system who has started a Go Fund Me page to finance a life saving procedure. This pay to play is not only getting tedious, I am running out of money. My income has increasingly eroded during the years of Republican tinkering, and it's getting harder to get blood out of this turnip.
The other side has unlimited funds from their 1% zillionaire owners, and are probably laughing their heads off at how the system they maintain is sending us all closer and faster to the poor houses/work farms that probably exist in their minds as the "perfect solution".
2
@Entera, Entry to the Federalist Society begins at the prep school level.
1
The Trump’s Republican tax cut plan was and is a glorified pyramid scheme lie where most of the benefit goes to the top 1% and the rest of the population gets trickle down promises. Except it will be impossible for them to keep their promises so nothing will trickle down. The Republicans in the richest nation in the world will cut social benefits and safety nets in order to pay for the increased national debt that the tax cut has created. They have tricked a lot of their supporters by stuffing a few extra dollars in their paycheck and ripping a gaping hole in their living expenses and social fabric. They are silent about their former promises of balanced budgets and free trade. The only way out is to vote out and purge the Trump loyalist Republican Conservatives from government in order to get back to a socially responsible government.
Support the Blue Wave. Impeach Trump as soon as possible before he causes catastrophic damage by his incompetence and crookedness.
2
Federal Government Receipts from augmented tariffs will solve the problem.
When the middle of American finally realizes that they keep getting shat upon will they then consider a change. Until that time they keep buying larger umbrellas.
1
@ZigZag, I'm afraid the worse it gets for them, the more they crave company in their misery.
The bottom line is that people are voting along party lines whether or not it is against their self interest. White people are voting Republican because they are voting on white power or rather against perceived loss of white power.
The reality is that the Republican Party's guiding principle is for unfettered/unregulated capitalism which cares for financial returns not for the betterment of society or individual lives!
2
@Thinking California
The best system ever created that has lifter more people out of poverty is CAPITALISM.
If Republicans were serious about the deficit they would have reduced spending first, then cut taxes. Any new tax code would be simplified and close loopholes so that rate reductions would be deficit neutral.
They did none of this.
1
@Susan Watson, Bill Clinton's current account surplus was quickly trashed by his successor, who claimed that running a surplus like that steals the people's money.
1
If there's one thing Americans can always be counted on to believe it's that tax cuts work. They don't. But because it puts money back into their paychecks they think it does. They really ought to ask themselves what is being sacrificed to give them this money or to give a corporation the incentive to locate an office or factory or headquarters in their area. Not all tax cuts are favorable to tax payers.
4
All according to plan. Pass tax cut, starve government. Expect the normal cycle, and by the time the planned train derailment occurs, hope Dems are a majority. Blame them for cutting Grandma's SS and Medicaid....
Count on the Fox echo chamber to convince the gullible the above is true.
4
While I understand why this headline was used for this article, the problem is, I don't think as many people would read it. I almost didn't click on this link. I've heard enough about their greedy grab at tax cuts. But this article is about much more than that. I suggest doing a piece similar to this with a different headline that reflects a message conveying the impact it will have on their lives, or some other shocking headline that will get more people to read. This is really important.
4
"The puzzle is why Republicans keep getting away with this bait-and-switch." Simple answer, lack on knowledge and stupidity. Rural area economies are nearly twice as dependent on Social Security recipients as cities. Disability rates are higher in rural areas than in metro areas and consequently disability payments. Poverty rates are higher in rural areas than in the big cities. Unemployment is higher in rural areas than in metro areas. So safety nets are crucial in rural areas and tax cuts for big corporations and the wealthy have little or no benefit to them. Stupid is as stupid does.
5
I love the comments from the conservatives here - the small-minded, one-track, Kool-Aid drinkers who prove the Professor's point so reliably.
6
If there's one thing Republicans hate, it's America. The GOP, to a person, believes that there is no obligation involved in being an American; no duty towards their fellow citizens. JFK once said, "ask not what your country can do for you — ask what you can do for your country." Republicans ask "what can you do for me?"
7
@Randall, They don't believe in any kind of humane solidarity. They say there is honor among thieves, but in fact they roll from the bottom up.
2
It's a political winner for Dems to campaign on Republicans' alleged threat to SS and Medicare. It's a political loser for Democratic incumbents/leadership and media allies to continue their hysterical (and hilarious) accusations that Trump is a Russian agent AND a criminal to boot. That path won't gain a single uncommitted vote.
Love Paul and NYT readers. Didn't PK warn us that DJT would be apocalyptic to the economy. Didn't PK promise that Obama era 2% growth was the new normal. Flyover country is laughing.
2
@paradiselost, It looks to me that Trump has clean excised your prefrontal lobes. Paradise was lost to venality. I don't believe in Heaven because people would screw it up upon arrival.
2
Okay Mr. Krugman, yes, the likes of Paul Ryan want to cut Medicare and Social Security. But Obama offered to do so back in 2011. Remember?
And Hillary Clinton was certainly talking about turning Social Security into a means tested welfare in Oct 2015; that’s a way of cutting it in the long run, cuts to the welfare part too.
Now which person was talking about strengthening Social Security? Since you weren’t paying attention: Bernie Sanders.
Instead you spent 2015-16 lying about Bernie Sanders and lying about how popular and strong a candidate Hillary Clinton was. These lies helped to elect Trump.
As for the Democrats’ chances in Nov 2018? Well, you could improve them, if you like, by pointing out how stupid the Russia-gate claims are. But I don’t expect you, an Enron defender, do to anything of the sort.
1
I can't muster a lot of sympathy for people that fall for this strategy. If you vote Republican, you are voting for a crass and selfish group of self-serving, power-hungry liars bent on enriching themselves at the expense of every black, Latino and other minority in the USA. Unless you are a white man with a fear of your privilege being revoked, there is no reason to vote for the Republican party ever again.
Amusingly, as I typed this I misspelled Republican and it auto corrected to Reptilian. You know, those animals that crawl around the swamp on their bellies.....
3
Democrats, liberals, and progressives rant and rail over and over about the President and his supporters, how stupid the are , and about how they know whats best for them. If that were true they would have candidates and platforms that win elections, not make excuses.
3
Dems could start running ads predicting the horrific effects of cuts to Social Security and Medicare. How about old people evicted from their homes for non-payment of property taxes or rent, homeless camping in the streets (how about on the lawns of the rich Republicans), people discharged from hospitals prematurely and dying in waiting rooms, bankruptcies due to medical expenses. Fear works well; it has been the playbook of the Reps for decades, even if it is a slimy technique. Appropriate video is available from hurricane Katrina, an example of Republican “starve the beast” strategy.
1
@CathyA, They've been slow-cooking the frogs with this long enough to numb them to further heat.
2
The biggest con man criminal is Paul Ryan in this TAX CON BUSINESS. He is the cruelest shrewd being has been trying to help his donors and his party patrons. In order to enrich the billionaires, he screwed the middle class, the poor and our kids and future generations. I happy that this con man is leaving the House---- good riddance.
10
@ASHRAF CHOWDHURY Paul Ryan is so vapid, he doesn't even see that he is the Wesley Mouche character in Ayn Rand's magnum opus, "Atlas Shrugged".
3
Indeed, part of the genius of the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act of 2017 was that it created a justification to reduce budget deficits by going after entitlement programs. Another benefit that gets little notice is that Republicans can argue that unwinding these tax cuts would crash the economy. Indeed, it probably would cause a recession (which we are due for anyway) which makes it much more difficult for Democrats to do anything but live with massive deficits for the long-term. Fiscal responsibility has been replaced by social re-engineering.
2
@Kevin Callaghan, These faith-based wishful thinkers don't know the first thing about engineering: it won't work if you get the science wrong.
1
"Reform" of the federal income tax system never has and never will work. It's a spongy system, dependent on the definition of "taxable income" for its effectiveness, and susceptible to the influence of people with money to burn in order to "define" taxable income in their favor.
There are two clear and unequivocal steps we could make to remedy this situation, aimed at fixing our tax mess and at getting $$$ out of politics.
First, enact a simple, transparent, flat tax on consumption that protects low- and middle-income taxpayers from the regressive aspects of a consumption tax. This will not only simplify taxes for everyone, but it would dismantle the playground where Congress and tax lobbyists engage in quid pro quo over income tax legislation.
Second, fund all federal election campaigns with public money, ban all private and corporate contributions to campaigns, and formalize a national campaign process that forces candidates to address issues clearly and that prohibits the kind of superficial attack ads that distort candidates' positions (if not outright lying about them).
These two steps would go a long way toward returning power and meaning to the concept of "one-person-one vote".
1
@David Behrman, Everything depends on what the meaning of "is" is.
1
"If the G.O.P. holds its majority, Social Security and Medicare as we know them will be very much in danger."
Ever since FDR the rich have been on the warpath. They want their money back. All of it.
Now get back to work serfs. No dignified retirement for you.
1
You would think that Russian trolls actually learned their strategy from the American Republican party, because it is similar. As far as Democrats (auh, the people) falling short in the 2018 elections, I believe the real battle will be in 2020, whatever happens now. I predict that the Russians will hang back for now, because they know Trump can hang on, and then in 2020, with Trump likely very much on the ropes, they will disrupt the actual election in the big cities by what every hacking they can do, deleting voter rolls there, whatever they are capable of, even changing the vote count if they can. 2020, that is when it is going to happen.
"The puzzle is why Republicans keep getting away with this bait-and-switch."
Paul, you doesn't understand the republican brain. The people who vote republican simply want to have their cake, and eat it too. They want tax cuts and they want Social Security and they want Medicare. And what those clever republican politicians do is never connect the tax cuts with cuts to Social Security or Medicare.
So, what will be interesting is how republicans will sell the cutting of Social Security and Medicare. I will guess they will do it for people not yet receiving either because people are much less likely to complain about benefits they aren't getting at the moment. Still, I expect there will be quite a hue and cry over it, but the hard core Tumpkins won't blink an eye.
To those who want to protect Social Security and Medicare, the prescription is simple:
VOTE OUT ALL REPUBLICANS
6
Dr. Krugman, you write the story of the economic fight that consumes our existence.
The battle is between Capital and Labour, wealthy capitalists and subsistence workers. Whether our national income should flow only toward existing wealth or some paying for basic needs.
Republicans see the fight as a zero-sum battle. Only one side can hold all the money, there is no sharing.
Taxes and wage-setting are the great stymie to the Capitalists’ goal. Where feudal life, indenture and near starvation enable their lifestyle.
So, of course, for republicans, taxes that pay for affordable medical care and old-age subsistence such as Medicare and Social Security have to be eliminated. As in certain foreign economies, the upper caste spits on the lower castes.
This is embedded in the republican social blueprint that embodies their strategy. It is called “The Big Lie.”
In the modern German historical context, republicans’ use lies so “colossal” that no voter would believe that someone “could have the impudence to distort the truth so infamously.” (See www.en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Big_lie )
1
I agree with Mr. Krugman, but he leaves out a key piece of the GOP strategy. By affectively gutting education they ensure that the a sufficient segment of the electorate lacks the critical thinking skills necessary to connect the dots and understand the scam that is being perpetrated upon them. And to think that they sold this bill of goods under the title make America great again Is beyond ironic.
5
Never in my over 80 yrs have I been more concerned for our democracy. In the past, no matter the party in the white house, I have had confidence in our nation's leadership. Now, I see only incompetence at the helm and a party of spineless, even criminal, politicians in the party of control. A one time republican, I can only weep at what has become of our two party system.
5
FYI, folks, if the GOP gets re-elected, they won't merely chop everything. That would cause complaint.
What they'll do is pull a classic Big Corp move: split the bargaining unit. It's be something like if you're over is age, you keep your SSI and Medicare, if you're between these ages you can choose to keep it or cash out, if you're younger you can pick your plan, suckers. Basically, it's what Paul Ryan already floated.
This splits scared oldsters off, because they'll move to protect their bennies and justify sticking it to everybody else. The youngsters will be told that they're being set free, here's an investment portfolio you can buy, pay not attention to the inevitable Wall Street crash after the cream's been skimmed. In between, who cares, here're some immygrants to blame. Get enough people screaming at one another, and the Ryans get what they want.
And make no mistake: what they want is dog-eat-dog. Why not? They've already got money, and it helps keep wages down.
3
America is on the ballot, really. The greedy billionaires behind the GOP have shown over and over again that they are willing to destroy our country and its institutions for more profit. Criticising the party line results in a dirty challenge to Congress members' seats. We have raised an uneducated, gullible class of people, endlessly manipulated by the GOP and their media tentacles.
I feel like the November elections are our last chance for a turnaround. If the GOP can continue for another 2 years, what will be left of America as we knew it?
6
@Anne, to do it, they had to give the whole country the lotto mentality successful casino operators feast on, and Trump has taken into politics. Here's a list of the top ten sharks in the global tank. Guess who is the richest of them all before you get to the top of the heap.
https://theverybesttop10.com/richest-casino-moguls/
Paul Krugman, has been incorrect with almost all economic predications. How does anyone think he is credible?
2
anyone with common sense can see that this column is credible. unfortunately, common sense doesn't exist in the USA right now. it doesn't take an economist to understand what happens to a society with crappy health care, declining publuc education, staggering homeless population, widespread corruption, crooks minding the hen house, to see where the USA ranks against civilized countries.
2
That's ignoring the pink elephants in the room,military spending , graft , corruption,aid to corporations and farmers, and last , but not least, the tax cuts at a time when we should have raised taxes. There is lots of money in Social Security and medicare. Look at the obituary lists daily. The have on average about 33% of the people dying BELOW 60years of age, BEFORE they get social security, and medicare doesn't start until age 65. That is a bunch of bunk. They need to go after tax cheats like TRAMP'S buddies and themselves.
3
Dr. Krugman, Social Security and Medicare are on the ballot ANY time a Republican appears on the ballot. At has been an 8 decade long avowed jihad of the Republican Party to bury the New Deal and the Great Society once and for all. Regardless of political party, anyone who depends on those citizen PAID for entitlements for their wellbeing essentially commits act of harm against themselves as well as to others.
Rather than “starve the beast,” I would call it "Fundamentals in Moral Depravity 101.”
2
If the people in this country don't wake up we are doomed.
6
I used to vote for the Republicans and believed they are doing the right things. But I was wrong. Small government and disciplined spending should be good for America. But what the Republican party did was actually the opposite. "Starve the Beasts" is no longer a slogan. They are actually doing it. Sacrificing the safety net of the middle class & working poor to enhance benefits of big corporations & the top tiers is inexcusable.
2
The question is Why?. Why do some people, lots of people, want to make life harder for other people?
3
because deeply embedded in the American psyche is the notion that those who don't "make it" in the dog-eat-dog, predatory capitalistic system are weak. if you spend any time in Canada, Australia, Norway e.g. you realize there are other cultures who don't think like this. they believe universal healthcare, unions, old age pensions reflect a civilized society, a culture that values all. not just those who "make it". the current administration reflects the core idea of this. Winning at all costs, winning by lying and cheating, breaking the law. the USA is barbaric, not civilized. time will tell if we can get back to a sense of decency.
@Robert McKee, because misery loves company. Aesop wrote about human nature in animal allegories.
1
This kind of information almost never gets prominence in the MSM. Recently, NYT had a fawning article on paul ryan, where the reporter followed him around, all chummy, like a lap dog. Never posed the question directly (but mentioned it off-camera) that PK does: "As a extreme deficit hawk, how come you pushed the tax cuts for the rich and the corporations that busted the budget". Its a straightforward question. This is why the cries of "fake news" resonates with anybody (left or right), because when it comes to the crunch, MSM (which are after all corporations) is quite happy with the status quo!
SENIORS UNITE! Stop dwelling on Trump’s immorality, his naïveté about the arts and the sciences involved in being a world class leader or his toxic narcissism. Let us concentrate on how Trump and his cohorts are going to pay for the $1 trillion deficit they just created. The politicians and their patrons have already prepared for their futures at our expense. They have obviously fattened their bankbooks by daring to break our nest eggs. Granted, some of them have taken risks (jail, dishonor and eternal damnation) but very few of us can get out of 4 bankruptcies like Trump did. We might have the smarts and the gumption but we no longer have the time. We have worked hard to deserve the social supports that belong in a free and just society. Let us use our voices, our membership in interest groups, our influences in our families, our votes, and all the resources we can spare—- to stop the forces that are conspiring to make victims of honest, hardworking Americans in their waning years.
3
The tax scam has been going on a lot longer than most people realize.
You could find a situation like ours in ancient Greece, where aggressive, greedy people found their way into power and used that power to further enrich themselves at the expense - and it has been going on ever since.
Our current band of crooks knows that the electorate is generally uninformed and uninvolved, and uses it to their advantage.
The bottom line here is that these people are betraying the country for personal gain.
*This is a crime that needs to be prosecuted.*
Paul Ryan and Mitch McConnell should be the first to pay for their crimes.
Will the American People finally step up to the plate and end the criminal enterprise that is our government?
Let’s hope so.
3
Wonkish: I believe Professor Krugman has confused the hobgoblins. Emerson wrote: A foolish consistency is the hobgoblin of little minds. A great mind is free, based on fully formed judgment, to be inconsistent.
The Republicans are little minds. Their inconsistency is deliberate and mean spirited. They are not insisting on consistency for the sake of consistency.
Truth be told, I wanted to use the word hobgoblin.
3
Everything mentioned in the article is true. Yes if they survive the midterms, the Republicans will try to return the country to pre-depression America with no net, no regulation, back to bootstraps and orphanages. And worse. Trump will probably be made king, Mueller and the rest of the DOJ will be thrown in jail with the reporters and columnists. Unfortunately this prediction or worse still won’t get principled or lazy anti-Trump voters to the poles. The only thing stopping a blue wave is blue voters.
2
If Republicans still hold both Houses of Congress in 2019 then things will only grow worse for the average wage earner and the Blue wave that might have been in 2018 will be a Blue Tsunami in 2020. Maybe that might be better than just electing a Democratic House.
One analogy is that the current officers of the USA’s ship of state are bent on removing everything, literally everything, provided by government that benefits the “Commoners”.
In their view, an amalgam of corporate and multi generational wealthy may choose to replace some public works (prominently named for their entities, of course), organized religion some other grouping of self serving public works, and the majority remainder cast aside as immaterial and irrelevant in the New Order of American Kleptocracy.
That so many American citizens support that cruel, anti-human agenda is what makes me believe that we are living in the last days of whatever it is that America has become.
1
I don't know how many years we need to keep hammering the point that Republicans are not deficit hawks and they will flat-out lie to win. If they could win on the strength of their actual policies they would have tried it sometime over the past four decades.
I'm still flabbergasted by how many people are willing to ignore the facts because they have the feels. I'm fine with people having feelings on a subject, but when they ignore facts because the facts go against their feelings, we have a serious problem.
4
As a 36 year airline employee, the same tactic was used with the employees. When fuel prices dropped, employee costs were a bigger piece of the pie and pay reductions required to survive. When fuel prices were at record levels, sacrifices were required of employees to compete. It’s a regular cycle.
There was no sacrifices at the top of the food chain. When operations were profitable, it was due to insightful leadership. When operations were running in the red, it was due to external factors. How do they keep a straight face?
3
As long as the uber rich in America can keep their perks, finance campaigns and manipulate politicians or knock them down like bowling pins, there will be tax cut cons, threats and actual dismantling of our lousy social safety net, and a lot of discontent as people realize that no matter what they do, who they are, or how hard they try, they cannot get ahead.
The game is rigged. We know that. But it wasn't quite this bad 40 years ago. We have created a situation by electing people who appeal to our baser instincts. We have decided that every person for him/herself is the way to do it despite evidence that it doesn't work that way anywhere. We have family unfriendly policies at work, in our government, and throughout our society. We refuse to acknowledge that our similarities outweigh our differences and then, when we wind up suffering because of this we blame immigrants, African Americans, the ACA, the Klingons and Romulans.
If we want a country that is worth living in we have to vote. We have to support a social safety net for all. We need to support civil rights for all, not just the people we agree with. Claiming to respect and support the rights of others means nothing when we elect officials who do not, who support policies that work against most of us. For a self proclaimed Christian nation, we fail on the Christian part but we do quite well on the greed, intolerance, selfish part.
2
Millions of Americans have been voting against their economic interests for years and now they are getting what they deserve. Why they thought they had anything in common with billionaire Republicans is beyond me but the damage has been done. Even if there are no changes to Social Security and Medicare benefits and taxes, more and more seniors will become subject to Medicare premium surcharges, which will result in smaller monthly checks from Social Security. The income levels at which the surcharges kick in have not been adjusted for inflation since they went into effect over 10 years ago and effective 2018, the surcharge table has been adjusted to increase Medicare costs for many thousands of beneficiaries.
2
@Howard Jarvis, The have been promised rewards in the afterlife. They persevere out of faith.
@Howard Jarvis
I wouldn't mind if all those who voted for Republicans got fleeced by the Republican tax plans.
But me and my family are getting fleeced, too.
1
A few days ago I was watching a political show. There was a Republican supporter claiming that the tax cuts had proved they were successful since the second quarter posted a 4.1 growth but after another panelist reminded him that the former president had had several such quarters and even a couple that were better, the first person replied that we have a very good economy.
I thought about that for a few second then regretted that I could not interject. I'm 80 years old as is my best friend from high school. We both had working class homes and our fathers were factory workers. My dad supported his family of 3 with one job. My friend's father supported his family of 4 with one job.
I wonder how many working class families could exist at all on one job.
2
Social Security and Medicare are popular because they work. How do they benefit everyone? They assure that becoming unable to work does not mean starving to death in some cold and lonely place just because one is too old to work. Medicare means that to get top medical care one does not need to be extremely wealthy, it means fewer people suffering in ill health for lack of care. Eliminating these programs will not result in society being free of the burden of caring for the old. Families and communities will try to help and in doing so become poorer themselves.
Tax cuts are not just destructive of social support programs. They underfund all needed government services. Most services end up being funded by borrowing to cover deficits. That increases the costs of government down the line. Tax raises or defaults which undermine credit will result. Deferred maintenance due to these cuts now leaves us with an infrastructure that is disintegrating and will take huge amounts of money to fund without a lot of time over which to spread the costs.
This whole political debate over taxes and the role of government has really never gone past the opening counter assertions of both sides, but he consequences are becoming perilous now. We need to decide whether we want to live in Dicken's characters' world or in a modern state that offers equal opportunity for all and the basics of life.
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What is rather amazing is how people continue to believe and act as though "it could never happen here" when it has already started.
Now let's think about it for a moment...
What happened the last time a nation with a temperamental leader couldn't pay its national debt, yet continued to expand its military?
Hmmm...
What was it...Oh yes, that Adolf character and that little spat he created back in the 30's to 40's.
Those who forget history or some such thing.
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So Mr. Krugman I would have to say that it is time for you and all of the news media to do your jobs a little better. I would say that the reason that there is not blood in the streets is because the news media is semi asleep. Where the heck are the headlines about the inequality of the FICA taxes. Why is it that I can have a conversation with a collage graduate that dose not know there is a cut-off on the FICA taxes. Why is it that a Billionaire will pay the same amount in FICA taxes as a person who earned $128,000.00. Why not have a Front Line type show detailing where the money goes. Why not tell the American people about the Social Security Trust Funds [ now theres two and i do not know why]. People do not know that the excess of FICA tax goes into the general fund and is paid back at 12%. [that is how even the poorest pay an income tax] I do not know if the Trust fund has ever been paid back or is even planed on being paid back because instead of paying it back they just raise the cut-off. Isn't it better to have no cut-off this way the percentage could be closer to 1% just think of all the money saved by companies and individuals. Just think a 14% jump directly going to the PEOPLE. Now that would goose the economy hugely!
Yes it is up to We The People but We need better input from our news media.Lots of people believe that media is afraid to go after big biz. because they are afraid to criticize the hand that feeds them. Start to prove them wrong please, rip it off!
5
Lenin would welcome the (further) Immiseration of the Masses in the US that is the declared goal of the Republicans. He would consider it the necessary prelude to Revolution.
That could turn out to be very ugly, especially for the 0.1 %.
1
Trump supporters will not read anything they disagree with. I mentioned this to one of them and she disagreed. She told me that “the NYT is biased towards their own views”.
She gets her “info” from Fox News.
She wishes to quit working, but “has to” work until she gets Medicare. I told her that she is in luck! The Republicans are going to lower the Medicare age - to zero (as in none!)
5
Vote and bring sane family and friends or millions will suffer under the casual cruelty of Republicans...including their own constituency.
2
Trump’s base is rooted in simple minds and convoluted thinking, but I don’t believe 87% of Republican voters are “deplorable” and I understand that being conned is easier than admitting you have been conned, but what will it take for these many good Americans to realize YOU ARE BEINGCONNED?
With the “dumbing down” (and worse) of a large number of Americans via Fox News and now Betsy DeVos’s plan to “extend God’s kingdom” in America’s schools, but not anything recognizable as real knowledge, many diehard Trump voters wouldn’t cotton on to the GOP tax scam if it “hit them upside the head with a two-by-four.” They are fact-proof and hermetically sealed.
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It is absolutely staggering to realize that the world's biggest military and economic superpower has failed to learn the two basic lessons of history, namely:
1. Despite the world's largest military budget and decades of obscene subsidies for the military-industrial complex, the U.S.A. has lost every war it has fought during the past 73 years.
2. The Soviet Union didn't lose the Cold War because of a lack of nuclear weapons: It was "the economy, Stupid."
By promising to further cut health and welfare programmes the GOP has proven itself to be both illogical and inhuman. I wonder whether there is a functioning brain cell among the entire bunch of them.
The Chinese, Russians and other rivals are salivating at the prospect of America's self-destruction. It happened with the USSR, it happened with Apartheid South Africa, it is happening with Israel and Saudi Arabia, and this fate will befall any nation that favours weapons over citizens and greed over social justice. This applies equally to democracies and dictatorships.
1
20 million illegals - the ultimate gerrymandering.
Then add the economic chaos of Healthcare needed for them, schools. ... Since vast majority have no skills add welfare, housing, subsidized transportation, the list goes on.
On the other side of the equation, we are suppose to accept paying more taxes(because they don't pay any) , getting less services and believe and trust a bunch of political con-artists(both parties).....that they will figure it all out.
So much waste going on. All these wonderful programs to help sick, elderly, people that have had unfortunate set backs, have now become the mainstay accepted form of life for so many, why? The media and the left have all normalized this behavior, made it acceptable, where as 50 years ago, nothing made one feel prouder then to have a job, grow a family in a decent environment, and watch the next generation progress even further.
Contrary to Cuomo, America was great, is great and will be greater, but not with this socialist agenda the democrats are starting to peddle ever more agressively, courtesy of the Pied Piper of fooldom - Ocasio-Cortez.
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Old southern (before guns where the Messiah) socio-economic saying. " Republicans think the poor got too much money, and the rich ain't got enough."
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It occurs to me that trump cultists take America entirely for granted. Frat-boy Paul Ryan chuckled some weeks ago when asked if trump would revoke security clearances as political payback. "He (trump) is just trolling people". Silly citizens, that's just the president's charming way of talking! Then it happened. Now Ryan and his fellow trump culties will do the EXACT SAME THING about the next trumpian outrage: Deny the president would ever do such a thing, sneer about fake news, laugh it off, then defend it as no big deal, accuse the left of overreacting, and getting their cult followers to snarl and howl.
Democracy won't end with our imagined waves of demented criminal immigrants, but with our disinterest in racist, fascist government trying the USA on for size. trump is just the puppet on the end of Stephen Miller's arm. No one pays any attention to quiet little Mr. Miller, or his best friend David (Grand Wiz) Duke. trump supporters must think WWII is a funny movie, looking back. Nazis weren't so bad, just passionate!
Sinclair Lewis wrote a book in 1935 called "It Can't Happen Here". The main character, Buzz Windrip, appeals to voters with a mix of crass language and nativist ideology. Once elected, he solidifies his power by energizing his base against immigrants, people on welfare, and the liberal press.
In 1935, fascism on the rise; some Americans paid attention. In 2018, SOME Americans are paying attention. These Americans are not trump cult members.
1
Trump - despite his insulting of an American war hero, his mocking of a disabled man, his insulting of Gold Star parents, his bragging of sexually assaulting women, his constant lying - is beloved by tens of millions of Americans. Democrats better figure out why, and quick. We cannot rely upon African Americans, Latinos, and millenials flooding to the polling places this fall.
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No matter how many sacred cows are shot people continue to behave as if reality is not reality. Just the voting machine Diebold debacle is enough to deeply discourage. I've been after the Times to make computer voting a leading topic from the beginning, but oh no the Times doesn't think it sells or something, same with the environment. How many years in arrears is the paper on that? Now we can get back to Linsey Lohan and Madonna, both recent front page items, they are probably still running as so much is over the last several months. Anyone else notice that they read most of the important stories long ago? Been here about twenty years, but I can't take it anymore. I'l miss the Readers Picks the most.
I believe the only way forward is to watch Trump, the Republicans, and their incurious voter minions keep congressional control and have their way with Medicare and Social Security. Only then will the permanently duped GOP supporter finally realize that his problem was conservative policies the whole time, and maybe wearing a flap lapel pin wasn't all that important. Maybe then the Kool-Aid drinkers will turn off Fox News and it will die from lack of sponsors. Maybe then the white working voter will realize McConnell, Ryan, an Trump were stealing from him and ruining his life, not the black road worker, the Mexican gardener, and the Pakistani push-cart owner. Maybe. They haven't digested the reality of the Reagan scam in 50 years, howevet, so maybe not.
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Oh Paul,
You missed the obvious truth. Trump is doing a great job and the Democrats are being snotty little brats.
That is why there will be no 'blue wave'.
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As we all know by now, whatever Krugman says, the opposite is true. Remember when he said the stock market would crash if Trump got elected? Ahh, good times! I have never understood why the NYT continues to employ this guy. He may be the most dishonest columnist in America.
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Give it time MrReasonable last time the Republicans pull this stunt, big tax breaks, we got the Great Recession almost a depression, which Obama pull us out of.
You seem to have a faulty memory.
3
The disappearance of democracy , social safety nets and fair minded taxation was kelped right before our eyes starting with Reagan in the 80's. What we have now is clearly oligarchy of the rich, by the rich and for the rich. The Republican's eyes wide shut with regards to dark money, the disregard for the rule of law and the complacency of the Supreme Court has put the exclamation point on the process. It took a long time to get where we are now but the reversal must be swift and decisive. Vote the bums out. November is crucial.
Political power is derived from spending money and lowering taxes. No Democrat ever got a vote for raising taxes and no Republican ever got a vote from cutting spending.
The idea that Republicans are fiscally responsible has always been predicated on them being a minority party.
Until suckers stop voting to cut their own throats nothing will change and it's getting harder and harder to feel bad that we can't save these folks from themselves. Offer them an enlightened view toward government helping the poor and sick (them) and they respond with furious anger that you're looking down on them. To the extent they understand that in order to visit their world view of racism and xenophobia, they have to vote against their own economic interests, a grudging respect.
1
Did you see the massive Tea Party rally against the trillion dollar annual deficit? Oh yeah, that didn’t happen. White supremacy is so confusing.
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Remember when donald tRump promised that he would not touch Social Security and Medicare. THAT WAS A LIE, just like all the other 6000+ lies he's told. He hasn't kept a single one of his important promises. Coal isn't coming back, the middle class didn't get a tax cut, wages are NOT going up, there's NO "better, cheaper" health care plan, and no wall. Instead he, and his cabinet, have raped the treasury, given all our money to the rich, suppressed the vote in red states, torn children from their parents and put children in cages, raged an discriminated against non-Christians, threatened other countries, set tariffs that will cost Americans TWICE, disparaged and acted in opposition to our allies, tried to dismantle NATO, snuggled up to every dictator in the world, and lied, lied, lied! Now averaging almost 8 lies EVERY SINGLE DAY. What does it take to get through to the people who still support this HORRIBLE, detestable man? donald tRump has been a criminal all his life. Do not let him take away the EARNED BENEFITS of Social Security and Medicare. These are not "entitlements." We have paid for them, throughout our working lives. Congress and don con have NO RIGHT to threaten our duly earned benefits. There should be blood in the streets, if this goes through, particularly after they gave away almost $2 trillion to rich people, taking it away from average Americans like me, and YOU.
3
The con, the shill and the mark - GOP voters are the latter. What enables the con to persist is white, middle/low income voters' refusal to admit to themselves that they've been conned.
1
Trump may be rich but he is authoritarian, boorish, selfish, egocentric, and if not clinically a sociopath he practically speaking is one.
A cartoon version of the GOP but nonetheless the soul of the real GOP.
Taking inventory of Trump is really taking inventory of the GOP. Trump is the metaphor for the reality of the current GOP - the former tangibly despicable the latter just less transparent about their nature.
But the lot of them are ugly - if you clinically evaluate their actions and objectives against existential parameters they are enemies of the People thus this great Nation.
One does not stretch analogy to say if they are patriotic it is like Goebbels was patriotic.
Don't get that - don't see what I am saying - refuse to accept the implications of the truth of it - like where it will go? then so be it - I don't waste time on you.
You are NOT necessarily bad people, stupid, or unproductive - but you are incorrigibly dangerous to this this Nation, Modernity, and the Future of Our Species.
A MINORITY - about 42% of us - you win elections because you VOTE more (for whatever reason) than the 58%. You take voting seriously and passionately.
So to whom I am talking is that 58% Progressive, Conservative, and in between. People who may strongly disagree among themselves on method and means but who hold a common notion of government by and for the People, honesty, ethics, humanity, and modernity.
VOTE THE GOP OUT! VOTE D! SORT OUT PARTIES LATER! SAVE US NOW!
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The strangest things is that this column is so obvious that it shouldn't need to be written, and yet, somehow, it does.
3
yes, but the great unwashed will still fall for the con and vote republican
1
“What will happen if the blue wave in the midterm elections falls short?”
IF?
Columnists like Dr. K keep hedging this one. But it’s not about gerrymandering or “population geography.” It’s about two things.
1. The Democrats have not spent remotely enough energy and money to register nonvoters and bring them to the polls. 40% of Americans don’t vote. Get a tiny fraction and you can win anything. It’s not gonna happen.
2. Voting machines. You didn’t need to read between the lines of the leaked NSA document to know our voting machines could be hacked by a 12-year-old. If you believe in the 2016 results in Michigan, Wisconsin, Pennsylvania, I have a bridge in Dumbo to sell you. Extreme? Read these pieces. Then tell me extreme.
This was published in 2012. Nobody has done anything about it. https://harpers.org/archive/2012/11/how-to-rig-an-election/
This was published two weeks ago: https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2018/aug/13/us-election-cybersecurit...
3. A candidate for federal office in the United States said not long ago: “A Democrat can only win national office by winning the election by at least 4%. That’s what they can comfortably steal.”
I again bid goodnight to the United States of America. Nice knowing you. Ladies and gentlemen, your new leader-for-life, Donald Trump, and his new best friend, Brett Kavanaugh. They’ll speak at the celebration right after the funeral. Your table is right this way. Please do enjoy the champagne dinner.
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The tax cuts were fake. They borrowed an additional half to three quarter's billion dollars, enlarging our "gnashional" debt and passed most of the "tax" money to the rich. For most the tax cut represented extra money for a large pizza delivered every other week.
I am a write-in candidate for Senate, in Florida. Upon election I will have a nationwide audience.One element in my fiscal plan: Cancel the contracts and nationalize all our oil wells in the Gulf of Mexico.
We are the only civilized country who does not pump their own oil. Congress prefers BP and Amoco pump millions of dollars into their reelection accounts instead.
To me this is a national security issue. Upon pumping our own oil we are the largest oil producer whirled-wide.
We tell Iran: develop nuclear missiles and we will undersell our oil to all your customers so Iran will be out of the oil business. Iran will listen.
Tell Putin any interference in our elections means we start selling oil @$15.00 per barrel to all who want oil (their customers) for the next 10 years.
We use the Gulf oil proceeds to clean the Gulf of Mexico, pay all our residential real estate taxes nationwide, all income taxes on hourly wages, free university edu for all who qualify, renew our bridges, roads, airports, sea-to-shining sea Mag-Lev railroads, also draw down the national debt so our dollar is the strongest most sought after currency on the planet.
http://levalive.live
1
@Philip T. Wolf, The US overthrew the parliamentary democratic Mossadegh government of Iran in 1953, to re-establish the Pahlevi dynasty to licence BP to produce Iran's oil and pay a modest royalty to do it.
1
I generally expect some substance to Krugman's editorials, but this one is just a bigoted screed spewing hate at people who don't agree with his politics.
Sure the congress will Try to take the safety net away.
Reps./ Dems, doesn’t matter,incompetence ,self preservation and greed will prevail and chaos and disorder and anxiety will be the outcome.I am going to use the S.O.A.P. Method to define a problem .......”why DO! the wealthy get social security and medicare”? Shhhh; they think it is their dirty little secret.
Data: epidemic of Greedalgia with violent episodes of aggression .
Subjective- “every time I see the Social security fund kitty i see red.I wanna give that kitty to Wall St. “And K street.
Objective- congress is unable to function as an agent of the poor,downtrodden,frail,disabled and old to keep and expand Social security .
Assessment- elected official appears healthy w no visible signs of extreme poverty ,illness,or aging poorly.
Hair- coifed,suit tailored ,shirt and tie has designer labels, perfect fit ,shoes italian handmade leather, all extremities are working.
Official able to push through a crowd of protestors and news outlets without injury to upper body. Affect vacillates from affable pursed-lip smile to clenched teeth verbalization .
Plan- send official home and allow community to provide services. Vote in November and keep elected official up to date on outcome as official heals surrounded by caregivers he bilked while away.
Cut off social safety net for those that haven’t hid their retirement and investment savings so they seem to qualify for a safety net.
Find the money off shore ! Redistribute
The puzzle is why Republicans keep getting away with this bait-and-switch.
It isn't a puzzle. The voters are idiots. We accept incredibly poor quality public schools to educate the masses and the Democrats mostly are Republican-lite.
Further, the Democrats don't highlight or explain these issues to voters they just continue to raise taxes, offer programs that mostly benefit the poor, and talk endlessly about identify politics, i.e. "we need to elect the first woman this, the first black that, the first transgender native american cripple blind in one eye."
The majority of Americans are still caucasian and work for a living. As an Asian business associate of mine who is CFO of a community lending non profit said to me years ago "I'm thinking of becoming a Republican. I work, I pay a lot of taxes and the Democrats offer me virtually nothing except guilt." He is smart enough to understand that Democrats are typically much more for the environment and other positive things, but the point is that Democrat programs and rhetoric are not for him.
The Democrats need to realize that a lot of people get out of bed and goto work every day.
"Off with their heads!" Cries our radical President. "Let 'em eat their own children! And their parents and grandparents and ordinary American's who depend on healthcare and medical and medicaid and...THEN?...
Ah! The oldfolks! Their cupboard is most definitely empty, and mom and dad will have to start dipping into their savings to care for grandma and grandpa while the Rich lap up their staggering heaps of tax savings and then they'll tool around in Trump'olls Royce motorcades parading their golden hair and lavish digs.
You are doing this to yourself, America.
2
Paul, for a political economist's review, please --- is this the political economics of a popular democracy or a racist classist Empire?:
“Strange Signals” --- Strange Fruit, Trump's "talking point among white supremacists" is 'signaling' a different audience --- not his right-wing nuts here, but his real audience of global UHNWI’s who control and run this Disguised Global Capitalist Empire.
Trump is signaling that he is the "the only thing between you UHNWIs, your Empire, and the pitchforks" of coming democratic socialist Wealth Reform.
On the same day that Trump delivered his South African 'message' on 'Land Reform' and warning of 'Wealth Reform', two other 'signals' were sent here and abroad:
The fossil fuel industry, which extracted trillions of only apparent 'surplus value’ from oil (by dumping the ‘negative externality costs’ of global warming) wants to protect oil giants (like the “Private Empire” of Exxon) to have our government taxpayers pay the remediation costs of their faux-profits and avoid any populist-progressive calls for “Wealth Reform”.
And on the same day, Trump also warned that “Everybody Would Be Very Poor If He Gets Ousted” is not any signaling to the 99% — but is also his way of ‘messaging’ to his real audience of global ruling-elite crony capitalists that "youse guys are going to take in the ear if the pigeons get wise to Wealth Reform --- and I'm the only Global Emperor who can keep you from goin' down".
1
At some point the stupidity of the U.S. electorate has to be researched.
2
Just as all Law Schools have failed to recognize racism, or condoned racism by their silence, or actively participated in racism by supporting the institutional racism in our criminal justice system, all of the schools of Economics have failed to warn America about the meaning of inequality and it’s consequences: oligarchy and stagnation. Profit gained from exploiting people, from externalities like environmental harm, from grand scale financial deception, is inherently self destructive yet is not an issue in our schools of Economics.
In fact, the academic community has chosen to stick with oligarchs. The intelligentsia ignores ignorance, exploitation, religious intolerance, and instead indulges in or tolerates false equivalence. It took months before Trump’s lies were called lies. Now we learn: “What you’re seeing and what you’re reading is not what’s happening,” (Trump) and the Academic community has failed to stand up and renounce this outrageous plagiarism of Orwell that is terrifying to anyone who understands it.
Krugman is preaching to the choir here. We implore him and his friends to organize the Academic community to speak with one voice. “Gerhard Ritter and Friedrich Meinecke“ spoke against Hitler and for Hindenburg. “Hindenburg won the election, but Hitler came to power in 1933 anyway. No great public outcry emanated from the academic community...” Ogranize.
1
HOW DO WE WAKEN THE GREAT SILENT MAJORITY, Many of whom have been conned into believing that cutting programs for Seniors will never happen. As a senior Boomer, I damned well believe that the GOPpers are intent upon lying about their plan to slash programs for seniors as well as social programs for the rest of us. The GOP is conducting a war on the 99%! And the bad news is that the 1% is winning. And will continue to win. Until, like the vampires they are, the 1% will suck all the blood they can, then scamper off to their offshore money-laundering tropical islands to laze on the beach, laughing to themselves about how easily they managed to bring down the US in its entirety. The answer is simple to state, but extremely difficult to achieve: get out voters to register and drag them kicking and screaming to the polling places.
@John Jones A whole lot of Russians who tried this in Cyprus got fleeced. The bigger the purported return, the higher the risk.
They get away with it because a large swath of voters are unquestioning, uneducated, lazy ..... that’s why. Same reason 80% of AMERICANs are overweight or obese. They are oblivious . Don’t read or question or have the interest to figure out what’s wrong. Too blasé, too uninterested, too lazy, don’t care, can’t focus ..,.
3
Democrats have many issues on which they can--and win: Social Security and Medicare to name two of the most important. They have to be strategic and intelligent.
1
The Republican plan has worked because people with money own the airwaves and dispense a message received by a segment of the society that they cater to. They embraced the rural areas and demonized the urban areas by sowing fear and resentment of the people living there. Little of our current situation occurs naturally - it is conceived, enacted, refined, enacted, modified, ad infinitum. You don't get the income inequality we currently have without planning and legislation, and you don't get the legislation without manipulation. By framing issues in black and white, easily understandable equations (Democrats like Abortion=Murder=Bad), (Democrats like Taxes=Stealing money from you and give it to undeserving), (Democrats are Elite=People who think you are stupid), (Democrats hate Guns=Taking away your Constitutional Rights), (Democrats are weak=weakness is what caused the horror we live in) (GOP=strong=what will fix all the problems) the GOP has managed to create such resentment in their base toward liberals that it doesn't matter what atrocity (taking children from asylum seekers) is perpetrated, if liberals hate it then we love it.
At this point all the GOP has to do is say their policy is helping and their base who have been told not to trust anyone else believes them. It doesn't matter that the wealthy made out big with the latest tax cut - the wealthy are job creators and so they should get a break.
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@Lucas Lynch the trickle-down myth that the wealthy are job creators and thus proper targets of tax cuts has been disproven for decades now. The fact is that taking Chinese loans and giving it to the poor instead of the rich has a much more stimulative effect on the economy and raises living standards for many millions more people because the poor spend 100% of that extra money while the rich save 1/3rd (usually offshore), invest 1/3rd (often times with minimal job-creating benefit), and spend 1/3rd (very stimulative). Meanwhile, giving that money to the poor means they buy products/services (often from companies owned by the same wealthy individuals/investors who get the big tax cuts), which means the wealthy still get the money, but from products/services which create economic activity vs. 3rd homes on foreign islands.
The best fiscal policy would thus be to raise taxes on the wealthy while lowering taxes on companies (to keep money in the economy vs. in offshore savings accounts), and to give a lot more services/relief/subsidies to the poor who will spend all that money on economic activity, benefitting everyone.
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@Lucas Lynch I do not own airwaves but do own a small business as does my spouse. We both have greatly benefited from the republican tax plan.
We do not agree with the social policies but do agree with economics. If the tax plan was going to be on the ballot I would gladly vote for it and will not vote for anyone threatening to undo the long battle to receive some relief.
@Indie Voter- I'm happy for you as a business owner. You and your wife have worked hard no doubt to achieve this juncture in your lives. However, during the 1950's taxes on business owners and the upper classes was much higher than they are today. History shows us the building of a healthy middle class during this time was a great advantage to our nation's development as an influential and well respected world power. Being born in 1949, I benefited from this tax structure (one income house, stay at home Mom) with a solid public school education and today the benefits of social security and Medicare. In today's economic climate, that is impossible with a full house of workers often with more than 1 main occupation just to make a meager living. I hope that more people are not shut out of these social safety nets-they are NOT entitlements-as those receiving them have put money into government SAVINGS accounts most of their working lives. Thanks for your comment, it's always good to have civil discourse to ameliorate the discomfort and negativity.
Long before we chop Social Security benefits, we should eliminate the cap on income subject to FICA contributions.
If your income is under $128,400, you would see no change in your payroll tax. If you make more than $128,400, you and your employer would each pay the 6.2% payroll tax on your remaining wages. If all earnings were immediately subject to the Social Security tax, then Social Security's funding gap would essentially be eliminated.
This solution would require top earners to contribute more toward the economic security of the nation’s elderly, but after years of growing wealth and income concentration, this change would reduce inequality and would balance Social Security’s finances for the next 75 years.
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I think this would destroy support for social security among a fairly large and quite powerful part of the electorate. It’s a bad idea.
While I agree that, if Republicans retain control of both houses of Congress, they will probably repeal the Affordable Care Act, the threats to Medicare and Social Security are not nearly what the article implies. Republicans know that they need the over-65 vote in order to win elections and those voters will never support candidates who make substantial cuts to their benefits. President Trump is well aware of this; he knows that he cannot ever win the electoral vote of my home state of Florida without winning the voters in The Villages (about 70% of whom voted for him in 2016). Therefore, he is almost certain to protect Medicare and Social Security at least until after his 2020 reelection campaign.
@Dave F
You underestimate conservatives by a mile.
The cuts in SS and Medicare would only affect Americans 50 years and younger, currently democratic voters.
But by permanently changing the economic standing of the country, with huge debt and budget deficits, they may force future inevitable democratic majority in Congress, to consider many cuts that would be completely unnecessary under If Hillary Clinton was elected.
Future of the country is bleak, the longer GOP in power the bleaker.
@CarolinaJoe
Cuts made to Social Security and Medicare in 2019 and limited to non-disabled Americans under 50 would not start to effect actual benefit payments (and the government's balance sheet) until 2031 for Social Security and 2034 for Medicare. That is a long way off and, by then, there may well be a Democratic controlled government that could repeal them. If the Republicans filibuster such a repeal, then a side effect might be the final abolishment of the filibuster.
@Dave F
By then we could become much poorer country with little options.
The fiscal deficit hawk, phoney, Paul Ryan learned it from Jack Kemp. Kemp learned this strategy from Ronald Reagan.
Social Security can be made solvent by raising the cap. Put the cap at one million dollars of income and this critical program is secure.
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Prior to reading Mr Krugmans article which I wholeheartedly agree with, I read an article about Chicago in 1968. We all know about the activism on display. Yet here we sit on the cusp of eradication of the middle and working classes to benefit the oligarchy and their elected sycophants and crickets. The world has gotten worse under Trump but he did not start the fire. Our collective silence and unwillingness to act has brought us to this moment. Think Citizens United, Janus , denial of climate change and much more. I will be fine but I worry for future generations
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The Republicans run on God, Guns, and NO Gays (or minorities). The rural voters who run the country will always vote Republican because of these social issues. Damned the effect on their economic well-being. They would gladly cut-off their nose to spite their face. Until we have majority rule, we are stuck being ruled by the rubes.
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If I might read between the lines of Mr. Krugman's essay and get to the kernel–VOTE!
1
Republicans will sales pedal anything to maintain the status quo in Congress and sell the American public a “fast one.”
I saw a troupe of reporters trailing Mitch McConell yesterday seeking some kind of response to all of the Cohen-Pecker-Trump campaign funding violations and Presidential co-conspiracy—-thundering silence. Ryan—more silence. Coryn—silence.
Republicans will try to sensationalize one murder by an undocumented e-verified worker or a record run on the Stock Market while our President decrees that “flipping should be made illegal!” And “Paul Manafort is a good man, not like John
Dean the RAT”.
I grew up in Queens, NY, north of John Gotti’s clubs in South Ozone Park and could swear that’s where Congress has been meeting lately. Wouldn’t be surprised if they’ve all been given new names—Mitch the Mute, Pauley Spineless and Chuck Eat Grass.
Voter beware! Read the fine print. Check what’s inside the newspaper your candidate is carrying. If Betsy DeVos is using your taxpayer dollar to purchase guns for schools, who knows what the Republicans and NRA might be able to do during the midterm elections?
And remember what Trump ultimately said—he could shoot someone in the middle of Fifth Avenue and he would still get votes.
And probably, the Republican response—silence.
5
True or False? "All our attention is on the corrupt Republican robber barons." Answer: Maybe. The goal of the Republican Party under the leadership of Paul Ryan and Mitch McConnell is to erase 100 years of American social and economic policy.
Ryan is a "policy wonk." And how does this wonkishness manifest itself? Get rid of all the polices: Social Security, Medicare, Medicaid, environmental regulations, the SEC, the Fed, consumer protections. See, it's simple. Maybe "policy wank" would be a more appropriate appellation.
And what are we left with? We've rolled the clock back - "Take America Back!" - to 1910 on the eve of TR's "Square Deal," which sought to reign in unfair anti-competitive practices of big corporations (Standard Oil, the "Big Six" meat packers), conserve the environment and natural resources, and provide consumer protection.
And what is the countervailing force to all this Republican rapaciousness? Chuck Shumer - the man who speaks softly and gets hit with a big stick - delivering another one of his Caspar Milquetoasty speeches to an empty Senate chamber.
Maybe God will bless America. I sure wish somebody would.
4
Oh the irony that those middle America old white voters cutting their own throats
3
I just don't understand how anyone that works and makes less than a million dollars a year, or that just lives off investment returns can vote for republicans. Everything they propose and do screws you if you're not in those groups.
2
Spot on, give 'em hell Paul!
2
If these Republican fecal matter members of Congress dare to diminish SS and Medicare, they will see the biggest public mobilization since the anti-Vietnam War era. We are watching you, Republicans!!!
1
Half of Americans vote republican. Question: are they all solvent enough to walk away from SS and Medicare?
1
They get away with it because their voters fall into two groups. Those rich enough that tax cuts help them and social safety nets are unneeded. And those feeble minded enough that they are distracted by god, guns and gays to realize they are being screwed.
4
Q: "Why do Republicans keep getting away with it?"
A: Racism
9
I presume I'm pointing out the obvious, but don't GOP claims that social entitlement programs need to be slashed in the wake of tax cuts give the lie to the assertion that the cuts expand the economy and increase government revenue?
2
Everything they say is a lie. They also claim Trump has eradicated unemployment while simultaneously telling us immigrants are stealing our jobs.
1
More egregious than the bait-and-switch Prof. Krugman cites is the persistent notion that Social Security and Medicare are give-away or welfare programs. Everyone who works, together with their employers, pays upwards of 15% of their wages in payroll taxes to fund these programs. By my own reckoning, my employers (I was self-employed for 15 years) and I have paid in an average of around $12,000 a year in payroll taxes for the past 35 years. That comes to over $400,000, without interest. Now, that I am on the verge of retirement, the GOP wants to take away the benefits I have earned with this sum? Not unless they give me my money back!
1
All of your taxes are not Medicare taxes, not by a long shot; the system is financed by having younger people continue to pay in, as a smaller number take out.
@Marcko, The Republicans will sell out the US before admitting its economy is the investment portfolio of its public retirement system.
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Someone actually concerned about the $800 billion deficit would be looking at the following:
1. Permanently removing the cap on the payroll tax, which is $128,400 for 2018. Only the top 6% of workers make over this amount. CBO estimated that would bring in about $200 billion/year (1% GDP), covering about 70% of the Social Security shortfall for 75 years. See CBO "Social Security Policy Options" from 2015.
2. Treating capital gains and dividends as ordinary income for just the top 1%, which brings in about $100 billion/year. Combine that with a 20% tax on stock buybacks (as taxing just one would give you more of the other) to bring in another $200 billion.
3. Returning to year 2000 rates for the top 1% brings in about $100 billion/year. We can then discuss adding 40% and 50% brackets for incomes of say $750,000 and $1 million, respectively, which (guessing) would bring in another $50 billion or so.
Note that we haven't directly taxed anyone outside the top 6%, yet have brought in about $650 billion. Yes, we'd have to phase that in over time to avoid a bad fiscal cliff, yet we'd be running a small, sustainable deficit before talking about spending cuts for the poor.
Of course a great candidate for spending cuts is defense, which we could cut to probably $400 billion rather than $600 billion.
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Just like with Trump, we will have to go through hell before we fix the problem.
Trump is undoubtedly going to stand before the American public and say we cannot afford Social Security, Medicare or Medicaid any more. Our Tax revenues cannot support it. He will then say, as a business man, the only option is to cut the programs.
The unfortunate truth is Trump accelerated, exacerbated and compounded the problem with his own tax policies. The simple answer is to put back the taxes on the wealthy and we can solve a lot of problems.
But in Trumps world and that of his supporters, it is more important for wealthy people like Trump to have multiple private planes than for an average American to have access to healthcare coverage or stay out of poverty as they age.
More importantly, Trumps tax policy is bankrupting Americas finances, although we don't hear much about that on the News (due to well placed and timed distractions).
Tax revenues are SIGNIFICANTLY down from previous years. There is MUCh less money in the coffers than is necessary to run the government. Social Security and Medicare cuts are only the first steps.
This all apart of the grand Conservative plan to eliminate all Government support for the people. This is core to their philosophy, and has been a pillar of their goals since before Ronald Reagan took office.
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@Trebor Flow Tax revenues have hit record highs the last several months. Did you not know that, or did you purposely state something you knew was false?
@Trebor Flow Mark my words, this will be spun as the GOP's attempt to "save Medicare and Social Security".
@Trebor Flow
I think Trump is much worse, he will not say we cannot afford it, he will say "see how I made Medicaid, medicare, health plans better'' and he will find some minority person, probably paid by one of his cronies, to appear in Fox news and say so.
Adios AG Sessions! Bienviendo AG Giuliani!
An investigation into Suborning the Republic to Putin that peters out as a tawdry attempt to stretch campaign finance laws with regard to paying off an extortionist (and Stromy is, her demand- Resign or else, and then her attorney's picture of the CD... enough for most people to indict, no?) begs a Mueller shut down and selective reveal of Method, maybe BEFORE November.
Still, the big Q: what can Dems do NOW to win Senate?
Put Goppers on the spot about Trump, by simply saying the Gop Senators will push him out, for Pence, early next year.
If that gets traction they lose Trump supporters, in the election time... when that counts.
As to Mueller...forget him. Paying hush money may be louche, on the down low... but there is no law against it. More importantly, if Dems get sucked into the easy game of TV time for getting rid of the "witch" well... dingdong- when the witch is gone, what you got left for us?
Except a new puritan litmus test for the #1 office... a test only Pence can pass in '20.
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@M. J. Shepley
I'm confused by your comments. Are you worried about today's Republicans? Don't denigrate Mueller. He, a Republican himself, and his team have achieved over 30 indictments. The Republicans knowingly have chosen to ignore the laws that stand in the way of their retaining and expanding power.
Consider making telephone calls on line and going money now to Democratic candidates at the state level.
Know you facts. Speak out .
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@M. J. Shepley
You can believe what you want. If he did not expose himself to defamation, "extortion" as you call it, then there would be no extortion. He did not worry about it for 10 years, who cares if his wife finds out while recovering from giving birth, he only did it when it could hurt him. The problem is not paying his paramours off, it is using money in a way that helps his campaign and not declare it. And when you do it with someone else, it is called conspiracy.....
The obama stimulus in 2008, combined with obamacare, has proven to be a huge success. Taxes were raised on the ultrawealthy but the economy, which was wrecked earlier by gop tax cuts and deregulation and on the brink of collapse has recovered steadily. The higher taxes on the ultrawealthy made them richer since the stock market made huge gains and they own most stocks. Trump and the gop are now wrecking the social safety net and environment. A recession and stock market bust will happen sooner than later. With tax revenue having been slashed by trump and the gop, there will be no money to stimulate the economy and another great depression with 30 percent unemployment will result
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Simply put, welcome to the United States of Kansas.
Dr. Krugman is correct because his argument is based upon fact but people do not rely upon rational reasoning in making decisions. Our minds are the product of our brains and our brains offer both highly sophisticated reasoning and powerful impulsive reactions that contradict. The study of human behaviors reveal a mentality that responds to emotional imperatives over rational considerations. It means that people often act unreasonably because they don’t like the consequences. That’s why politicians can win with policies that rationally will harm those who vote for them.
Promise people that they will be better off with less tax money being collected, that exactly what cutting taxes does do to deficits will not happen, and instead of thinking that is contradictory it is genius. Replace Social Security with savings accounts invested in securities markets means a lot of people will lose everything as do unlucky investors in securities markets. Health care is an involuntary cost and markets don’t work well when the participants have no freedom to act, ending Medicare will not be replaced by any market solution.
Republicans can play this game of eliminating social support programs and making government directed by democratically elected representatives too weak to oppose bad acts by corporations and wealthy individuals but only a small proportion of them will not end up the losers along with nearly all of the rest of the people.
H.G. Wells got it mostly right in the "Time Machine" The human race will soon split into TWO species (Them and Us). "Them" being the 99% honest working folk with never enough capital to become financially independent - and "Superior Us" the billionaire class who by divine right of their own self glorification "own" everything.
The downside for the new "them" is that social media and its inherent surveillance technology will provide a means of identifying and suppressing all indications of resistance and rebellion before they spread into the general population. They will never become the underground inverted world power of Well's imagination
@Tony Reardon: Maybe the split lies between extreme present hedonists and time-travelers.
I'm glad the Blue Wave includes candidates journalists describe as socialist but who are really in keeping with the FDR wing of the Democratic Party. They need some of FDR's humor like when he described critics of Social Security as wanting "to throw old people on the trash heap like wrinkled rinds". Our nation was built around "more perfect Union,...., and promote the general Welfare..." not the private greed that's driven modern Republicans since the days of Herbert Hoover.
3
@Keith, I don't know how a ditz like Trump ever got to an office where linguistic sophistication is an asset.
I agree. What amazes me: is there a more dimwitted population than that of the USA? I know that the education system in our country has lagged behind developed countries for many years; but I'd hoped for the best. Sad to say, it seems we will never learn.
3
For the life of me, I cannot understand why the GOP has traditionally been called the "party of fiscal responsibility," nor can I fathom how there can possibly be any middle-class Republicans. I lived outside the US for several years, and retired just in time to return to a country that has seemingly lost its mind. Watching from afar while Trump won the election was heartbreaking enough, but it's been a daily nightmare ever since. Instead of making it better, Trump and the GOP are destroying it. My hard-earned pensions, including my Social Security benefits, are about to be thrown into the hungry maw of a government whose purpose is clear: to please its rich friends while it kills off the rest of us.
8
If we voters are dumb enough to allow the GOP to retain control of both the Senate and the House in the fall after all that's happened, then we deserve whatever disaster that rolls down the pike afterwards.
However, there maybe is another way we should start to look at this these things. Since Republicans for the foreseeable future will either control the federal government or retain enough strength in the congress to thwart any sort of forward progress by a Democratic majority, maybe we should embrace massive cuts to entitlement programs (and defence also) as well as more tax cuts in order to return more control of our tax money to the states.
Clearly, Blue States would like to move to a more social democratic future where a fair and open form of capitalism thrives alongside a robust social safety net. For that we need to keep more of our tax revenue in states rather than sent to the federal government. Red States would then be free to pursue their dream of ending up like Mississippi or Somalia or wherever.
In short, maybe Democrats and liberals should take up the Starve the Beast mantra to separate our economic well being from that of the Red State conservatives who despise them so much.
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Amen. I’m worn out, they all deserve it.
To me, it is clear that Fox News is the answer to why Rs get away with this. The propaganda is effective, and many people watch Fox News, especially in rural and semi-rural areas.
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@Justice, The best thing the US ever did for Australia was to absorb Rupert Murdoch.
The Kochs along with their brethren have already prepped and monied up for our armageddon election day, as noted by the Times in July:
https://www.counterpunch.org/2018/07/23/koch-industries-is-staffing-up-w...
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The same old trickle down tax cut ploy from RR. Can the Republicans with Trump ever pass anything close to an honest bill that helps the middle class? No. No real tax cuts for us, no real health care for us and no reality for the governing of this country. Besides we are being driven to the debt precipice ever closer with this Republican 'leadership'. I wish I could get a tax cut. On top of that we see trump's followers cheating on taxes flagrantly. Where ARE your tax returns Mr. Trump?
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I think conservatives have to directly experience the consequences of bad choices in order to change. Liberals are better at modeling in their brains experiences they have never directly had themselves and changing to avoid the bad consequences. So the bailout of the financial crisis saved conservatives from the worst consequences and so they haven't changed. It took the Great Depression to get social security and social democracy. It may take another collapse to save them.
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I'd rather live with Trump than with Pence.
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@Gangulee, I'd rather see God's little pet drone sent to a Christian sexual re-education camp for men.
The "unindicted co-conspirator in chief will continue to": nominate justices to SCOTUS; give himself and his ilk unpaid tax cuts we pay for; choke on his environmental destruction policies; give Medicare and Social Security to private interests like himself to loot; jail opponents; become POTUS for life so that he can't be indicted; he'll nuke countries from 5th Ave and lose all support and not matter because democracy will be dead.
Repeal the Affordable Care Act results in an instant tax credit to the healthy wealthy, morally sick as they are.
Messing with Medicare and Social Security by the GOP is nothing short of outright theft - like tax cuts for the rich - in that WE ALL have paid into it. If they dare tear it down, Americans should demand the money they paid in back from these thieves!!!
I'm tired of my work earnings, taxes and healthcare FLIPPED into massive wealth redistribution to the rich. Enough!
We did not cause the debt. The wealthy did! By raiding our treasury with tax cut giveaways, tax dodging, offshoring of their capital and our jobs that pay taxes, and corrupt dealings with political leaders passing REGULATIONS that profit the rich.
Compassionate conservatism chutzpah is defined as lock up, starve and bomb the children: Why feed the starving children and citizens of America? They'll only get hungry again. Indeed, corporations are people and they don't go hungry!
Giving the wealthy huge sums of capital will solve poverty and the debt - how Republican!
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@PAN, The US doesn't seem to care how deep a hole gets before it stops digging.
Why do Republicans keep getting away with the bait and switch? The answer is simple, Professor Krugman: Americans, collectively, are stupid. Look who’s president, look who’s in charge. “Look who’s winning, look who’s won.” (Kurt Vonnegut)
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Thanks for the update, Paul. Now where can I get some really good diet pills?
...gee Mr Krugman, you provided so much commentary on frightening your readers to think Social Security and Medicare are at risk because of Republicans.
The system will be bankrupt at the current rate - SSI and Medicare will not be sustainable in the nit to distant future.
What’s your solution - you have none.
You just enjoy spreading fear for political reasons nor moral ones.
@JMS
"The system will be bankrupt at the current rate - SSI and Medicare will not be sustainable in the nit to distant future."
Looks like you're spreading a bit of fear yourself. We pay for SS and Medicare in every paycheck. Dr. Krugman argues for a fair tax system and less government corruption.
Republicans traditionally provide a flow of tax money to the 1%, overspend, then talk about the unsustainable burden of Social Security and Medicare. They're coming after it; yours too.
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@JMS The solution is to vote all repubs out. Period.
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The solution is to eliminate the income cap on pay-ins. There. I fixed it for you.
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The GOP has the audacity of accusing Democrats of wanting to cut social safety net programs. Democrats should turn around and call out the GOP con from the top of their lungs and the liberal media should assist them to do so.
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Paul,the Devil couldn't have written the script for our Armageddon better than what Trump and the Republicans are writing together with "one hand licking up the other" scenario.
The Republican party, which has come a long way from their founders' ideals, is now totally engaged in nailing the coffin shut at their graveyard with the sign on their tombstone : R.I.P. HERE RESTS THE SOUL OF THE GRAND OLD PARTY.
Also written underneath will be a sign saying, "From now on please send all your inquiries at Trump Tower and address to Donald J. Trump, our new owner and sole proprietor."
Be assured Americans that there will be another sign underneath in bold letters that will proclaim :
"OUR REPUBLICAN PARTY FROM NOW ON WILL BE KNOWN AS TRUMP PARTY.
PLEASE WISH US LUCK IN OUR NEW ADVENTURE.
THE OLD PARTY IS DEAD AND PERMANENTLY RESTING UNDERNEATH THIS GRAVE.
Well my fellow Americans, this is not a midsummer's dream. This idea that I spelled above is quite a possibility.The Republican party as we all knew is really dead.
And a new party has sprouted it's head within the same G.O.P. with Trump in total control of the rest of the Republicans.
Since it's not a mystery anymore that Trump is molding his party in his own Trumpian way by threats of violence first.
Next he's using utmost blackmail tactics to keep the Republican congress members under his command like Jim Jones did in Guyana in the '80s by unleashing his attack dogs in the form of White Supremacists/ Nationalists.
1
@ihatejoemcCarthy, Never trust anyone who tests your credulity by claiming to know what God thinks.
1
The one potential bright side to this entire sorry mess created by conservatives over the last 30 or more years is that this time they have gone too far. Unfortunately, the voters who believed the lies and disinformation spewing from the foul maws of republicans and Fox News will not be the only ones hurt; everyone will have to suffer. But it is possible that the misery they have created will expose them for what they are: greedy manipulators who have rigged and exploited the system for their own personal gain since the days of the robber barons. After this happens, perhaps a new political world will emerge, as the forces of honesty and fair play drive the disciples of Sauron and his rightwing orcs back into the darkness of Mordor once and for all. We all will have to pay a terrible price, but in the end it will be worth it.
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"There’s a reason health care, not Trump, is the central theme of Democratic campaigns this year."
LOL. Paul Krugman is absolutely shameless. The Democrats have got only one national issue this election. It is Trump and Trump alone. Health care has hardly been mentioned.
As The NYT's Matt Grossmann and David Hopkins wrote in July, the "the Democratic Party is organized [sic] as a coalition of social groups and best served when candidates are free to shape individual campaign appeals tailored to the interests of their own constituencies."
@Ian Maitland health care has hardly been mentioned on fox news, hardly a democrat venue.
A more ominous cause of the deficit, and one that gives me the right as a foreigner to speak out, is the military spending, which allegedly amounts to $700 billion a year. This year the Congress obviously have granted the military an extra $80 billion, a "bonus" that in itself exceeds the entire Russian military budget.
Megalomaniac armaments are of course a threat to human existence in itself. But my country is also acutely affected on a micro level. Since the US and UK launched the illegal and immoral war on Iraq, which set the entire region on fire, tiny Sweden has received more refugees from the Middle East than the two criminal countries together.
This flow of people from all kinds of cultures has naturally triggered xenophobic reactions among the public. It reached a level which prompted the government to step on the brakes. But the effects are lingering, making this issue the most inflammatory in the upcoming elections, which consequently is supposed to become a great success for a populist, neo-fascist party.
Thank you, United States!
5
Duncan Hunter and his "rabbit" is just a small snapshot of what the Republicans are about. Vote them out.
3
Today’s GOP: masters of delusion.
Wake up America. The only thing Republicans care about is money.
In their pockets, not yours.
3
Dr. Krugman comforts, "Dems will surely receive more votes than Republicans" in the mid terms. Surely.
Surely no president would brag on shooting people on 5th Av. w/o losing a vote.
Surely a president's attorney would not claim he might murder a specific FBI director in the Oval Office and later claim "truth isn't truth".
Surely a US president would not spend days debating whether to seize US Citizens at the request of a Russian dictator for interrogation in Russian jails.
Surely Dems will win by going to the mat for illegal aliens and more bathrooms.
Surely Dems will win this time, Paul opines, because it makes sense.
Surely.
@sjm, Rudi left the first responders to die in the collapsing World Trade towers while every architect with knowledge of how they were built was screaming they were doomed to collapse.
@sjm: Specifically, Paul did not say the Democrats would win. He said they would get more votes, same as in 2016. You get the difference, right?
Another way to look at the starve the beast plan is to look at the history of leveraged buyouts. If I have this straight in a leveraged buyout the process is 1- take over a company by using the assets of the company as collateral. 2- increase debt beyond the amount of collateral 3- sell off assets to pay off debt. Essentially a Corporate Fascist plan to defund and destroy a Democracy. This starve the beast plan has been ongoing for decades, the only thing that stops it is the election of a Democratic administration, only to be revived as a Zombie ( thanks Paul ) tactic everytime the Republicans take control. I use the term take because the Republicans don`t use democratic voting they use voter suppression to "win" elections. Get out the vote, get out and vote because it may be the last one that counts. With the Russpublicans in charge our elections may soon look like the ones run in Russia, run with no contest, all the opposition in jail or dead.
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"The puzzle is why Republicans keep getting away with this bait-and-switch." Simply put, it is RACISM, the same strategy since Nixon/Reagan to the present, convincing white working class to vote against their own self-interest, that of their families and communities so the Republicans can give massive tax cuts to the white 1% then justifying, as you describe, "bait and switch" decimating social network. Suspect it will work in 2018/2020 as in the past!
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@Ken McBride Yes, the only bright spot is that the white share of the vote is declining. While the short term is up for grabs, fully understand that when the pendulum swings back, it swings back with greater force and range. The further the GOP pushes their insansity, the more intense the response.
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@Ken McBride...Excellent and realistic observations!!!...until we as Americans acknowledge the cancer of RACISM, which is inherent in the seminal fabric of this country, there can be no peace and safety for all of us.
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@Ken McBride, the truth is that mutually beneficial exchanges thrive on diversity.
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A big threat to the social safety net is the press. To often they don't get the issues at stake and take the easy way out.
@Daniel A. Greenbaum, Those who pay the piper tend to call the tune. The media in the US is steered by the advertisers.
This is what baffles me. Try as I might I cannot think of a single thing Trump has done for the low to middle-income population.
While the economy is booming, does this mean incomes are noticeably higher, better benefits and healthcare, more long-term security for this demographic? Have these tax cut really trickled down and made life better for them, is this is why they stand for Trump? I think they are rooting for a celebrity they saw on TV and for the guy who said he saw them as the“forgotten” men and women of the country. Now, they are famous too, a chosen group with bit parts as extras cheering him on in their very own reality TV show.
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@Holly - Great point (bit players in the show). Trump and his propaganda machine are constantly telling everyone they are better off (repeat the lie enough...). It's psy-ops at its best, and a large swath of Americans are susceptible due to low critical thinking skills and emotional intelligence.
If these programs are targeted then it will be time to bring out the axes.
1
In the USA Growth is strong, unemployment and inflation low and the dollar and equity markets are resilient. Contrast that with Europe's relative pessimism, Japan's still stagnant economy and the crisis of confidence rippling through the emerging markets. Why could it be that the US is in such position of relative strength? I would like to suggest that this may be partly due to the administration's actions on tax policy and deregulation. Krugman may not like it, he may never accept it, but the again was it not him the one who once predicted the internet would have no effect on productivity? ;)
1
The point is that the economy is only humming for SOME people. There are those of us working full time who’ve never caught up after the recession, and our newly flush employers aren’t passing the proverbial buck anywhere but into their pocket...I’d love to see a little of that wealth trickle down to me and mine. Isn’t that what’s supposed to happen, friend?
I will never understand this overwhelming need to toss billions of dollars more to defense spending. It's clear the wars of the future - and present - are cyberwars. We need an educated population to fight cyber attacks. I reel every time I hear Republican friends talk about our need for a strong military. We already outspend the next 7 countries combined.
But facts just don't matter anymore, I guess.
7
What is amazing to me is; that throughout the history of our nation, especially the last fifty years, there have been so many attempts at malfeasance in our body politic, at all levels, by some of the most craven politicians who lack any level of decency or humanism that our nation and its institutions have survived at all. Every day we read and hear about the Republicans attempts at destroying programs, laws, and policies that benefit our society as a whole. This nagging sense of doom continues to feel worse than the day before, and as citizens many of us feel like we are walking a tightrope with no net. I hope enough of us go to the polls in November to send a loud and clear message to those elected officials who wish to harm us.
3
Republicans have, by their words and actions, for a long time been telling us that when they say small government, they mean no SS, no Medicare, no Medicaid, no SNAP, no CHIP, no regulations to protect and promote clean air, water, or workplace safety. But we have the addition of the religious right in the Republican party that says none of these are needed because God will take care of everything and besides, the Rapture will take place any day now.
7
But but but Trump said during his campaign that he would not cut these programs. Look, it is always possible that Trump would not sign a bill cutting these programs. Who knows what he will do. Nonetheless, best to vote D.
1
Professor Krugman (again) hits the nail squarely on the head.
Republican strategy for decades has been to line the pockets of the rich (at the expense of average Americans), to use their own tax-cut-created budget deficits to attack federal social services (at the expense of average Americans), and in the face of a changing demographic to cling to power by manipulating the nation's voting processes (gerrymandering, poll closings, questionably removing voters from voter rolls (again, at the expense of the majority of Americans).
And with their cynical manipulation of the nomination and confirmation of Supreme Court justices, Republicans have fortified their hold on political power.
And it's working. Enough Americans have been taken in by the con to keep them in office.
Hopefully before the midterms, and especially before the 2020 election, enough Americans will have woken up and realized that they have been conned -- all their jobs have not come back (in fact, some will have been lost due to shot-gun tariffs), their paychecks have not increased, their neighborhood schools have been bankrupted, their access to Medicaid benefits have not been expanded, and their ACA benefits have been reduced but made more expensive.
And, hopefully, these politically awakened Americans will take it to the polls.
Hopefully.
8
It is surely the "Starve the Beast" scam, as Prof. Krugman points out, but it is also true that the Medicare, and to a lesser extent, the Social Security trust funds are in some long-term trouble. I am not an economist nor a student of the law, but it seems to me that it is relatively straightforward to save both trust funds without increasing the tax on wages presently paid by workers and without increasing the amount that businesses have to pay as part of their payroll. The original SS legislation of 1935 specified that the tax to support the program be withheld from workers earning wages and employers paying wages in equal parts. Other forms of income were not taxed. BUT THAT COULD BE CHANGED! Why not tax all income? What is special about investment income, for example? If investment income were taxed and the income cap on SSI removed, the problems would be largely solved. The removal of the cap would hardly affect regular working people, and taxing investment would largely not affect businesses, since investment income does not involve a business payout. Voila, solved.
9
@Peter Limon
You are neither an economist nor a lawyer. Voila. Nothing solved! Krugman is so much better!
Thanks, Paul, for reminding us not to be complacent this November. People who stayed home in November, 2000, helped, through inaction, Bush to grant tax cuts during a two front war, cut banking regulation, and ultimately crash the economy at his end in office.
A non vote is a vote for the opposition.
8
@cannoneer2 There are plenty of "Democrats" working in service of the 1%. All these Rockefeller-Republican DINOs dressed in sheep's clothing like the Clintons and Obama are among them. Sly traitors to democracy and America. How're the $400,000 speeches to the bankers coming along, Barack? Got enough, yet?
@Rocky What about-What about!
Rocky, there is a difference between the parties. Republicans are after your health care and social security. Also, last time I checked, Trump was president.
2
We need more money for the roads and bridges, period. If the corporations and people earning higher salaries won't help, it will have to come from somewhere and if that somewhere is Social security or Medicare, it will be front stabbing the 95% of American population. Overworked, tired, overmedicated, stressed out people without much sleep ....both low and high income earners with rising income gaps and pot holes paint a future rife with division, discontent, anger and mistrust. Now I know why New Zealand banned all rich foreigners from buying any land to escape the inevitable.
11
Simply put, if we don't vote in November, God help us.
16
"First of all, there is every reason to believe that a Republican Congress... would do what it narrowly failed to do last year, and repeal the Affordable Care Act. This would cause tens of millions of Americans to lose health insurance and would in particular hit those with pre-existing conditions."
Maybe those who lose their insurance should work harder, like Michael Cohen, Paul Manafort, Omarosa Manigault-Newman, Duncan Hunter, Ryan Zinke, Wilbur Ross and earn their keep so they won't have financial and health insurance problems! They will even get a bigger tax cut!
2
@Jtati: They can get free medical care, such as it is, in jail.
1
Let's just call this GOP long term strategy what it is. A striving for a return to feudalism, under which the serfs toil for the overlords in exchange for a moldy crust of bread. Or, more insidiously in this country, they seek to return to the days of plantations and enslavement of anyone who is not white, rich and male (because even white females connected to families with means were enslaved in the "good ole days", albeit in a different way than African slaves were). The irony is that the GOP has managed to dumb down their targets to such a degree that many of the would be slaves are fully in support of the evil, duplicitous aspiring masters. The great orange one's condemnation of NFL players who kneel is illustrative of this objective. "Don't you know you are the slaves of the owners, toiling in the literal fields (of play), and that the owners own you? That's the not so veiled message from the one who aspires to be the master of all, despite his apparent absence of any talent whatsoever, other than the talent to con the hungry, angry masses. The Trumpeters better wake up, before they find themselves toiling beside the very "others" they have demonized and vilified, surprised to discover that they, too, are "others" in the eyes of their masters.
12
@Oscar; Beware of everyone who tells you Jesus Christ is Lord. You'll become a serf if you believe them.
1
G.O.P. = the flim-flam party
If you are not in the top 1% (or maybe even the top 0.1%), they are out to fool you; to use you. They are definitely not out to help you. This especially goes for DJT.
8
Why...because the stridently disingenuous, beats the weakly incompetent, all the time. I might have to lump the media with the Democrat's with the weakly incompetent, except possibly for the Washington Post.
Paul Krugman, the pied piper of fake economics strikes again.
It does look like Trump paid off some folks to keep their mouths shut--prior to running for president--lest they sidetrack his campaign. Shocking--to think a billionaire playboy might do that. And although unsavory--it's not an affront to democracy or an attack on the rule of law, as Krugman asserts. It's just the usual hyperbolic baloney we often see from Progressives.
Think of the Trump payments in roughly the same terms as the Obama cover-up--to completely white-wash his entire academic career (including all records, his applications for admission, grades, and even his college thesis). It's a fact--some folks have skeletons in their closets which they wish to remain there. Not a crime.
Secondly, how rich for Krugman to opine over the "tax cuts for the wealthy". He just returned from Denmark--where he endlessly extolled the virtues of their supposed utopian system. What he failed to disclose is the corporate tax rate in Denmark--similar to all Scandinavian countries: 22%. Somehow that rate is fine for Denmark, but when enacted here is a rich person's field day. Hypocrisy anyone?
Thirdly: Krugman defended deficits during the entire Obama Administration--as debt soared from 10 trillion to 20. He coined a special phrase for those who objected. "Debt Scolds", he called them. Funny....he has now become our nations #1 debt scold--now that Republicans hold the purse strings. More hypocrisy.
2
Jesse- 1 The payoffs weren't made "prior to running for president". They were made a couple of weeks before the general election. More fake news. 2. The issue with the corporate tax rate is that almost no corporation paid the 35% rate, and most of our largest corporations paid zero or close to zero %. I'd gladly support a 22% corporate tax rate that's a minimum. No deductions, write offs, subsidies, credits or anything else that reduces taxes to below a 22% floor. The average rate paid by corps under the old "rate" was less than 20%. Likely to barely make double digits with the new rate. More important, corps contributed just about 5% of overall taxes before this rate cut, down from an average of 11% - 33% from the 1950s - the 1990s. 3. See attached for info on drivers of the increase in the deficit under Obama. Hint: Bush wars, Bush tax cuts, Bush Medicare Part D with prohibition on Medicare negotiating prices of pharma and Bush recession. https://www.forbes.com/sites/chuckjones/2018/01/15/obamas-federal-debt-g.... From that "liberal rag" Forbes, no less. Also, you must have missed how much the Trump tax cuts for the rich are going to add to the national debt. As to hypocrisy, the GOP are the masters of this. Deficits only matter when Dems want to use some of our tax revenues to help those in need. Never when the GOP want to line the pockets of their corporate and wealth individual benefactors (owners).
4
@Jesse The Conservative: Wow, it must be great to know everything in the world. I look forward to reading one of your books or TED talks you've give and so on.
1
Only a conservative can keep making the same mistakes and repeating the same lies over and over again without seeing the truth. Conservatives will destroy the world in their idiocy.
1
Reagan purposely bankrupted the country and destroyed the middle class, yet we keep electing the same clowns over and over.
Maybe we deserve our fate. We have harmed our children.
11
@David Henry, Yep, when Reagan fired all the air traffic controllers, he shot down almost all unions. They are now a form of unlawful assembly again.
4
Don't forget we need to build THE WALL. It will be expensive. We won't have undocumented immigrants to provide low-cost labor to do it. Seniors have to suck in their guts, eat less and stop seeing doctors to support our essential Wall-building project. Under continued Republican control of our government, we will cut or end social welfare programs and concentrate on building social values. Trump, with his infallible sense of morality, will lead us. Pence, his disciple, will be at his right hand.
9
@Richard. Why is the WALL expensive? After all, the Mexicans are going to pay for it. Trump promised
1
I can't hope to improve on the analysis that Dr. Krugman has provided here, and the additions to it that many skilled commenters have made.
So all I can add is, if you have any free time, or any spare cash, make sure you use it in ways that ensure the ground game for getting out the vote in November is as good as it can possibly be. Volunteer to carpool people to the polls. Set up phone chains to remind people to vote. Offer to watch kids. Bring entertainment for the long lines that are sure to occur--and make sure all attempts to suppress voters are video and audio documented and shared online immediately. Insist that election boards have their counts transparently observed by members of all parties. Make connections with all those who know that beating back the red tide is the only hope of maintaining some semblance of democracy.
It was done last year in Alabama and Pennsylvania; it can be again.
And when the blue wave washes over Washington deeply enough so that investigations into Le Grand Orange and his minions can be assured of proceeding, then we can have debates about how to reduce inequality and attack climate change and get money out of politics. For now, and for the next several months, nothing else matters more than making sure people vote--and that their votes are properly counted.
10
The Democratic platform for 2018 is clear:
1. Warn citizens about the danger to their health care.
2. Run against the tax-cut for the wealthy
3. Decry the corruption of the Trump administration
4. Spend every time on turn-out at election time.
8
Welcome to 1890 which was when America was great according to Republicans.
Everybody likes low taxes and tax cuts are great as long as no one asks whose taxes are being cut significantly and who is getting a few crumbs.
Republicans agree that we should not spend any taxpayer money on "Those People." The Republican base reads the phrase 'those people' as brown people. The Republican elite, including Donald Trump read that phrase as anyone who isn't in the top 10%. But that's not important. as long as the poor and the brown and the black gets less, a slight lowering of white middle class living standards is more than worth it.
4
i watched a segment on what trump voters are "thinking" yesterday. they were all in agreement that he was doing a great job but if he was considering pardoning manafort et al that would be a red line he should not cross. hilarious. these people are completely duped. they don't realize that he always finds a way to sell his bad ideas and so far they have bought every single one.
14
Why do Republicans get away with reducing benefits and giving the money to the rich? Because their billionaire backers control a hugely successful brainwashing machine that includes Fox & Friends, virulent web sites, radio stations, evangelical pulpits, the NRA and a majority of State Legislatures. Not to mention huge misinformation and ad campaigns.
The result? About 40% of the electorate (and Trump) has “reality” formed by this apparatus, a reality built upon alternative “facts”, paranoia, and subterranean ancient parts of the id that puts reason and observation to the side and lets the baser emotions take over.
Until this propaganda machine is dismantled, Zombiism will prevail.
4
It starts from conservative canon.
1 All taxation is theft and should be a bare minimum. Only to fund general benefits not for redistribution or benefits to non payers
2 Tax cuts always pay for themselves by increasing business and income. We are always on the high side of the Laffer curve.
3 As the Laffer Curve predicts If you tax work you get less of it. It you subsidize sloth you get more of it.
I loathe Don Trump, but he did say he would not touch Social Security and the Affordable Care Act was successful at some degree of health care streamlining which would make a good argument for not repealing the ACA and continuing to support Medicare if the Republicans remain in power after buying the next election with tax cuts. We shall see what Trump does.
A argument that starts "Trump said he would..." is a loser from the get-go. Trump lies about everything . He IS dismantling the ACA (after he said we'd all have beautiful inexpensive health care) - where have you been and what have you been reading? He promised to eliminate the carried interest loophole. Where was that in his GOP tax heist? Trump said a lot of things. Most of them are lies. Please wake up. An uninformed populace have us this Trump travesty. Read!
1
I am the opposite of an extreme present hedonist. I enjoy time-traveling the whole known 13.5 billion years of history.
Tax cuts to pay back the wealthy for campaign money, to buy votes, and to assure future campaign money to stay in power. Harming the weak and those of modest means while throwing great gobs of money to enlarge the military empire they possess as they assure unfettered access to guns.
I can see the outcome this all is leading to and it is a dim future for Democracy and Americans who will have no health care as they fade away.
3
I know there are people who appear puzzled that the republicans are so contradictory (being all about fighting deficits, then, in power, being all about exploding them)-- but they are just calling out the apparent hypocrisy. Everyone knows by now, or at least anyone who wants to know-- that the republicans are all about increasing our already alarming level of financial inequality. In order to do so they must finally get rid of the all vestiges of the social safety net. Their true attentions, successfully hidden for so long, have become clear as they have achieved more and more of their goals. Pretty much everybody is wise to the con, by now. They are not going to get away with it.
1
Krugman like others keeps asking the question "why do the white, working class support the GOP with the tax cuts and slashing the budget", and refuse to acknowledge that the GOP doesn't have their best interests in mind....and ask why?
The answer is Krugman and the rest don't want to acknowledge it because it is ugly. In the mind set of the white working class, they really believe that the GOP is going to bring home the gold for them (despite the fact that the GOP were one of the biggest cheerleaders of sending jobs to third world countries), that someday "they are gonna be rich, and I don't want to pay taxes either". They believe if you give the rich tax cuts, they are gonna do great....
As far as supporting cuts to social safety net programs, that is a form of racism at work no one wants to acknowledge. The white working class we are talking about when you talk about 'social safety net programs" assumes those are bloated welfare payments going to welfare queens driving cadillacs, they don't see SS or Medicare as that, they don't see farm subsidies and federal block grants and road money and education money as "social safety net" so that of course isn't going to be affected. Likewise, they are against ACA they believe there are freeloaders getting gold plated care for free, and with them 'gone', they are going to get gold plated care that costs little (and guess who the 'freeloaders' are..same people they think are responsible for the deficits).
5
The piece you wrote fifteen years ago Paul is no closer to coming to fruition now than it was then. Speculation and conjecture is interesting the first time around; the second time, not so much.
1
Evidently Americans are the richest people in the world according too people who think they know and want our country tone known as the richest.
Why would anybody want to cut programs that help the elderly and the sick? Even if we are personally in good shape financially and are in good health, we all have family and friends that need or will need help sometime in life. Don't We? Do We?
How can people, Republicans, be so cruel?
Some of us will always be poor or sick or both through no fault of their own.
Support Social security, Healthcare for all and make it so Anyone can afford a good education. I assume our politicians have degrees in this and that though some of them seem to be the stupidest people in the country." Just because your educated does not mean you're smart". You can quote me. Ha
6
This is typical Krugman, attempt to scare people. Look, I am not great supporter of Trump as an individual. but much of what he is trying to do this country needs.
This from the WSJ pretty much sums it all up:
"I loved what Obama say, but hated what he did. I hate what Trump says, but like what he is trying to do".
You may not like how he goes about these efforts, but more or less he is right about the problems this country has. And while Paul hasn't met a tax increase he does like or a handout, This is the strongest economy we have had in years.
Ask yourself, where would we have been with a continuation of Obama's policies with Clinton?
1
@Ron We don't even know who really scares whom in this gun-coveting nation.
@Ron
Obama pulled us out of the Bush Recession and if you look at a graph, we are riding that wave. Isn't that obvious?
1
As Krugman points out here, Trump and the GOP are right about nothing. What is Trump doing besides tearing down the Western World? Conservatives will believe anything as long as the first words are "tax cut".
The Republican party represents the interests and power of wealth, and have been very successful in doing so, as their patrons have been making out like bandits for a very long time now. Wealth inequality is the highest it's ever been and is only increasing. But that isn't enough, they want it all!
They don't want to pay for anything that doesn't directly benefit the wealthiest, going so far as to risk the livelihood, health and ultimately the lives (cf. the opioid crisis) of everyone who is not wealthy by seeking to deprive the rest of us of Social Security, Medicare, Medicaid, affordable health insurance, affordable housing, affordable high-quality education, etc. Going so far as to dismantle our democracy, because a democracy is supposed to represent the interests of the majority of voters, and the majority of voters aren't wealthy.
Alas, ignorant, uninformed voters are the Achilles heel of a democracy, so the Republicans have pulled out all the stops to distract, misinform, misdirect and fan the anger of voters, to con them into voting against what is in their own best interests—which unfortunately are also the best interests of the vast majority of all of us.
And the coming mid-term election will be the test of whether they will be able to achieve their final solution or not!
3
No only did King Trump give huge tax cuts to the stock market and wealthy, he boosted the defense budget by billions, too. As an 84-year old disabled Korean War vet living on Social Security and going to the VA Hospital, I will not stand idly bay and see my life ruined. We can close this country down. In fact, the military taught us how to fight and use a weapon.
5
@Bemused Observer: Will the unregulated militia of the USA really settle this? The Congress seems scared to death of the possibility.
1
@Steve Bolger:Yes, and I'll be in the front line. Let's face it, the Do-Nothing-Repubs use racism and fear to manipulate poor and uneducated people.
Says Paul Krugman, whose economic prowess predicted a market crash after Donald Trump's election. I don't listen to Paul on economic issues. Whatever he says, I do the opposite.
1
The Republicans are running a long term merger and acquisition strategy in this sense: large capital interests are growing to an extent that finally rivals the clout of our federal government.
If one follows a long-term strategy of lowering the cost of a desired asset, one must load the assets’ owner, our government, with debt. Then the obvious cure arises. Get rid of the government’s obligations, but not only the social safety net. A “fire sale.”
What must be emphasized is that the federal government has a very large asset, the federal lands, parks, and forests. We in the west are especially aware of the massive value of these assets. How can one believe that there is any other conservative strategy than
1. impoverish the central government so that regulations and social programs are cut or removed; and,
2. sell off or lease for a song to corporations federal and state real assets, all in the name of “critical deficit reduction?”
Please, fellow readers, is not this the obvious strategy?
1
The Democrats should be on air 24/7 making the public aware that the GOP is scheming to cut Medicare and Social Security (likely Medicaid as well), plus showing other critical statistics like the deficit exploding, inflation outpacing wage gains and rising costs eating up any minuscule tax cuts they received, savings rates at three decade lows, the fact that small businesses are taxed at significantly higher rates than large corporations, etc.
The GOP has gifted Democrats with a tremendous arsenal of material to campaign on, yet I haven't seen or heard the Democrats take advantage of this, at least not with any kind of consistency or discipline. Where are the Democrats to point out these facts? Why do they always seem to be 2-3 steps behind the GOP?
4
@Joe Arena
Because the Democrat leaders are tired and weak. The party needs new forthright strong virtuous outspoken leaders in the tradition of Kennedy and Johnson.
There's a portion of the electorate with a very short attention span... and possibly short and long term memory issues. That's what the GOP counts on when pulling these kinds of stunts. I'm personally convinced that the reason Betsy DeVos is secretary of education is to make sure that the next generation is just as attention challenged... if not even more so.
5
@Derek Martin: Trump is the distillation of his backers.
2
If Social Security and Medicare are cut, the people should file a class action lawsuit against the US government. Paying these taxes are predicated on the fact that we, in the future, will get the benefits that we are paying to retirees now. We should demand our money back.
7
@Chris: They're gonna checkmate that in the courts with "Federalist Society" judges.
5
@Chris
Indeed, the Government under any party control has a contractual agreement to pay the benefits that we paid for in our payroll taxes. To make cuts would violate that contract and leave the government open to that class action you write of. The Republicans are conducting party partisan warfare just as deadly as if they had shot us. Now they use pens to kill us.
2
As you said about the importance of the midterm elections, "for those concerned with the survival of American democracy, that has to be the most important issue at stake in November." The Constitution is on the ballot against what has become the anti-Constitutional Republican Party of Trump. The battle is between democracy and "the rule of law" or autocracy and "the rule of Trump." This supersedes all other issues. This is a national #CodeBlue emergency where every patriotic American no matter their politics must support the Constitution and the democracy it provides. The alternative as you note is the end of democracy and its social safety net and the rule of a Putin-style kleptocracy (aka "con") of oligarchs that have been the hallmark of the corrupt Trump administration.
And who will suffer the most from Social Security and Medicare cuts? The aging, the rural, and those who populate the lower borders of the middle class. The typical Trump voter, in other words. What IS the matter with Kansas? Whatever it is, it’s contagious.
10
There is one important part of the Republican fiscal strategy that is rarely discussed by the media and Democrats: defense spending. This item has become an untouchable one in American budget politics. However, the reality is that America is so far ahead of the other major military powers in defense spending that we could significantly reduce spending and still enjoy clear strategic superiority. By maintaining such a high level of defense spending, roughly over $600 billion this year, the Republicans are marginalizing the Democrats’ budget priorities and those of most Americans while promoting their own: tax breaks for corporations and the wealthy. Unfortunately, Democrats have lacked the political courage to meaningfully address this issue and have been largely complicit in approving our huge defense budgets. Without a significant reduction in defense spending, Democrats have considerably less room to maneuver to protect the majority of the American people.
As Democrats recover and begin to win back the majority in the Congress and regain the White House over the next few election cycles, they must do two things to protect the economic security of Americans in the middle and lower classes: (1) reduce our amount of defense spending (2) eliminate the tax cuts for the wealthy and corporations that have been used to increase the personal wealth of wealthy elites.
11
What are the emotional rewards of being the best goose-stepper in the battalion in a military parade?
The ratio of national debt/GNP has moved above 100% and is increasing while Israel's ratio has been dropping dramatically for 10 years and is now about 0.6 .
Why on earth does the USA continue to give Israel an annual multibillion dollar handout while cutting food vouchers for poor children here ? What about America First ?
We can only hope there will be some cost containment for Social Security and Medicare. Those two programs and defense are the primary components of the unbearable national debt.
I doubt Republicans will have the necessary courage to reduce Social Security and Medicare expenditures.
1
@Prof Emeritus NYC
No, reduce the "defense" budget.
3
@Prof Emeritus NYC, How about replacing all these tedious prescription drug ads on TV with news about what these drugs cost in other countries?
2
The Republican base is completely dependent on the safety net of SS, Medicare, Medicaid to the point where cuts to these programs would be personally devastating to them. If Republicans and or even Trump slash their base’s safety net, their base will go ballistic. Cutting these programs is a heavy and politically dangerous lift, and I do not believe that Republicans are that courageous. Just look at the massive spending bills they have passed in this current Congress. They are not cutting much of anything, and in fact adding money to almost all programs.
3
@Sparky, It is all in a desperate rush to lock in theocracy through the courts so God will be appeased and the bad stuff happening to the US will go away and 1000 years of glory will ensue.
The Democrats who voted against the tax cuts should protest by paying at the old rate.
@Jackson
I will..I'd gladly pay $10 per week more for better services
@Jackson: Libertarianism is just a narcissistic rationale to freeload to me.
Humans tend to live in the moment. When times are bad, we like the Keynesian economic polices that increase taxes and address socioeconomic problems. When times are good we adopt Hayek and cut taxes for the "job creators" and cut services for the "takers."
Keynes told us to maintain taxes to build up a surplus to be available when the next crisis happens. Hayek tells us that if we fund the wealthy there will never be another crisis.
Add to this the fact that humans are easily manipulated and tend to vote their emotions instead of their reason and we have the situation of today.
We want simplistic solutions to increasingly complex problems. We want to return to the past where we knew what was happening, or at least thought we understood.
I wonder what those people who brandished "Keep your government hands off my Medicare/Social Security" posters will think when they gets attacked in Congress and the Senate.
4
@George N. Wells, not quite. Since the Congress is, and knows it is, utterly inept at the most basic level of fiscal policy, i.e., how the government taxes, borrows, lends and spends, it has imposed a "dual mandate" on the Federal Reserve Bank to substitute monetary policy, i.e., regulation of the time value of money measured in interest rates, to ideally maintain both a constant time value of money and full employment. This is a logical impossibility.
Paul, if Democrats win in November will they push for the necessary massive tax increases to shore up social security, Medicare, Medicaid, ACA, infrastructure, education, etc.? I am skeptical that Democrats once in power will push for tax increases. I am not aware of a single Democrat running for election or re-election that has tax increases as part of their platform. Not a single Democratic candidate has said that once elected they will vote to reverse the Trump tax cuts.
6
@Sparky, Nobody seems able to explain to the public how public spending contributes to its own income and security. It is pathetic.
1
@Sparky Well they're not gonna SAY that, Sparky! That'd be crazy!
1
There is no doubt in my mind that if the Republicans keep control of Congress they will extend the tax cut for the rich and then try to cut Medicaid, Medicare and Social Security to pay for it. Everybody has to remember that the last two are social insurance programs. We've paid premiums for them our entire working lives. To cut benefits or change the rules for eligibility is just plain unfair. And for what? More money for the rich? This is what is at stake this November, in addition to exerting some control over Trump and his grifter cronies.
5
The last time Republicans tried to privatize Social Security proved to be a disaster for the GOP, and it would be so again. Trying to do it on the heels of a massive deficit-raising tax cut that benefited no one but the top 1% would make it even more so. Let them try. Even the Appalachian opiod addicts and rural rubes who believe Trump's gibberish and regularly vote against their own economic interests would rise up with pitchforks.
3
In the conflict between the Trump Administration and the liberal media outlets both sides are wrong.
Both groups are willing to polarize, divide and push this country into the civil war in order to be right. If we stay on the current trajectory that is going to happen. It will take some irrelevant spark to unravel everything built over the last quarter of century.
There is a lot of truth in what Trump is rambling about.
However, it is absolutely crazy to pitch the county against itself and the first neighbors over the personal ego.
The true patriots would always resign personally to save the national unity, no question about it…
2
@Kenan Porobic, Stop projecting, and show us the way, then.
@Kenan Porobic, So why did U vote for DT, the most divisive prez in history?
I suggest U first send all DT- voters to Guantanamo for reprogramming, then we can talk...
@Steve Bolger
I showed you the way but you don't understand it. You cannot hate your neighbors and you have to be able to separate the facts from the personal bias. If society is polarized both sides are equally responsible.
The thoughts and threats identified here are truly frightening. America can be seen as being balanced on a razor's edge where it may be willingly hurled into the trash bin of history by a militant, misguided minority.
America isn't now and will not become an aristocracy of the wealthy even though that is the obvious goal and progress toward which the republican party has been embarked on in modern times. Trading away assistance to older Americans who have spent their working lives helping to bring our country to its current position just so a small minority can have larger balances in their accounts and can vie with each other as to how has the largest numbers will not happen, it cannot be allowed to happen.
The wealthy class, that is in, reality, those represented by republicans, shouldn't forget that this country was created by a reaction to injustice and the need to overturn a governing body and its beneficiaries using the all the power that was required.
2
It wasn't just gullibility on the part of the news media that enabled Republican tax cuts, Fox News, the propaganda arm of the GOP blared out praise, and still does even in the face of, yes, facts demonstrating otherwise. Fox wasn't alone, either. The internet has become the news equivalent of leukemia. The cancer literally flows to every computer and cell phone in the land.
If the Republicans succeed in trashing Social Security and Medicare, the end times for democracy will come with blood in the streets. Literally. The old will fight back, even those who who swallowed the Republican poison and voted against their own best interests. They will eventually see the light, or, perhaps more accurately put, recognize the darkness for what it is. Better to go down fighting than starve to death.
5
If the Republicans keep control of the House and the Senate, then the best hope for avoiding Social Security and Medicare cuts is if Donald Trump is still President. He seems to be serious about honoring his campaign pledges to preserve them. If Mike Pence is President, he will cheerfully join other Republicans in slashing Social Security and Medicare. Bad as Trump may be, Pence would be worse.
132
@Cynical Jack The pivotal words are "He seems to be serious about honoring his campaign pledges". Trump 'seemed' sincere about giving every American family a $4000 tax cut. He 'seemed' sincere about providing a better alternative to the ACA. He 'seemed' sincere about revealing his tax returns. He 'seemed' sincere about wanting to meet with Mueller. Only his devoted followers still have faith in Trump's sincerity and they would gladly whip themselves than whisper a word of doubt. When it comes to protecting his own wealth, greatly enhanced through the tax reductions and from his businesses prospering from his presidency, Trump will easily slash Social Security and Medicare, he will then blame Obama or Hillary, and he will reap his rewards.
@Cynical Jack I'm not so sure of that. Remember, he lies, constantly. He'd find a way to cut these programs and spin it in a way that makes his base thinks it's a good thing.
@Cynical Jack
"He seems to be serious about honoring his campaign pledges..."
Really?
When I listen to all of those working class Trump supporters who also claim to be conservative rather than the "socialist" liberals, I mention to them, if the socialistic policies of this country are so bad I offer this, do not apply for SSI or social security in your retirement years, do not apply for medicare or medicaid, refuse VA benefits, no not seek assistance from law enforcement or the fire department. There are many more "socialist" programs, programs that are in place that protects society as a whole.
When these misinformed conservative Trump supporters understand, after the carnage has taken place that their social safety nets are shells of what they at one time were, when they are unable to gain assistance from that socialist safety net, who will they blame? Certainly not themselves, the Greed Over People party or the grifter from Queens. However, much of the blame will belong to them.
9
What has been proven over and over is that the Republicans represent the wealthy and corporations. So why are they in power? Because the American voting pubic does not understand what and who they are voting for.
I guarantee that if the issues, like health care, Social Security, flat tax, environmental concerns and anything else that is in the public interest, were put on the ballot, these are the issues that every person serving in the House and the Senate would have to enforce.
We should not let our future up to those in Congress that will not put the public interests first.
Change the House and Senate.
And while we are at it, let's put on the national ballot a vote to rid us of the Electoral College. In plain words, not some legal mumbo jumbo.
4
If you want to change the House and Senate, start by changing your state house/senate/governor...it is the states who determine house districts and voting laws. Whoever controls the states when the census is complete, controls the electoral map for the next ten years.
@Susan Hofstader
Indeed, this was Carl Roves' master plan during Ws presidency, and it is now coming to fruition.
The Republicans have been trying to drown our government in the bathtub for nearly 40 years. The result, no investments in education, infrastructure or public goods. No increase in wages, declining benefits and more hopelessness and helplessness.
Indeed the suffering that results from Republican Economic Policies is the feature not a bug. They make the people suffer and then blame that suffering on "cultural" issues, like race and immigration.
This is the third time the Republicans have trickled down on the American people and we are about to drown.
18
@Ronny, They make life too uninteresting to live.
Are their observations to be made about the voters who elect them? The 3 card monte is not even hidden from view any more. The politics of spectacle as practiced today flash Fox glitter in their eyes. Their ultimate aim is to skew the benefit towards corporations and the .01 %. Those are the vested interests to invest in.
There is a bizarre disconnect in peoples' minds. I hear people say that "they", the government, is or isn't doing something. Often that something was done by the very people they voted for. Yet they are strangely blind to that.
11
Ummm... As Paul says, there is no news here. Republicans are still working from the same playbook as when pappy Bush was making fun of Reagan's voodoo economics. Clearly, the way so many ignored Reagan's failures and instead idolized him taught the GOP winning is everything and principles are for losers. So, now they are unapologetic when they lie and they deliver their hypocrisy with gusto! Trump may be a cartoon version of this, but his shameless lying is totally in tune with his party.
7
"Starve the beast", "drain the swamp": I propose a drastic pay cut for all members of Congress, and a huge reduction in their job-associated benefits (health care, pensions, etc.) In other words, force them to walk in ordinary American shoes!
7
The interesting thing is that we now have evidence the tax cut really was not a boon to most Americans as the GOP had advertised, and that dependence on Social Security and Medicare is increasing as more and more Americans have no pension, no retirement health care and no sufficient savings. Yet, those same Americans still make up the majority of Trump’s base and seem to vote GOP just as lemmings go to the cliff.
Comes to show that abortion, guns, gays, and barring brown people from entering the country are stronger motivators for the American electorate than their own well being.
8
A Reuters–Ipsos survey (June July '18) found '85 percent of Democrats said they support the "Medicare for all" policy along with 52 percent of Republicans.' (Source: The Hill) This translates to 70% of all Americans and sounds like a safe platform to campaign on. I'm thinking a similar percentage feel the same way about Social Security.
Stripping seniors and disabled Americans of their SS benefits to help cover this government's profligate spending will be hard to spin. I can't get my head around how 'you'll be happier if you're poorer' under Trump... but then I'm neither a Trump nor a GOP voter. Maybe this is 21st. century American Socialism GOP style...
1
I know this sounds counterintuitive, but, allowing Republicans one more bite at the government apple might finally break the grip this party now has on Washington. I feel the voting public, needs a bit more pain to wake up to the GOP con game. Presently, they still think liberal elites are playing smoke and mirrors with them. No, those red hat waving supporters of Trump need so more pain to realize who is blowing smoke at them.
2
Pointing at the con man and exposing his con is admirable but useless when the rubes refuse to listen. The next two national elections aren't about Dems vs Reps but whether the citizens of the US are to stupid to vote for their own future well being.
1
As long as Trump, Fox News, Rush Limbaugh and the so-called "conservative" shock jocks told Trump supporters the lie that it would be good for them, I think we are at the point where they would enthusiastically support more tax cuts for the 1% even if it meant that Social Security and Medicare would be drastically cut. Of course they would prefer that cuts start with Medicaid, food stamps, etc. because in their minds those programs help only non-whites.
4
Hear, hear! Another aspect of "starving the beast" is to place incompetents in charge of federal agencies, then to point at the results of said agencies to demonstrate that they are no longer viable and need to be shifted to the private sector. This is why Besty De Vos is Secretary of Education.
5
....i.e. the creation of a real 'deep state' of seeded madrassa law school graduates replacing the competent disillusioned. All to be buttressed by a complimentary new judiciary and a growing private prison system....
In other, equally compelling though clearly less elegant, words, it ain’t just Trump who’s lying to us.
2
At some point those voters who keep aiming a gun at their own head and their families head and their childrens' head have to grow up and start to take responsibility to preserve programs that they need. If they can't. If they have to keep getting distracted by shiny new objects like NFL players bending as the knee. If they keep allowing their resentments and feelings of victimization to get in the way of being responsible adults then they will indeed lose their healthcare, their retirement savings, their SS, and Medicare. Then they'll whine again until the next right wing populist comes along to pull their chain. Americans DO get the leaders they deserve and right now Trump is that leader because too many voters are acting like children instead of responsible adults.
2
Thanks to irresponsible tax cuts driven by magical thinking we're now seeing trillion dollar annual deficits during a booming economy, which should terrify everyone. The rich are getting richer, wages are flat, and we've no more arrows in our quiver when the next recession hits, and it will hit. #voteblue2018
2
Can anyone tell me why the Democrats and disaffected Republicans and independents aren't running adds talking about 1. Republican corruption, aka the real swamp, and 2. Tax cuts that have benefited the rich at the expense of the average American's social security, medicare, and health care? All they need to do is use clips from interviews such as "the recent interview with CNBC’s John Harwood, Representative Steve Stivers, the chairman of the National Republican Congressional Committee declaring that, given the size of the budget deficit, the federal government needs to save money by cutting spending on social programs... included Social Security and Medicare, he admitted that it did."
Wake up Democrats and disaffected Republicans and Independents! Moral outrage will energize the base but it will not be sufficient to clean out the detritus in Congress!
8
@TR
Great idea TR!
Use some free video software to make that ad and then post it to Twitter, FaceBook, and YouTube.
Alter the universe!
Hamilton also viewed debt as a political good if it was nationally/communally owned, sorta like a positive for your credit rating if you’re making regular payments. Hamilton would be appalled to see debt used to “settle” political scores and dismantle the government as Republicans today use debt.
2
Does anyone listen to paul krugman anymore? can you make predictions (2016) about the equity market/economy that are that stunningly wrong, and still be an "expert"?
4% GDP, the lowest minority unemployment in recorded history, and we're meant to listen to a "world class" economist tell us that the "tax cuts" were a con? This economy, or the slowest post crash recovery in history, via obama? hmmmmm.
1
@Dutch Jameson
The Republican trickle down tax cuts plus the $150 billion in increased spending is a larger stimulus than the Obama stimulus plan in 2009 (a plan Republicans opposed) that brought us out of the greatest recession since the great depression. The only problem is that Trump did his stimulus when the economy was already doing quite well. This is just a sugar high we will all pay for when we come down and crash.
9
@Dutch Jameson,
The economy is continuing on a trend that began under Obama. It's doubtful that it will continue on that trend once the damage from the tariffs kick in and social programs are cut to pay for the tax cuts.
Two things about that 4% GDP: 1) quarterly GDP was over 4% at least three times under Obama; and 2) it was 4% last quarter because farmers rushed to sell their soybeans before the tariffs went into effect. It's doubtful quarterly GDP will be that high again.
2
@Dutch Jameson Wait for it. It is coming and we’re not just in Kansas anymore.
1
trump voting red states are the ones benefiting the most from Medicaid, Medicare and Social Security.
They are also the ones where the level of education is the lowest and poverty , opioid crisis , health conditions ,alcoholism, environmental abuse , etc are the highest in the Country.
Given all of the above , one has to wonder about the mental status of these trumpian voters .
They must be watching only Fox News or be almost completely illiterate.
3
@Inter nos -- I understand you feelings, but Trump voters in poverty areas don't support him for his policies. They support him because he offers them dignity … or some odd variant of it.
It's perverse, but very real.
Krugman is clear as a bell, but most people refuse to listen, or even think about it.
Unfortunately, there is so much lying from politicians that I believe that people are now callous to the din; and make up their minds by headlines and "appearance".
Listen to the voice of the loudest lying.
2
Let's just deal with the problem. The scam works because of a basic American view of taxes and government that goes back to Jefferson. This view has fused with modern consumerism (1950s) and immediate gratification (1960s). Advertisers sell reckless behavior as adventurousness and "risk-taking." Local news treats "Black Friday" (i.e., Naughty Friday) as a self-indulgent extension of a onetime Puritan holiday. Big Baby Trump enacts these infantile urges. "Just Do It" becomes "Just Grab It."
4
Prof. Krugman, in his opening paragraph, says "the U.S. electoral system gives excess weight to rural, white voters...". Indeed it does when half of the U.S. population is represented by 18 U.S. Senators, and the other half is represented by 82 U.S. Senators - many of them from states filled with "white, rural voters". The minority is ruling the majority, and this angers me greatly. How about you? How is it fair and representative that Wyoming with about 1/2 million population has the same number of Senators as California with nearly 40 million population! And don't tell me about the representation in the House of Representatives. It's the Senate that is the high mark. Something's gotta give!
13
@Pat Boice Not to mention the disproportionality of the Electoral College. California should have 2-3 times as many EC votes as it does if had the same proportion of population to EC votes as Wyoming. No matter what party, I don't think there's a single member of Congress as smart as the least intelligent Founding Father...the latter group would see what has happened to the EC and fix it. The U.S. is on its last legs slowly heading to the dustbin of history...the percentage of the U.S. population that is dumb and ignorant just keeps growing decade by decade.
2
@Cowboy Marine Thanks for pointing the EC out - to be truthful, I hadn't even thought about that part of the disproportion, even though I've been furious at the EC.
Unfortunately, too many of us are into demonizing the other guy, you know, the guy responsible for the mess we’re all in; whoever that guy may be! Pick your demon!
It may be a wonderfully therapeutic means of exorcising one’s demons, but doesn’t seem to remediate our problems, and may even further calcify the intransigent social/political positions so many of us hold.
What to do? Well, we’ve been kicking the can down the road on our legacy programs at least since WW 2. Maybe we should try an adult behavior - like talking/negotiating - seriously this time! But, hey I’m having too much therapeutic fun blaming (fill in the blank). It’s just a game anyway!
What I'm curious to know is how Republicans ever get elected in the first place. I mean, don't average Americans understand by now that the Republican party's first and primary consideration is how to shift as much tax revenue to those who need it least from those who need it most? A good analogy would be a sort of reverse Robin Hood effect i.e. "Steal from the poor and middle class and give to the rich." What makes this so difficult for average Americans to understand...Remember it was just a few months ago when Republicans were foaming at the mouth at the opportunity to nullify or negate Obama's Affordable Care Act.
C'mon America. Wake up! The Republican Party does NOT have your best interests at heart!
10
The Committee for a Responsible Federal Budget, which gave Ryan that award, at a gala that "brought together DC A-listers like former Federal Reserve Chairman Alan Greenspan" seems to be a collection of the propagandists congratulating themselves. They say that the American people will support "responsible fiscal policy" when they understand better that it's necessary. They say that Democrats are obstructing "reorganization" of Social Security, which must be done because it's running out of money. In short, the same endless lies, and the liars telling each other how wise and responsible they are. But it gets some press. The same BIG LIES repeated endlessly WORK! Democrats need to speak up and get more column-inches!
4
The republican hypocrisy has hit the roof and every day it is getting more scary. They talk about social safety nets as if they are handouts to the people and at each opportunity they try to take them away. Nothing is further from the truth. Throughout our working life we have paid for these safety nets in every single paycheck. They represent our money that we worked hard for all our working life and no one has a right to take them away. If they want to cut Social security and Medicare; then we should stop paying for them too. They cannot have the cake and eat it too. The attacks on our democracy is beginning to take a toll on the regular people. I have even started to hear republicans in social media calling our country a republic and not a democracy. Scary times for all of us who believe in our democracy.
259
@MZ
"I have even started to hear republicans in social media calling our country a republic and not a democracy."
Oh yes. They were at it, and not just in social media, in defence of the electoral college victory from the start of this presidency. I wouldn't be surprised if the same point was being made to justify the electoral college victory in 2000.
A one-person-one-vote democratic state the USA is not, I'm afraid. And conservatives are right when they say that that's the way it was set up.
I've seen conservative stalwarts in these comments sections studiously avoiding the words "democratic" and "democracy" in their discussions of what they like to call "issues of governance" - i.e. gerrymanders, voter suppression and the like.
@MZ
Technically, our country is a republic. We elect people to represent us, we don't vote directly for legislation. So be very careful for whom you vote! (Please vote D in every contest, from dogcatcher to Senator.)
@Kris
Direct democracies are as rare as dodos. Representative democracies are the norm. They are still democracies. Republics offer to protect rights, including minority rights, via their constitutions. That doesn't necessarily make them democratic. Most people regard democracies as representative government with more or less equal votes.
The USA, as a federated republic, mandates the malapportionment of votes, particularly in the senate and in the electoral college, not so much the House of Reps.
Hostile definitions of democracy define it as rule by the undifferentiated "demos" (people, mob) and don't much care whether votes within the mob are malapportioned or not. But I would think the relevant point for MZ, and for most people who favour democracy (whether republican or not) is that votes should be as equal as possible. Conservative commentators often use America's status as a rights-protecting republic to suggest that malapportionment doesn't matter.
Considering the entire lack of focused self interest by so many in the not-rich class, it may take a total melt-down of the social support system just to get their attention.
In 1929, there was no effective social support to lean on, and the crash on Wall Street was felt both quickly and deeply. Would we, as a nation, have gambled on FDR if things were less dire? A good question we need to ask today, because we're approaching that point again.
2
Social Security and Medicare are funded independently with a dedicated withholding tax. The GOP tax reforms do not cut a penny from these programs.
Next, tax revenues since the reforms went into effect have risen slightly, not fallen, because taxable economic growth has increased. No matter how many articles Mr. Krugman rights denying reality, tax revenues have increased every time we have flattened and broadened the tax code.
A bipartisan agreement to massively increase spending on non-Social Security and Medicare budget items during an election year is solely to blame for the federal government's increased borrowing. So, yes, the cure for deficits is spending reductions.
2
@Bart DePalma There is the revenue side of the public sector, and there is the spending side of the public sector. Boy do I think the US spends public money stupidly.
Going with an 'America First' theme, it looks like we'll need to cut the military budget in order to take care of the 'forgotten people' of the USA. We must strengthen Social Security, Education, Medicare, Medicaid expansion, and rely on something more than a 'free market' prayer. That was the American way in parts of the the last century.
Republicans are wrecking the social aspect of our national greatness. And, this is why independent voters need to vote with Democrats this year.
5
Vote for Democrats in November or one more pillar of the democratic edifice will topple. Maybe more than one. This mid-term vote is not a Democrat versus Republican vote. It is a democracy versus autocracy vote. Don't agree? Look at Trump's Cabinet members. All is crumbling down, folks.
12
The GOP will do anything to avoid actual cuts. They will probably raise taxes and premiums for 'affluent' retirees, where they get to define affluent.
If you are retired, and your income is over $50K, you'll be paying more tax on your SS and higher Medicare premiums. Then they can say they didn't cut the actual payments.
They will also crack down on SS disability cheating, and try to find a way to get people under 65 back working.
4
“Social Security and Medicare, would also be on the chopping block. Who says so? Republicans themselves.” Dr. Krugman, I think it would be useful if you would write a column exclusively on the subject of Social Security. As I understand it, Social Security is a stand-alone system designed to pay benefits out of revenue collected. Back when Reagan was president, he and Tip O’Neill foresaw a shortfall in revenue because of retiring baby boomers and raised rates and limits to build up the Social Security Trust Fund so the money would be there to pay benefits. But the money isn’t there because the federal government has borrowed the money and owes it to the workers whose taxes built up the fund. Now, Republicans in Congress want to renege on paying back these funds. As far as I’m concerned, Social Security benefits should be regarded by Congress as a sacred obligation of the federal government just as bonds – many held by foreign investors – are.
19
@ttb Social Security replaces the investment portfolio of a private pension provider with "the full faith and credit of the United States". This effectively makes the whole country the investment portfolio of Social Security.
1
Krugman is the last person in the world who should be expressing an opinion on the plusses and minuses of the Trump tax law. When it comes to Trump, Republicans or conservatives, Krugman has zero capacity to view issues from anything resembling a fair and balanced perspective.
I am looking forward, some day, to reading an analysis of the impact of the tax law from an actual knowledgeable and unbiased source, if I can ever find such a source. But I will say this: to the extent an objective of the tax law is to benefit middle class families, that is a good thing. If the current law falls short of such an objective, hopefully it can be amended appropriately, and is not etched in stone.
1
@ATF -- the jury retired, deliberated and returned a verdict on the efficacy of the current round of tax cuts. They did exactly what their critics claimed they would do and nothing more. If you're a major stockholder, you have to love the stock buy-backs. If you have a high income, the tax cuts are your cup of tea. Otherwise, take the few crumbs you got today, because the reckoning is coming soon.
On a personal note, my heart goes out to Gov. Wolf. Cancer survivor he looks exhausted. Civics is down, we teach our children to vote with a dollar--is it presumptuous to point to the next generation of gambling addicts--that feed sector in our local economy? I know, I know, golden years.
The problems are overwhelming.
Do I support a community college? I do not at this time. I think the already struggling funding for education will make the pie thinner. I am for reform of our healthcare system and education system.
But clear Mr. Krugman, you believe that the current trajectory of social security and medicare is unsustainable? Surely you believe that our government should not continue to "kick the can down the road" until both programs are in full bloom crisis? What should we do to these programs that make up so much of our annual spending?
I too agree that the tax cuts are a big con game. (It can better be described as the federal government loaning money to corporations). I was most infuriated when my senator, Mr. Toomey, authored and strongly supported the tax cut bill. Mr. Toomey has long held himself as a deficit hawk. He has played the game described in your article and I hold him directly accountable for playing politics at the expense of supposedly deeply held fiscal conservative beliefs.
But we still need a solution to social security and medicare other than - keep spending levels on the same ever increasing path. Is it possible that our government needs an outright fiscal crisis to solve this problem? Decades of congressional inaction supports this thesis. And that I think is the end game of the tax cut bill.
3
@deedubs
We also need a solution to the ongoing immigration crisis that is fair to U.S. citizens, immigrants already in the country (including the DACA dreamers) and to those outside the country, especially refugees and those seeking legal asylum. The last five presidents have failed to come up with a plan for this. Perhaps our next president and Congress can.
Warning! this column contains actual provable facts. Attention Trump supporters, read this column at your own risk. Seriously, if most Republican voters who could not just write a check for the full cost of cancer treatment or cardiac surgery read and understood this they would jump ship by the millions. Any of those folks who might need a bit of reliable income help to have a comfortable retirement wold do the same. Culture war issues won’t keep you out of the hospital or pay the mortgage. Wake up people before it’s too late.
35
Social Security has absolutely NOTHING to do with the Treasury deficit. The Treasury has not borrowed one red cent to pay SS benefits. Indeed, the Treasury borrows money from the SS Fund. Krugman knows that but still tries to link SS into the budget fight.
Anyone can read the Actuary's Report to learn this for themselves. We can thank Lyndon Johnson for consolidating SS into the "budget" to conceal his Treasury deficits. Imagine if IBM consolidated its pension fund into its earnings statements. The whole world would scream "fraud"!
6
@LMJr - The SS reserve fund does not exist in any meaningful sense. It is just an IOU from the US to the US. In order to pay this IOU, the US needs to either raise taxes or borrow money.
1
@LMJr
With respect, I think you should read the op-ed again. This piece is about politics not what Treasury does. It's about the debt and how lack of revenue will require the congress to anti up cash for the government programs. SS is a government program. If there is another balloon added to the debt, politics will play the game of declaring the need to spend less and will attack the big ticket items: SS and Medicare and Medicaid.
2
@LMJr
As I understand it the change LBJ made in accounting procedures only (to hide the Vietnam deficit, as you say) is no longer in place, but yes, you are correct the SS Trust surplus is invested in government securities (the "borrowing" you mention), tho' I would add the Trust surplus does need to be invested somewhere, and Wall Street has proved time and again (most recently during the Bush Crash) it's not that safe a bet.
Though he did not distinguish between the nation's budget and the SS Trust funds, I believe Mr. Krugman understands all that and more.
He's saying the treasury deficit will be used as an EXCUSE to cut SS and Medicare (whose surplus is not nearly so healthy), or use it to pry some of that surplus out of government hands and into Wall Street coffers. Most likely both.
I live on the other side of the country but I can hear Wall Street slaver from here.
1
No CEO should make more than 40 times what the lowest paid employee makes- as opposed to obscene 250 times as much. Do the math. The low worker is paid $25 per hour for a 40 hour work week= $1000. $1000 x 50 weeks = $50,000 per year.
The CEO makes 40 times that. 40 x 50,000 = $2 million per year.
Plenty to live on and share solidarity with the employees. Apply the
excess to SS and single payer health insurance.
37
@Barry Cuda
The real problem with CEO pay is not the ratio, it is how they are paid. Typical CEO salary compensation (cash) is around 1 million a year, which is roughly 30 times average pay. The problem is that 90% of CEO compensation typically comes from stock based grants, so that CEO making 1.x million a year in cash is making 10,15,20 million + in stock....and that stock is often taxed at the 15% rate (not to mention that that kind of incentive is what leads companies to slash workers, not give pay increases, the biggest boost to stock price is keeping "expenses' under control, labor being the biggest....note that stock compensation doesn't count, since that is not a 'cost' they charge against revenue..cute, right?).
If they really want to help get rid of the deficit, put SS under the budget, and get rid of the salary cap on SS contributions, which is the most regressive tax we have. Many people pay the full rate, whereas executives and the like pay off their SS on Jan 1st at noon and pay like .0000x% of their salary in ss.
1
One problem is that the whole political discussion has been dragged into abstraction - abortion and "welfare." Democrats need to be talking about real people's pocket books. First, the Republicans want to bankrupt working people with healthcare bills. They actually are talking about making employer provided healthcare optional. Cutting funding for healthcare will bankrupt workers, not only for the health of their immediate families, but because their parents will be bankrupt when the inevitable infirmities of old age set in. Healthcare is already too expensive, it will only get worse. The family farm will be sold to corporations for pennies. And draining the Social Security trust (remember, it's already paid for, is separate from the budget and is funded through 2037) means mom and dad, and maybe grandpa and grandma too, will be moving in with you. This is real pain for real people, it does not involve imposing your belief system on others or having theirs imposed on you. And there will be no miraculous trickle down solution, the oligarchs protect their own no matter what. We cannot afford the Republicans, they are bankrupting the rest of us. Protect your own household, vote Democratic.
28
@Eero -- if I was a religious person, I would offer a loud AMEN!
Underlying the tactics that Mr. Krugman lays out in this article is that Republicans want a small Federal government, except for the military, and benefits only for business, and by proxy, wealthy people. So, give the treasury to business and the wealthy and what's left to the military. Anything else is very small potatoes.
9
@Paul Loechl -- note how often the wealthy favor pay raises for the military and first responders, while denigrating other government employees as something negative (the deep state is the current rendition). This is self interest at its worst: bribe those who will be there to keep you safe when the bottom drops out. It's cynicism, pure and simple.
If a program is popular enough, the money will be found. The Republicans found $12 billion they didn't know they had, so they could pay off farmers who were 'hurt' by the Republican tariffs (from now on it's better to lay everything on 'Republicans', not Trump). It would be interesting to look over a schedule of who got that $12 billion....
The Republicans found the money for the F-35 fighter jet and the hypersonic missile, and on and on. They like to 'spend and don't tax'. It's all on the credit card.
Democrats, if they have the votes, can find the money to give everyone on Social Security a 5% raise and lower the premiums for Medicare - how do you think that one will play in Peoria (or Sun City)? If they really wanted to they could find the money to support 'Medicare for All'. And they could find the money to pay down the deficit and the national debt, if they have the votes. Of course a few people will have to have a 'haircut', as the stock brokers say - and the stockbrokers might be the ones who need it.
There are lots of places you can find money to pay for things you really want to have.
So the moral is, vote Democratic - straight ticket!
636
@The Observer
Perhaps we could end a war or two, and bring home 100,000 troops or so ( a small amount ). We could cut the defense budget a modest 5% ( still leaving it tens of times more than all of our allies combined ) . Do we really need aircraft carriers, now that we have a space force ?
Just a snippet of the above would finance single payer for all, 2 years of higher education for all and even 40 acres and a mule. - Maybe not that last one, but we should get on that one as well. It has been way too long for them to wait.
Just a thought.
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@FunkyIrishman, just a bit premature with that space force. And we will, for sure, need "spacecraft carriers". Don't you agree?
1
@The Observer-Let's look at who gets the $12 Billion. Corporate farms. (Per links below): About 39 percent of the nation's 2.1 million farms receive subsidies, with the lion's share of the handouts going to the LARGEST PRODUCERS of corn, soybeans, wheat, cotton, and rice. In the three largest farm subsidy programs — insurance, ARC, and PLC — more than 70 percent of the handouts go to farmers of just three crops — corn, soybeans, and wheat...Looking at the period from 1995 to 2014, the Environmental Working Group (EWG) found that 50 people on the Forbes 400 list of the wealthiest Americans received farm subsidies."
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Agricultural_subsidy
https://www.downsizinggovernment.org/agriculture/subsidies
9
America's collective political memory is frighteningly short. Think back, for example, to the 2008 election when the Bush presidency had driven the country to the brink of ruin. Still, McCain declared that the economy was sound, only to have it soon undergo the most serious crisis since the Great Depression. It was clear then that the GOP ran on by bad ideas, bad policies and bad ethics, all expressed in bad faith. It should have been the end of the party right then, but it didn't happen. Instead, the Republicans dug in, while the Democrats treated people like McConnell and Boehner with undeserved respect. Trump may or may not last, but we can be confident that the Republicans will fielding another monster to replace him. When, America, will you learn?
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@Bob Chisholm, McCain was so rattled by the economic instability, he threw the election with a crazy choice of VP nominee.
There is no such thing as good faith in the Republican Party. They elected a grifter because they are grifters all the way down.
5
@Bob Chisholm: You ask "When, America, will you learn?", yet last time I looked, the UK still had a Tory government. You might want to ask the same question of yourselves.
1
@Bob Chisholm Part of the problem, and I wish it wasn't a problem at all: Democrats/liberals these days try to treat EVERYBODY with respect, and tend to assume those doing suspect things are merely misguided or ignorant and not outright evil. (Small "e" evil: petty, vain, greedy, willfully prejudiced.) Republicans/conservatives go for the throat; they will maintain political power at all costs, by any means necessary. Only after they secure power do they then back-bite each other and stand on principle, but only so long as that doesn't begin to erode their hold on overall power.
The current GOP-controlled Congress is a perfect example, which is why it was so shocking when McCain bucked the party line and stopped that horrendous health care bill. That's why for 8 years, under Obama since 2010 and even under their own President, they can get little done. Gaining the power to govern does not mean one has the skill or will to govern, but they're all about the power. it's no accident of fate that the only "achievement" of full GOP control of the reins of government, besides some conservative judges and Trump's avalanche of executive orders, is the odorous tax bill. Something that puts millions of dollars in their pockets from lobbyists, or their own businesses.
The media is primarily liberal of thought, if not necessarily of politics. Why else did it take so long before even some would call Trump's lies, lies?
As for monsters - if Trump goes soon, Pence is next in line...
''The puzzle is why Republicans keep getting away with this bait-and-switch.'' - they get away with it, because people keep voting out of tribe (or against other), think that as long as the core programs are there, that they will enjoy their meager tax cut (not caring if billionaires get a massive one), and are usually single social issue voters. (such as abortion)
I can understand how you would think Democrats are not going to get control back of the House and/or Senate Dr. Krugman, but I am far more bullish. I think republicans lose control and may never get it back ever again.
There is no more give as far tax theft goes - it has been cutting into the bone for far too long. (infrastructure all around is failing or crumbling)
The ''tribe'' is shrinking. Demographics are seeing to that, but the usual social issues (other than abortion) are really no longer on the ballot. Human rights are a given and are being demanded for now, and not somewhere down the line.
Finally the right has puled the political spectrum so ridiculously and radically to the extreme, that the center is no longer there. (and not even republican lite anymore)
Socialism, Communism, and every other ''ism'' is being thrown at any movement towards common sense things, like human rights, peace, fair pay for a fair day's work, health care and so on.
I expect there to be a series of collapses for the right starting at the midterms, and continuing on through the impeachment hearings, in 2020 and so on.
512
I hope you are right. I fear you underestimate the cravenness of the Democratic Party apparatus.
5
@FunkyIrishman I'd love to agree with you, Funky, but I fear you underestimate the stupidity of the electorate. You can see for yourself how susceptible many are to an obvious con.
19
@Robert
I hear ya. but better to move the needle within the party, instead of looking in from the outside, waiting for the revolution to magically appear. (like now)
Keep the faith.
The essence of Republican economic philosophy is and has always been cost shifting. The only question they've ever asked is: how do I get somebody else to pay for my obligations to my fellow Americans. So deficit hawk or tax cutting dove, it's all the same. The only thing that changes is the language used to get somebody else to pick up the tab. What could be more consistent than the free rider philosophy of the Republican party?
32
Since the concepts Dr. Krugman succinctly detail here are so vital for all to know - but can be difficult for some to understand, could some graphic guru develop a good, simple story about how this happens? Something that would show when and what has happened in the past and the unfortunate repeat now?
Maybe that would then be something all interested persons could use to illustrate this egregious practice of the Rs.
17
@Katie If this really is difficult for the masses to understand, then there's a problem with how we educate our children, one much bigger than school shootings. We obviously don't learn basic logic, researching facts, or recognizing sociopolitical and economic trends. Nor do we learn the rudiments of graphs, which would tell anyone who cares to look that over 90% of the strength of the US economy today is thanks to Obama's administration; Trump's policies are actually beginning a decline.
Okay, maybe we aren't learning these things young. We have the damned Internet! Virtually all of human learning at our fingertips, within minutes. There are countless articles and studies available, some of them pretty simple...if one just takes the time to search.
Maybe the biggest problem in America is that our kids expect knowledge to be fed to them, instead of being taught to reach out for themselves and grab it by the throat. Maybe that's why propaganda, even "fake news" from unverified sources in social media, so successfully gets people to believe in even the wildest bs.
Mr. Krugman's thesis is not hard to understand. At least, it shouldn't be, for citizens of the wealthiest and most powerful nation on Earth. If it is, it's pretty scary that we ARE the wealthiest and most powerful nation. That means we can screw EVERYBODY up with our foolishness. Real bad. In fact, isn't that what Trump and his GOP enablers are doing, even now? Wait until the bill for the tax cut comes due.
Sad.
For most, the amount of the tax cut received will be just enough to pay for increases in gas and commodity prices.
The end goal of Republicans is the elimination of Social Security and Medicare and a return to the halcyon days of the robber barons.
They are just too cowardly to tell the voters this.
28
Anyone with half a brain realizes that this is and has been THE Republican strategy for many years now. It has been so constant it's like it has disappeared into the background noise. What I don't get is why the Democrats aren't screaming about this at the top of their lungs? Shoring up Medicare and Social Security are two of the most important things the Congress should do. Nobody's talking about it and the clock is ticking. If we take steps to fund them now, long before they go bust, the pain in higher taxes will be much lower than if we wait for bank to run dry. But I'm not a politician. I don't set my priorities by what is polling strongly. I'm more interested in staying alive and being healthy.
1127
@Bruce Rozenblit
Those Democrats who are still in charge of their party don't seem to have much passion to save the safety net. Barack Obama offered to put the Medicare eligibility age on the table for revision (up) during the 'fiscal cliff' discussions in 2011. Luckily for voters of average means & average health, his offer was ignored by the Tea Party faction at the time. This is one place where the Sanders message first started to gain adherents, & will prove to be a central fault line within the Democratic Party once they emerge from the broadly unifying 'liberal' identity they can hide behind as long as Trump is the comparison.
18
@Bruce Rozenblit The party which controls Congress, in this case Republican, also controls which bills are created and voted on. Democrats are relatively powerless to make the legislative changes they would like to see in Congress. It is not about polling for the Democrats. We the people need to be shouting about these betrayals of our social compact. Blue Wave 2018 !
30
@Bruce Rozenblit
...my fellow Democrats seem to lack common sense. They campaign on issues like transgender bathrooms when the real issue is that tax cuts are pulling the rug out from under the entire social safety net.
Progessives seem to lack pragmatism and that's why the working class has abandoned the Democratic party.
2
I agree the Republican Party has lost their way and need to get back to being fiscal conservatives. But get your facts straight. Tax revenues are UP this year. Increased economic activity has been created by the tax cuts as business and consumer spending and confidence have increased. Local sales taxes are also up. Problem is entitlements continue to increase at a faster rate than revenues. We do need to cut back on entitlements. It makes no sense that people who have made multiple millions throughout their careers receive social security. There should be no changes for lower income level individuals or the truly disabled. Liberals continue the false pretense that grannys will lose their. Social security. Not true. For the record I’m an independent fiscal conservative disgusted with both sides of aisle.
4
@Don Why should people who already have multiple millions and even billions of dollars in wealth continually get tax cuts?
We DO NOT need to cut back on entitlements. We need to cut back on handouts to the rich.
16
@Don -- you may be right saying, "... But get your facts straight. Tax revenues are UP this year." What you miss entirely is why. Corporations repatriated massive overseas holdings at tax rates that were pennies on the dollar. Then, they bought back their ow stock and enriched their stockholders. FWIW, you only get to do that once.
@Don
Your statement is a typical GOP half truth. Tax revenues are up, but the problem is that they are dwarfed by the loss of tax revenue thanks to the GOP budget cuts. The budget deficit for the first 5 months of the year is 500 billion dollars, and projects are the budget deficit will be 1 trillion dollars this year, and that isn't because entitlement spending has grown, that is almost double what the defict was before Trump took office.
With Social Security we aren't talking about not giving SS to those who make millions a year, we are talking about slashing payments for people who worked all their lives and now rely on SS heavily. The truth is the GOP has refused to even talk about capping SS benefits for the very wealthy, they argue that a CEO or executive or well off person 'paid into SS, and they are owed those benefits, SS is a truth fund" (which of course is a joke), likewise the GOP have refused to even talk about pulling the cap on SS salary (which 95% of Americans pay the full 7.5%), arguing that it wouldn't be 'fair' to charge a CEO the full 7.5%, because they could only collect a limited amount from SS, so they would be paying for something they didn't get any return on.
My take on SS is we should drop the idea it is a trust fund and make it another item in the budget, and that we remove the cap on SS tax. This would allow us to pay for the ss beneffits and also would stop SS from being a ridiculously regressive tax, one that is de facto used as general tax
I just don't understand why every Democratic candidate isn't saying "if you vote for my opponent, you can kiss the Social Security and Medicare benefits you've earned from a lifetime of work goodbye". The engineering of creating huge deficits while the economy is booming will be the "justification" for making significant cuts to both programs.
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Dr. K. Although I wholly agree with the premise that Republicans are attempting to privatize or dismantle Social Security I would suggest the Democrats aren’t doing a much better job. During the most recent Depression, what it can only be called by working class stiffs like myself without the money to invest and ride the latest bull in the “debatable” recovery who began collecting Social Security at this Inopportune time, have seen no meaningful increases from the system we paid into (in my instance for sixty plus years(( and as a largely self employed worker that was 12% a year off the top)). Both parties are part of a system designer to eliminate S.S. by denying the real rate of inflation and using C.O.L.A. to increase or in the case of the last decade NOT increase payments, even though healthcare, rents and life’s necessities rose dramatically. This during a period when we also suffered zero bound interest rates, negative when considering real inflation, allowing central bankers to pour money into a financial system rigged to bailout and benefit their financier brethren, whether of the actual banker types or those allowed to convert to bank status(like Goldman and A.I.G.)so they could back their truck up to the discount window and load it withsavers dollars which they then zip around the world doing their carry trade, swaps and straddles. Bottom line Paul the older working class has been dumped by both sides, the young know the future their inheriting and it’s not good.
16
And where is the Democrats' unifying campaign theme that would attack those attempts? Where is the equivalent of a "contract with working Americans"? Where is the effort to make "Fair Play" a topic, addressing the looting of federal and state budgets at the expense of the middle class and low income citizens, all in favour of the top 10 or 1%?
25
The majority of the S population needs these benefits, so it's a factor of that majority not caring enough for themselves, and our democracy to learn the Facts, and vote them. Yes, facts exist, and are gong to bite us, the majority, in the behind. The Republicans have been trying to get rid of social programs since their inception. View Australia as a cautionary tale. A political establishment that refuses to believe in the facts of climate change, and a media controlled by an oilman/media tycoon that has been controlling the message, as king don don tries to. WAKE UP and vote.
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@Viriditas Unfortunately, those who could make a change for the better are not in the majority.
3
What PK apparently doesn't realize is that the Republican/Libertarian leadership have different goals. They don't need Medicare or Social Security because they are able to finance their own healthcare and retirement. They only want things that directly benefit themselves; they have the foresight and compassion of the French nobility just before the Revolution.
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@Elwood. The French Revolution was actually initiated by an independent faction of nobles who wanted to create a Parliament to rule alongside and help constrain the King. The Marquis de Lafayette was one of those nobles.
2
Can we label them Democrats?
@Ambroisine
My Republican congressman, Keith Rothfus, having previously protected by gerrymandering, now redistricted by the court, faces Conor Lamb in the mid term. He suddenly has become a proponent an d savior of Social Security in t.v. ads featuring his mother. We don't believe him. His past record tells the truth!
37
How do you convince the GOP base that they are better of without jobs, health care, education or a clean environment? Simple, promise them that you would get rid of all the bad people that don't look like them.
39
@Bruce -- close, but not quite right. I live squarely in the middle of Red America, and the less-than-well-to-do whites here are much more concerned about their place in the pecking order than their wealth. As long as others are doing worse, they're good.
The deficit hawks justify this by telling themselves they're playing the long game. Deficits now will allow them to gut SS/Medicare, which will allow low taxes and a balanced budget down the road, if they can just keep the faith that there's a pot of gold at the end of the rainbow. They are basically gambling that they will each personally be able to accumulate enough wealth after their political careers are over (working for think tanks, Fox News, lobbying firms, etc.) that their own families won't have to rely on these programs down the road.
15
simple: those who ignore history are doomed to repeat it. Yes look at the Republican history of cutting taxes for the rich, reducing regulations then cutting social spending and then the recessions that followed. Just look at the 8 years of the W Bush run and their efforts to dismantle Social Security so someone could get a hold of that money that was formerly protected by the government. Had that happened, when the market crashed then many would have lost their only safety savings net. The same happened with Reagan when they passed legislation that allowed one to borrow against your home. Then the Savings and Loan crisis hit with the recession that followed and many lost their only long term investment. Go figure! Who votes for these film flam Greedy folks at their own peril.
30
We have an overtly corrupt administration, a thoroughly supine congress, an increasingly and radically politicized judicial system, wealth concentration of Gilded Age proportions, a federal deficit about to skyrocket - and that's just domestic policy. Meanwhile, our allies have been thoroughly alienated, and our so-called president, who "governs" by tweet, is aligned with global pariahs. Such is life under the GOP, as you detail the same as it ever was, only worse. And yet, here we are on the cusp of another midterm election that amazingly appears to hang in the balance. I've thought for decades that human nature requires that conditions must become extreme before the majority understands that the status quo is ruinous, and that change is therefore vital. But we are now at the extreme, with denial of climate change, etc., and we're content primarily due to a bubble stock market? How dumb can we be? Well, if we're that dumb, we deserve our fate. But the planet doesn't.
40
The survival of our Democracy is what is actually on the ballot . There is no Republican Party anymore . It has been replaced by a cult of personality . The cult members , the so called base , do what you expect them to do , and that is to act irrationally . They will blindly follow the leader to disaster . Most GOP politicians and members of the administration , the so called enablers , know better but are afraid of the base . The leader of the cult is a man with severe personality problems . He is not well . That is frequently the case with cult leaders . But do not despair . Most Americans , 2/3 of the population , are not under the spell of the cult leader . In the end the sane people will vote with their self interest in mind . And that vote will mean the end of the Trump nightmare .
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@Bernardo Izaguirre MD
I wish I had your optimism, but as Dr. Krugman noted, the Republicans have rigged the election system in their favor.
20
"In the end the sane people will vote with their self interest in mind."
Time after time it has been illustrated that voters do not vote according to self-interest—if such were the case we would not be in the mess we find ourselves. Political affiliation and culture wars blind far too many.
As much as I would like to share your optomism and faith in the rationality of my fellow Americans, I can not. Ultimately, it will take something as basic as pain and personal misfortune to clarify the minds of too voters. As long as there is an other, a lower class, a manority, non-believers, or the less deserving to blame they will—while undermining themselves with their votes.
Significant numbers of people simply don't comprehend why "the rich get richer and the poor get poorer. " In a democracy the rich dupe the poor into voting against their self-interest through obfuscation, religious appeals, and the bait and switch of political tactics.
2
"Now, Republicans who call for cuts in social spending to balance the budget are showing extraordinary chutzpah, which is traditionally defined as what you exhibit when you kill your parents, then plead for mercy because you’re an orphan."
I don't think you can say it any better than this. As a party of and for the wealthy, it's clear Republicans don't give a hoot about the middle and lower classes.
So they kill them with program cuts. You know that's what will happen if they kill the ACA and so severely reduce Medicare and Social Security--programs workers have paid into all their lives--that the elderly are forced to forego care.
Baby boomers and generations immediately following haven't saved enough for a safe retirement. Cuts to their health and financial entitlements will likely lead to premature deaths.
And yet, the very people most affected--the rural poor--take the bait of culture wars every single time and vote for guns and bigotry.
It's a conundrum alright, and I see no way out.
84
@ChristineMcM To which I say, work hard and volunteer to help get out the vote!
Apparently Republican Congress aren't driving the streets of their home towns. With the Republican tax cuts for .0001% and cuts to the social safety nets to pay for the tax cuts we have more and more of the elderly begging on street corners. Not just in big cities but small Republican strong holds and even rural red America. Americans need to vote on Congressional accomplishments and the Republicans have no accomplishments except to make Americans poorer.
40
I live in a rural community and as a physician I have had serious health discussions, including life-style changes. There is a great work ethic in my peops, they define themselves in their work, farmers, tradesmen, road workers, and they like work. But they also smoke too much, and don't exercise much and at some point their bodies fail for many, not most in late middle age. When their bodies fail, they need to go on Social Security earlier than expected. Still, they hate "Welfare". The social phenomenon of needing help but hating to give it to the "undeserving" is pretty common. I did a calculation and found that for TANF and Food Stamps it would cost $100 or less a year for working people. Medical care is more expensive. I worked almost 15years Cook County Hospital in Chicago, whose mission was to care for the indigent in the city, for. It was the answer to indigent care before Medicaid is costly. So, do we want our streets full of sick, starving, people? We didn't in the past. There is decline in civil compassion, who is pushing this narrative? Same guys who want to cut safety net programs you or your family might need.
26
I’m not happy about all the impeachment talk, because not only do I think it’s a loser as a strategy, but at the end of the day it is a distraction. Trump’s policies about the social safety net are NO different from the Republican leadership line. Strengthening our social protections, education and infrastructure investment are issues which Democrats must get people excited about, not an easy task, but essential. A President Mike Pence with two houses of Congress would be a nightmare, even if more ‘Presidential’ and less ego centric. Democrats have to show what they’re for, not just the personality they’re against.
11
Alas, the problem is that a critical mass of people do not seem to vote in their own selfish interest. They get riled up to vote against themselves with the invocation of non-issues which then dominate the news cycle.
18
What bothers me the most is the extraordinary ignorance of the very people who are being hurt the most by Trump & Co. policies. The elderly whose reliance upon Social Security and Medicare, those who depend upon Government largesse to supplement their meager wages, etc. We can only hope that these latest capers of the present administration will finally open their eyes to the fact that they are being conned and conned with a vengeance.
36
@Mariposa841 Anyone who relies on the government, Republican or Democrat, is a fool. It is YOUR responsibility to take care of yourself and your family.
Paul we have a faith based economy which relies on ignorance and shortsidedness to stoke the fires of commerce. You can't reason with the average Trumpster which seems to have thought process of, "taxes bad, money good"
28
The dishonesty of the republicans, and general meanness of their constituents over the last few decades led me to leave the country I love. The middle of the country is not just mean, but foolish, superstitious, petty, & delusional. Republican leadership nurtures these tendencies, to what end I'm not sure, other than self enrichment, but the upshot is the USA is but a shadow of its former self. The liberal ideals of egalitarianism, an educated electorate, equal treatment under the law, truth, justice, good health, fair play, a level playing field have all gone the way of the Dodo. Servitude to the rich has replaced those goals, to the detriment of the vast majority, who somehow continue to allow republican dominance. Maybe we just aren't capable of a true democracy. The tax cut is only the most recent case in point of a long line of republican scams.
11
I’m 14 years from benfitting from Medicate and Social Security. The less charitable part me of would like to see the Republican Administration and Congress eviscerate these programs so that all the older Americans who support Trump and should know better finally wake up from their myopic, selfish slumber... but it would be so much better if reason started to return as early as this November with a blue wave.
9
How can we believe Krugman? He said the American financial system will never recover from the election of Trump. It seems his personal distaste for the president is clouding his judgement and has been doing so for almost 2 years now.
5
Where is the skyrocketing tax revenue from the tax-giveaway-to-millionaires?
12
@TravelingProfessor Anyone knowledgeable about the economy is well aware that the key economic indicators point towards a rapidly approaching recession. Just because Trump's economic incompetence hasn't been fully felt yet doesn't mean it won't.
18
Keep trotting out those old exaggerations and lies. The Republicans want you to ignore their evil reality which Krugman once again hits on the head in his thinking.
1
The Republicans offer a fleeting adrenaline rush by pushing peoples buttons with fear and hate.
The average person should vote for quality of life issues because in the end that is what counts: health, security in old age, education, a clean environment, affordable housing.
The lopsided tax code that lets the rich keep the lion share of our
country’s bounty will bleed the rest of us dry.
43
Republicans as now constituted owe much of their power to the wealthy and spurious propaganda. How many times have you heard someone who is wealthy say, " I want to be poor?" How many times have you heard someone who was poor and then attained wealth say, "I'm going back to poverty?" Wealth is a narcotic, once you have it it is almost impossible to give it up.
If you are a politician and you say tax-cuts for the wealthy, sit back and watch those contributions climb.
Now all you have to do is come up with some spurious propaganda to sell it to enough of the rest of the people. Spurious propaganda is a narcotic too. Once people become true believers in the propaganda and/or the person(s) pushing it, they are hooked. In order to maintain their self-credibility, they will deny any other options even when faced with solidly established facts to the contrary.
A toxic blend of wealth and happy ignorance will continue to drive much in politics, until money is taken out of the equation and people wise up.
7
As long as so many Americans stay ideologically stuck in the cold war ideological straitjacket where social-anything is an evil word whatever what is truly discussed, they will stay a mass of easily manipulated cattle to their politicians or outsiders.
Sadly, most of the country, its universities, its institutions, its religiosity, is blindly stuck in this blind spot.
4
Facts about the tax bill you aren't being told.
1. The marginal rate for the middle of the middle class is being lowered from 12% -10%. That results in a 17% cut in payments at the margin.
2. The marginal rate for the wealthy is being cut from 39.5% to 35%. That results in an 11% cut in payments at the margin.
3. The middle cuts will expire in 5 years. But as with the Bush cuts, whenever cuts expire, they have always been renewed. Nobody in Congress ever votes for what is perceived as a tax increase.
4. The corporate rate was drastically cut to 21% But even before the cuts, corporations were paying substantially less than 21% because of countless loopholes. Anybody who professes to know if the new law will have a million loopholes, too, knows what cannot be known until April 2019.
I have never voted for a Republican. My purpose here is to get Democrats arguing the issues that are winners. The tax bill is not one of them, at least not yet. The Democrats should be talking about Trump's lies, his incompetence, his choice of mistresses, and the crazy dangerous foreign policy he promotes. Talking about a tax bill which is likely to deliver meaningful tax cuts to the middle class is a formula for failure.
3
@michjas 11% at the margin turns out not to be that much, most of us middle class people are finding. That's why Dems are having success attacking the tax cuts and Republicans aren't defending them.
8
@michjas
Please explain how a 2% lowering of the "marginal" rate cuts payments by 17%. And how about those of us in blue states that will no longer be able to deduct all of what we pay in local taxes? Our federal taxes will go up.
5
@michjas Using percentages as you do is an interesting (and valid) way to compare tax breaks in different brackets. The math is not up for debate.
But the impact on the lives of real people is measured in dollars and the tax breaks need to examined in full context. So if that tax break of two-twelfths (about 17%) is swallowed up entirely by an increase in health insurance costs, for example, the combined impact in that context is a wash. Meanwhile the same increase in health insurance premiums (identical policies for my example) for the higher income bracket leaves some tax break dollars left over.
My example is overly simplistic to be sure, but we don't have the luxury of pure math in a world that is rather more complicated than either of our examples might suggest. The tax legislation did little for the middle class and much for our wealthier citizens and Dr. Krugman's comprehensive point about where this might lead all of us merits consideration. Respectfully, I think that the tax changes enacted and their impact on the deficit are worthy of a place in the partisan discourse of this year's campaigns. The people at the top made out better than the people in the middle. They always do.
2
Years ago (after watching a play) I sat in a bar atop the Pan-Am building.
Very high up. It was dark. Far below, I could see thousands of headlights inching along. All those toiling peons, making their way home after a long day.
I felt sublimely detached. Above it all. This after one whiskey sour.
Then I had another.
I think these Republican gurus feel just the same way. PERMANENTLY. Not just after a whiskey sour.
Life has been good. They are bright, shining lights in academia. They are persons of consequence in Washington. They are movers and shakers on Wall Street.
As from a great height, they ponder the toiling millions. Men and women working two jobs, barely making ends meet. People in service jobs, pulling down wages a dog could hardly live on. People whose harried faces I have seen on the subway in Philadelphia.
No. These Republican wizards and pundits are light years away from such people. Their sorrows. Their concerns.
It requires effort, doesn't it, Mr. Krugman--REAL effort--SUSTAINED effort. . .
. .to feel empathy for people. Get in their shoes for a bit. Try and WALK in those shoes for--say--a mile. Half a mile.
The people you describe in your piece, Mr. Krugman--
--they never tried.
Not once.
47
For my whole adult life, the routine has been: republicans get control of the government so cut taxes big time. Then we get hit with a big recession. So democrats get control for a while, fix the problems caused by the republican policies and get the economy heading down the right road (an example would be Obama following the Bush recession). Next the republicans take control, cut taxes, cause a recession, insist that we cannot afford the debt (caused by the tax cuts) so have to cut spending - to the old, the sick and the mentally handicapped. It is so obvious if only people would pay attention to the whole story, not the tweets. We have to stop them, they could put us in a depression if we allow them continued control.
98
@Mary Dalrymple
I would add one thing to your scenario: The Dems, after putting everything back right, become very unpopular because their fixes involve pain. This sets up the Repubs to start the process over again.
12
@Mary Dalrymple
You are absolutely correct. Their motto "Drown the baby (government) in the bath tub" should never be forgotten. How else could they run their money scams? The Republicans have held the world's record hands down for deceit and lies over the past 40 years. It's getting old.
1
The Repubs are forever talking about saving money, but they really mean taking money from the poor and giving it to the well heeled. For example, why do members of Congress all get daily stipends for food , lodging, and transportation? I have to pay for these things, and so do ORDINARY Americans. Congressmen and women are much richer than I am. If I have to pay for my food and transportation, so should they. And why do they get thousands (sometimes millions) of dollars in tax returns while my wife and I - with a total combined income of less than $35,000 - had to PAY almost $700?
But let's talk about big-ticket items, like Atomic bombs. Why the devil do we have 7000 or so of these things when any 30 could blow up our whole world? Get rid of 6700 of them and spend more money on a program that does some good and will never cause the end of our planet - our Peace Corps. Or build more and better railroads and save gazillions on gasoline for our cars and buses.
A final question: Why do we always seem to hire wealthy people for high positions in our government? They always seem to help mostly other wealthy people? When will we realize that rich people almost always (except for FDR) take care of themselves and their friends first?
Think peace and think about helping ORDINARY people, not the ones who are already wealthy.
12
We have 20 Million illegals. Let's ship them out, or get them legalized to pay taxes. Contrary to belief, it's the rich and Middle class that afford the poor's existence......
1
"But voters should realize that the threat to programs they count on is much broader . . . ." Of course they should. And good on Paul Krugman for telling all three potential swing voters who read his stuff. But if the vast majority of such voters are waiting for Dem candidates to put this fact in front of them, they'll still be waiting come Thanksgiving. Dem party leaders, the guys who are supposed to be helping Dems get elected, are, as usual, providing butter knives to their knife fighters in contested elections. I guess it's supposed to make the committed Dem base feel safe and good about themselves.
8
The easiest route to reduce SS is to do nothing, as Trump promised. His promise to do nothing to SS is a promise to cut benefits 23% in 2034. After 2034, SS benefits will fluctuate with receipts. SS beneficiaries will need to reduce spending to be sure their nest egg can cover potential declines in their SS benefits. It is more imperative now than ever, that future retirees have a sizable nest egg before retiring.
2
To the recently retired folks, they are starting to get it. They now know that it will cost them at least $134.00 bucks a month for Part B Social Security. It will cost them, for a decent Medicare Supplement plan, about $150.00-$200.00 per month. It will cost them $25.00 to over a $100.00 per month for prescription drug coverage that will still require them to output co pays. So the entitlement that they first thought they would getting is not free. For those who have had group health insurance that their employer paid for, this is sticker shock for sure. $400-$500.00 a month, for starters is a pretty hefty load that was not expected. A reality for many retirees that must find another job or two to keep their homes. To take what little they may have is going to devastate them.
23
You are right! There are far too many complications, expenses, and paperwork associated even with Medicare.
We really need single-payer health insurance without the co-pays and deductibles.
Yes, it would be costly, but the private, for profit, greedy health insurance business (racket) eats up far too much of our health care dollars and should be put out of business.
We could also easily pay for it by instituting truly progressive taxation, eliminating capital gains tax cuts, removing the income limit for social security taxes, greatly reducing defense expenditures, and levying a minor but lucrative tax on all financial stock transactions.
37
@jasan
If you retire with a mortgage--poor planning on your part.
Thank you Mr Krugman, every word you said is true. About those small town rural voters, for my entire life growing up in those places and going back to visit, those places need and indeed the economies require Medicare, Medicaid in the Nursing home and social security for those local economies to function for people. Demcrats are outnumbered but not absent. Even rural white people are not a monolith, though Fox News is running in the waiting rooms. Part of the problem is having democrats not speaking to those places all these years the way people like Bill Clinton did. . The starve the beast thing has indeed been running for decades and the Demcrats have run scare campaigns raising money on GOP cutting these programs,so people don't believe it so readily but it's real now and real soon. Trillion dollar deficits, rising nterest rates, rising debt a recession due by 2020 if not 2019 when they're going to say "can't raise taxes (ones that shouldn't have been cut) in a recession". Elderly people voting for Republicans who are not rich but have children are Trump's chumps. When the GOP is not enabling our Putin lapdog they are enabling the utterly craven Paul Ryan and his billionaire backed SuperPac. Starve the beast - it's disgusting that we live in the moment when that old plan comes together.
3
What tax cut. My paycheck is the same. I’m still waiting.
50
The rationales may change, but the policy is the same
tax cuts for zillionaires that are not paid for.
The plan is to gut the safety net to reward the
uber rich.
It has always been a crock.
23
Other than Madoff did any of these bankers go to jail after the meltdown? I don't think so. Americans saw that the banks and billionaires could cheat and lie their way to more billions and a trillion dollar bailout. They see the politicians evading millions in taxes (legally) and they know that tax loopholes are for sale to the highest bidder. Trump and his administration is awful on many levels. The Repubs have picked an issue, though, that overrides the financial. The average American where I work sees the schools changing, the supermarkets changing, the society changing and rampant migrant fraud. Trump and the Republicans have tapped into a vein of anger and the Democrats have simply encouraged it. I am brown skinned and I suspect Trump is going to get a second term because as I hear at work....he is the only one who is doing something about it....meaning open borders. Americans feel that without a border they don't have a country.
14
@AS
Then they haven’t had a country for a very long time.
1
@AS
"I am brown skinned and I suspect Trump is going to get a second term because as I hear at work....he is the only one who is doing something about it....meaning open borders"
Under Trump's Brown Skinned predecessor net migration slowed to a trickle. President Obama managed resources to target the undocumented who were truly dangerous, and deportations were steady. Anybody who thinks the Obama administration was for "open borders" is an uninformed rube.
Trump has unleashed Homeland Security to target people who pose no threat, in the name of making numbers. We are no safer.
3
@AS Because Madoff cheated other wealthy people-they took their revenge-when you cheat the middle class or the poor, you become rich powerful, and sometimes President
1
Well said...again. Your preaching to the choir.
The Democrats need a real issue that truly fixes all the problems by getting big money out of politics. If they campaign on election reform everyone will jump on board.
Let's get rid of gerrymandering, unlimited contributions, PACs, dark money, and the electoral college.
Let Democracy breathe again.
11
Anyone who endangers or threatens my Medicare and Social Security had better be prepared to meet Lucifer and Cerberus at the Gates of Hades.
There will be a new declaration of independence revolution along with an old national anthem "Mine eyes have seen the glory of coming of the Lord. He is trampling out the vineyards where the grapes of wrath are stored. Glory glory Hallelujah. His truth is marching on."
7
@Blackmamba All of us baby boomers will have to get our canes sharpened and rise up once again to change policy as we did in the 1960s war protests. I'm ready. No one touches my Medicare or Social Security I've worked so hard to earn.
1
Yes, medicare and social security and medicare are in danger of running out of money in the next decade or two.
But Krugman wants to blame the Republicans. The blame probably belongs with both parties.
The US has finite resources. If the number of people in the US increases too rapidly the resources get stretched, and some have to do without.
That's the reason some of the poor resent illegal immigration. They can see their own standard of living declining. They don't have full health care and when they go to the ER they wait in line behind people who speak Spanish and appear to be recent immigrants.
We can say they are racist but the reaction is quite human. If you feel you are denied health care because somebody who broke the law is taking it from you, you may feel you have a right to be angry.
And that anger is what has fueled the rise of Trump.
We can try to reason rationally. But somehow, macroeconomics seems to fall short.
It seems designed to provide short term fixes, when the real problems are long term.
Macroeconomics as reported by Krugman never includes population as one of the variables.
But too many immigrants and too many poor women having children forces states to shift funds from universities to K12.
That means fewer doctors are trained. Soon there aren't enough to go around.
That explanation may seem too simple. But why can't people discuss it without being called racists?
By shutting off discussion for too long, liberals lose the argument.
3
@Jake Wagner
Having an elderly husband and a sister with major health issues I have made several ER visits in the last year and a half in South Carolina and Maine. In neither place were there Spanish speaking people or any other immigrants waiting for services, because under the law they are not entitled to them. As to population growth among the poor, have you objected to Republican cuts to programs that provide birth control at cost or free to these people?
Then there is your assertion that funds are being diverted from universities to K12 because more children are supposedly being born so fewer doctors are being trained. The fact of the matter is that for yeas the AMA has lobbied to limit the number of doctors trained to limit competition. And the costs of medical school discourages others. Interestingly, Cuba and Greece train the most doctors and they are exported to work in many other parts of the world. We also import many doctors to this country, especially from the middle east, many of whom are Muslim and Hindus. But Trump and his minions don't want those people here, so most of us now have to make do with PAs and NPRs.
As you admit, your explanation is not only too simple, but is simply incorrect.
2
@Jake Wagner you are drastically oversimplifying the situation. Most illegal immigrants are productive and contribute more to the economy than they take. There are many issues to consider around illegal immigration, but I don't think there is any evidence that it harms our economy. If it were not for the labor of illegal immigrants, the rest of us would be paying higher prices for a lot of goods and on the whole we'd be worse off.
Leaving aside issues of illegal immigration, in general, population increases are not bad for an economy. In fact, the reverse is true - declining birthrates lead to considerable problems for an economy. Look at it this way - if the population declines, there will be fewer people working to support older people and others who are unable to work for whatever reason.
While there are other issues associated with immigration, from an economic standpoint, it's a good thing.
>
This con job will go on until the country is broke, At that point it is anybody's guess as to what happens then. Once the Dems get back into power the GOP will shamelessly become deficit hawks again. When the Dems raise taxes then they'll be tossed out of power, rinse and repeat.
America is no longer governable. We are going down. The GOP has successfully managed to get enough white working poor people to vote for the well heeled and against their interests.
Thank the Gods that they gave me the wisdom not to have children.
"[The philosopher] inhabits his age like a shadow: the more the sun sinks the greater he becomes".
Nietzsche
7
Repeat this often and loudly. The country is not financially broke, the government is and that is on purpose.
3
Chutzpah indeed. So is capping the income level o which Social Security tax is levied. When you're already $21+ billion in the hole, why does it make sense to give the wealthy a tax cut??
9
Dr. Krugman, while the discerning American public can influence a family member, neighbor, a few friends to examine this issue in a dispassionate light, the responsibility of exposing this nationwide and relentlessly pursuing this to a logical conclusion has to be with well funded organizations, the media and the opposing political party. Unfortunately we are in a two party system.
However I have seen over time all three groups who have the outsize reach dissembling and making it too academic. "Trust us" is the mantra when the GOP uses single word slogans or a garbage, "contract with America" and a lot of free publicity to cynically get their false ideas across. We need a united opposition and determination to counter this assault on an American majority who have not benefited in a so-called booming economy. The spoils go to a minuscule part of our population.
We need the government at all levels to work for the greater good for all of us, not funnel the riches to a handful of people. How do we make this happen? the time is well past griping and editorials, how do we reach people who are dazzled by a cynical GOP and a possible criminal in the White House who has padded his bank account and continues to do so (allegedly?)
3
The majority of Republicans in congress are mean spirited deniers guided by greed. Constantly the GOP denies any positive action. They deny regulations are important to protect the air we breath and water we drink.They deny that any actions can be taken to reduce gun violence and protect our children. They deny that trickle down budgeting has never worked (well, maybe a trickle makes it to some). They would deny health care to millions of Americans. They will deny current amounts on social security and medicare funding if possible. It is hard to imagine such mean spirited, callous actions against fellow Americans (yes, where is the patriotism?), but greed is dominating the GOP in Congress. Shame is not enough. There is callous disregard for most of us. Their behavior and desired attempts to hurt Americans is despicable. Yes, they need to be voted out of office - assuming our voting machines are not being hacked by those so worried about e-mails (hypocriscy, of course.).
And Trump followers are denying to themselves the cruelty intended by those they voted into office. It is foolish to continue denying what will hurt them as much as anyone.
11
@Rev Wayne-- I like the spirit of your comments, but I think the facts are wrong. Republicans in office know exactly what's up and, more to the point, are doing what they are with full intent. They see end-game, it's not in their interest, so they're pulling every chip off the table they can reach before the game is over.
Insidious? Of course! But understandable for people with limited conscience.
Sir Paul,
I got a question, which is perhaps possible given that i live outside the US, and hence can look at the tax-cuts/tariffs from a birds vantage point.
Assume that Federal govt has given tax cuts worth $100 (hundred dollars). Lets say TC =$100 for Y2018. Now the issue is budget deficit or how to fill this TC=$100? Assume that i impose tariffs on Chinese imports, and make up for those $100, for FY2018 (lets call it TRFs) Can't i do that?. Assume i'm Federal Govt - I lose TC, and earn my TC back via tariffs - TC = TFs !. And iam only looking at Y2018. What is wrong with this equation? It may be humanely incorrect, but as an approach to balancing books - it should work.
Now the consequences on general poor-middle class citizenry is different - given the tariffs, inflation would increase - and wages would not - as most corporates, spend extra-income on share buybacks - not wage increases. Gradually to control inflation, the Feds would increase interest rates. Whats happens then - do the super-rich settle for depositing their money satisfied with higher interests, or invest in economy? I mean it becomes cloudy after this, and only experiences economists would be able to write the story.
1
@Ragz -- Cynical but probably an accurate view of those who have much h and want even more.
saw Barasso on the floor just a couple of days ago, putting forth just this idea yet again. He actually claimed that gov revenue is up after the tax cut
11
Unfortunately, the phrase, 'What does not kill me makes me stronger' may not apply when it comes to Social Security and Medicare.
17
Low information voters will continue to vote against their own economic interests. They will remain unswerving in their unprecedented loyalty to President Trump. They will identify with the pro-plutocratic Trumpuglican Party. They will then wonder why their economic situation remains dire.
Then they will blame immigrants, minorities and liberals for their plight.
7
The GOP hypocrisy and intellectual dishonesty is on vivid display, again, for all to see.
I've come to believe that the dishonesty and bad faith practiced by contemporary Republicans and a "Liar-in-Chief" occupying the Oval Office under their banner cannot be independent events.
3
Economists tend to make this situation more complicated than it is. Since the founding of the US many of the wealthy and especially those wanting a despotic America attack anything that threatened that goal. Today’s Republicans are just the current incarnation of making that goal a reality. They want to destroy America as a democracy to reach that end. The people who will die and be hurt by their work does not concern them. In very simple terms they hate America and 95% of Americans. If that’s not treason, don’t know what is! The support they get from many in rural America merely confirm Jay Gould’s conclusion from more than 100 years ago, “I can hire one half of the working class to kill the other half.”
11
Oh please. Mr. Krugman, what happened to the huge economic collapse you predicted right after the election?
4
@Nycpol As many people have pointed out to you every time you make this comment, he withdrew that prediction almost immediately. What I do know is that he was right about quantitative easing after others said it would be a disaster.
7
He retracted that assertion, unlike Kudlow, who won’t retract his claim that tax revenue is increasing in the aftermath of an obscene windfall to the oligarchy.
7
@Nycpol
As the tariffs kick in and knock down the profits of lots of farmers and manufacturers, and as the stock market PE ratios continue up to unsustainable heights, the ponzi scheme economy will eventually collapse. Just like billionaires keep making themselves richer on paper by buying "collectibles" like fine art and antiques. storing them in warehouses and then selling them in a few years for ridiculous prices, making themselves even richer on paper.
1
It’s not a puzzle to me why voters continue to support Republicans bait and switch play on taxes. Just look how 30-40 percent can support Trump and obvious incompetent fool and there is yor answer.
5
@Chris
What difference does it make for them if they don’t benefit from the tax increases? The money is spent on fancy overpasses in fancy places, and they are left to rot.
It all has its roots in the Southern white ( only) voter. Poor rural people are only interested in trying to make sure that someone else is below them in socioeconomic rank. The "con" will be on them when it all unravels. In common parlance, it will be a depression.
12
I propose a radically different approach to solve this problem. Using a UFC fight analogy, democrats and republicans are essentially in a standing clinch, with republicans slipping in an occasional uppercut and leg kicks. Democrats aren't strong enough to over come the republican grip. Rather than holding on and gripping back, democrats should use some radical jiu jitsu. Use republican strength against republicanism.
Relax the grip and let the republicans start to win. Let them demolish the few benefits of the ACA with no replacement. Let them reduce social security. Let them enact their agenda. The voters, in the clinch react to every democratic move by tightening their grip and doubling down on their support of Trump and republican policy. Democrats are essentially Keeping them Republican. Instead, let go. Let republicans rape and pillage their own base. Let them live the life they are actually supporting. In 2020 there will be far fewer republican voters, regardless of how fox news spins it.
Sure, I might die because my cancer care won't be covered but for all of us that die due to republican greed, the reactionary wave will wipe republicans and corporate democrats off the map pretty much for good. The candidates who vow no big money donations will overwhelm the democratic party and cut off corporate power at the knees. Political Jiu Jitsu.
3
@Trebor
Not very many people are ready to make that sacrifice!!!
US corporations have never stopped increasing their profit margins by offshoring jobs and buying back stock rather than hiring and paying employees more. The result has been the destruction of the US middle class which has been accelerated by the GOP tax bill. The GOP tax bill has rewarded the corporations, donors and CEOs for such practices. With more money donated to the GOP, more ads attacking immigrants are aired. It is not hard for Fox News and the GOP to brainwash rural americans into hating immigrants, even if immigrants(even illegal ones) commit crimes at a much lower rate than US born white americans.
7
Republicans continue to be enabled by - as you state - rural white voters. True. Rural white voters who will be voting against their own self interest in protecting medicare and social security. You don't have to be a NY Times reader or a news junkie to know this. How these people can live in this naive world is beyond me. So in the end, it's still up to the voters to decide their fate. Most likely they will change their tune only when the pain of reduced benefits comes home to roost. Until then I fear they just don't get it.
3
It's easy to understand why many Republicans don't believe in evolution-they haven't evolved. Facts, history don't matter. You could waste most of your life trying to explain facts to them.
They prefer grunts, slogans and jingles as guiding principles, all they need to get through their day is a dose of hate and fear.
I have a jingle for them : Stop the Madness.
7
So why aren't the Dems talking about this? For that matter, why aren't the Dems taking about anything?
Are they still with us? Have they disappeared?
4
@caljn
With all the newspaper pages taken up with Trump, Trump Trump, there is no room to publish anything said by Democrats! Time for the Media to do a proper job and give equal exposure to the "other side."
To all the commenters who don’t understand how these guys constantly running this con can sleep at night: read the second line of our Declaration of Independence, or look up the definition of “egalitarianism “. The fraction of the top 5% who pulls the strings that guarantee this scam happens time after time simply do not believe these things. They do not believe “that all men are created equal”, or that “all people are equal and deserve equal rights and opportunities.” These propositions are not self-evident to them. Quite the contrary, they believe their better fate to be innate and deserved.
Unless enough of us who DO believe these propositions exercise our right to vote, and vote out of office these misanthropes and charlatans who have no respect for truth, we should not be surprised when they continue to fleece the rest of us, no matter the cost and harm to our country, civilization, and community, or to their souls.
This November we have a good opportunity to reverse this tide. Let’s all do everything we can to seize it. God help us if we don’t.
22
It is a bit like blaming the scorpion for stinging the frog or whatever the creature was that offered to swim the scorpion to the other side of the pond. Americans who vote for Trump are getting a heaping helping of what they voted for. The drunk has to hit bottom as the saying goes. Apparently not there yet.
14
Anyone can figure out between what they put into social security along with their employer falls far short of what they will under the ponzi shemes the socialist democrats have gotten us into. No both are unsustainable and we cannot afford single payer which will bankrupt the country. The younger generation wants and is quite vociferous about dumping both programs.
@Jan
The money, invested, should be growing, even if just from government paid interest, so should add up to more than the dollars that were put in. And not everyone survives to collect Social Security or to be on Medicare. And some of us have been lucky enough to have not needed a lot of medical care for which we actually continue to pay until the day we die. It is deducted directly from our Social Security, and for me that usually comes to about half of my gross Social Security payment. And I pay for part B which covers prescriptions, but don't take any even at age 78. Depending on what percentage are like me, we are contributing to the system while benefitting little. But, like other insurance, I'm glad it is there.
1
I don’t understand, don’t understand, don’t understand ...
why any American citizen who has been grateful, now and again, for good affordable steady health insurance, or Medicare, or Social Security (funded by taxes he or she paid over decades when working hard) ...
would ever vote for a slippery snake like Paul Ryan or his friends ...
why why would anybody ever cast a vote for a Republican?
7
@Deborah
Because we want to keep more of our own money for our families and not other people.
@Deborah Because they're anti-abortion, religious fanatics, against immigrants and even worse,"those" gay people.
Vote. Tell every free thinking human of voting age to vote. Get people to put away their headphones and vote.
4
I saw on CNN this morning the Board of Elections in Georgia wants to close seven of the nine polling places in one county, predominantly black, because they are not compliant with the American Disabilities Act. Of course this county will vote for the black female candidate for governor and republicans simply can't have that. This candidate is reasonable, decent and will make common sense decisions. The republicans can't run on issues, so they stack the deck. We'll be seeing a lot more of this as the elections draw closer. Under these circumstances we can forget about a blue wave in November. Even if the Mueller investigation finds treasonous behavior by Trump and those in his orbit, they'll stack the deck against his removal of office.
This is an assault on Democracy from within, with a little help from the Russians. The takeover is nearing completion. Social Security and Healthcare will be the least of our problems sooner than later.
What will become of our nation with corrupt criminal thugs running things forever? A re-visit to 1930's Germany should shed some light on the matter.
26
@Robert Westwind
And, of course, they couldn't possibly do anything to make any of those polling places compliant, could they?
2
How about we all take back only the amount we and our employers have contributed to SS/Medicare and nothing more?
How about we get rid of all public/federal pensions and have these folks support themselves in retirement just like the rest of us our asked to do?
3
@Driven How about you do that first as an experiment and see how it goes. The rest of us will continue to accept SS/ Medicare and see how we do, then we can compare results.
Sounds like you needed an union job. To paraphrase Joe Hill, don't resent--Organize!
3
How about we become a third-world dictatorship? Your small minded, zero-sum policies are exactly the failures of conservative "thought" that Krugman demonizes so well in this piece.
2
@Duffy
Thanks--but with a union job i would quite a bit less money. Maybe more vacation, but less money. One should save enough or make plans to share living expenses with someone else so they do not have to depend on the government.
Many of us favor cutting spending and taxes, and are willing to compromise on things like the order of march.
Cut taxes and spending at the same time? Great!
Cut taxes, then spending? Not quite as good, but still good.
Cut spending, then taxes? Still very good.
The basic issue is that from 1781-1900 (absent the civil war years) the federal govt spent about 3% of GDP. Now it spends about 20%.
Getting back to 3% would be ideal, but getting Leviathan on a diet such that it only consumed 10% of the national economic output would be quite an accomplishment.
@Brian for most that period, the army numbered less than 10,000 and the navy, well during the Barbary Wars, Congress called for a "massive" build-up for a non-existent navy, six frigates. Few if any attended high school, and there were no interstate roads, and workers, not employers, assumed the risks of injuries on the job. The next time you take a pill or take a bite of chicken think about the patent remedies that were heavily laced with opioids and alcohol (if they didn't work, they stopped the pain) and the sawdust passed off as canned chicken.
8
@Jon
Leaving aside for the moment the fact that there are private schools and even private roads, if these things are taxpayer funded, they can be done at the state or local level.
Very few things we need govt to do can only be done by the federal govt.
Defense is one of the few enumerated responsibilities of the federal govt, but yes, defense spending is too high.
@Brian
Indiana has a major federally funded highway across it and federally funded bridges connecting you to other states. Are you willing to have your state take over the maintenance of those infrastructures? Do you stop all interstate trucks and make them pay a toll at your borders? Are you aware of how much medical research is funded by the federal government? If you decide to travel to another state do you want to stop and pay tolls at all sorts of private roads? How about airports? Federally funded or by each state?
The United States was the first large country governed by the consent of its people. It didn't have a self-dealing hereditary aristocracy. Its first president refused a crown and went back to his farm after serving two terms in office.
That was greatness.
But now we have an electoral process 75% captured by "the monied interests." We have tax laws written to shelter fortunes. And we have the retirement savings of ordinary people under threat of confiscation.
The wealthy don't even pay for SS and Medicare. The 1% contributes exactly 2% (since they pay FICA taxes on their first $116k, which is about double the average income) to the safety net, yet to save them the inconvenience of contributing another .002% of their real gross incomes the rest of us will be reduced to eating kibble the last few days of the month.
This isn't a question of conservatives vs. liberals, or even of Republicans vs. Democrats. Whatever their political persuasion, get them on the record. If they won't protect your contributions, your money, make them pay.
15
The average voter needs to ask themselves if what the Republicans propose is in their best interest. Sure, in an ideal world, tax cuts put more money in your pocket and you don't have a need for using social programs, so cutting them makes sense. In an ideal world. In the real world, the windfall from the tax cuts has not materialized for the average worker and there is no evidence that is going to change. So the buying power of the average American continues to decline. They can't afford healthcare, child care, college for their children, and retirement. Which creates more demand that goes unmet. The question is do you allow the average American to slowly drift into poverty? If today's workers don't save for retirement ( and they don't) what is this country to do when the next generation tries to (or has to) retire and needs the social programs now being planned on being cut and they are not there? We return to a time when the conditions that led to formation of social programs return. For the wealthy there is now "wait ad see" what happens. They got what they wanted. For everyone else it's "hope for the best" and if that doesn't materialize (as it hasn't in past attempts at this), oh well,perhaps we just didn't cut enough. The needs of the many far outweigh the needs of the few. Or the one. If wealth doesn't want to share, as in the early 1900's, expect there to be a demand for the wealth to share. Either by government programs or via more uncivilized means.
8
Thanks for: "the gullibility both of the news media and self-proclaimed centrists remains a remarkable story."
Voters need to know about Republican policies. I came to Washington in 1966 as a Goldwater Republican. I joined the U.S. Public Health Service to work on air pollution control. It took a while for me to learn - the hard way - that I was wrong to support Republican policies. See https://www.legalreader.com/republican-racketeers-violent-policies/
22
One way the Democrats can propose a true debt reduction plan is to install a tax on financial transactions, which has been proposed over and over. The fix is that all those new tax revenues will be dedicated to reducing the debt. This would be a small cost to true investors who rarely trade, but could amount to billions and even trillions for those individuals and firms that trade all day long. It would be Wall Street's contribution to fixing the mess they have helped create.
14
Border security or Social Security?
There’s a visceral fear in farming country of undocumented immigrants. The recent random vicious murder of an innocent young woman in Iowa is chilling evidence that this fear is real.
Voters want both border security and Social Security. We should be able to have border security without voting in organized crime, and Social Security without voting in fiscal profligates.
The country needs moderates of both parties, especially in this election.
8
@Tim
Since the accused murderer in Iowa was not an illegal alien, had a full-time, well-paid job, and was well-established in his community, I'd argue that, while the paranoid xenophobia is real, it is a pathology, not a reality.
This country needs moderates of both parties to reject xenophobia, and to work to address real needs and prevent real threats.
1
Here we see the power of propaganda. First, in the fear mongering around the murder of a pretty young white girl by a dreaded immigrant. Second, we see the misguided notion that the Democrats are 'fiscal profligates', when it's been Democratic administration's cleaning up after the disastrous economic policies of Republicans for the last 40 years. The Democrats might tax and spend, but the GOP just spends.
1
Without immigrants the farm economy collapses. Keep voting GOP, middle America, and watch your towns die and Conagra take over your farm. Keep falling for the lies, the hyperbole, the hypocrisy. Let the Republicans kill you. At least they're not immigrants.
1
Barack Obama and Bill Clinton both tried to *reform* Social Security, stopped only by Tea Party intransigence and an intern dalliance, respectively. The destruction of the the New Deal has been a totally bipartisan project based on Republican trial balloons followed by the Democratic Party's, "we had to do something" bleat. cf, Glass-Steagall and welfare as we knew it.
Vote by all means but know that voting really solves nothing in a plutocracy.
15
As two famous people (Yogi Berra and Ronald Reagan) once sad: “It’s Like Deju Vu All Over
Again” and “Here We Go Again.”
As Dr. Krugman points out,, Republicans in 2017 enacted another tax cut, predicting it would actually enhance revenue and ignoring the predictions of many economists and the CBO that the cuts would, in fact, generate an enormous deficit. True to form, Republicans, now faced with that deficit, have suddenly become deficit hawks again, and are proposing cuts in social programs including Medicare and Social Security. Of course, Social Security is paid for with payroll taxes and doesn’t affect the deficit, but Republicans always like to include it as part of their “deficit solution” because, well, they just don’t like social programs.
One other thing that always seem to be true is that so many people at the middle- and lower-income levels, who depend most on Medicare, Medicaid and Social Security, never seem to realize that they are getting the short-end of the Republican tax cuts. They continue to support the very politicans who time-after-time give tax cuts to the rich and who want to do away with these vital social programs. Go figure!
43
@RF, These people are all extreme present hedonists with the same microscopic time horizons as the twit with the fussy hair that any real man would just shave off.
Ben Bernanke and Barack Obama ran large deficits with no inflation. Their quantitative easing pushed additional cash into the economy. Again, no inflation. Why are the deficits now such an issue? Chances are, so much capital and income have transferred to the rich people, there just isn’t enough middle class demand to drive inflation. The rich people put a lot of the incremental money in the bank. That probably goes double for the foreign rich people. If that reservoir of capital keeps expanding interest rates won’t increase. Neither will inflation, except in the rich people’s playground — stock prices and condos. The Democrats are in on it as much as anyone. They have investments and condos, too.
8
PK writes: " . . . excess weight to rural, white voters who still have faith in President Trump . . ."
Why didn't PK simply write that the 'deplorables' will be given excess voting weight?
And as I recall, Democrats have also looked at (so-called) entitlement reform. Whenever I read about increasing the retirement age, I think of the blue collar workers (roofers, coal miners, meat packers, etc etc) that will have to work during what we used to call our 'golden' years.
Of course the push for raising retirement age comes mostly from the white collar 'think-tankers' who sit behind well appointed desks. Sitting behind desks until they take a nice early retirement in their 50's.......
12
There's nothing in your column that wouldn't be fixed by 100% Democratic voter participation. Anything less than that will reflect the kind of country we are. Trump is in office not just because of Republican voters, but Democratic non-voters as well.
53
@Richard
Quite right. I harp on this all the time. Imagine if that 100,000,000 block decided to flex their political muscles and decided to weigh in on the direction of the country.
Things like peace, Single Payer health care. true Progressive taxes, equal pay and paid family leave, expanding of Social Security and other benefits, infrastructure, etc, could be voted in easily.
Not to mention all of them joining the NRA, voting to change course on the 2nd Amendment, and voila... an end to the carnage.
All people have to do is get up off their duffs...
37
@FunkyIrishman
I agree with the heart in your argument: all eligible voters should vote in all elections as a matter of citizen/civic responsibility. That's the least citizens should do.
But, our antiquated, undemocratic structure of representation set forth in the Constitution, and our elections which are way too vulnerable to party manipulation, are severe breaks on majority governance.
The few residence of Wyoming should not have equal say in the US Senate as the many residents of California. Two senators for every state is not just an antiquated, outdated, concept (adopted to induce smaller colonies to agree to ratify the Constitution and to give them equal standing at a time when the thirteen colonies valued significant autonomy in a confederation of independent states), it is a damaging insult to the will of the American people. Residents of California and residents of Wyoming consider themselves Americans not residents of autonomous nation states.
Then there is the House of Representatives whose districts are gerrymandered by political parties to silence the voice of the majority.
Until these ills are cured, the minority can and does have a disproportionately louder voice than it deserves. Look no farther than our current state of affairs.
That said, every eligible citizen should vote out of love of and duty to country. If eligible to vote and you don't, then you are not an American and don't insult real Americans by claiming to be one.
@Richard Mclaughlin True, but one cannot discount the impact of Republican gerrymandering which, as Mr. Krugman points out, values certain voters over others. And then there is Russian interference in our election process, which focused on voter suppression, especially among Black Americans. And the targeting ads of now defunct Cambridge Analytica which skewed in favor of Trump voters. Our system is both gamed, and rigged.
5
One of the problems, along with lack of attention and thinking skills by the voting public, is the lack of fight by the Democratic party. I'm not sure why reporters never confront the Democratic party with that. Almost every Democrat I talk with complain constantly that state and federal Democratic legislators allow GOP legislators to frame arguments without one word from the Democratic party. Opposition? Where? If the GOP were to end SSI, I think we'd hear nothing from Democrats. Schumer might read a statement on the floor of the Senate to an empty chamber, but that's all. And the GOP knows it.
33
@KenH
Time for the Democrats to push the Mainstream Media to give them equal time.
“trust that there is a political limit to deficit spending.”
"government is the problem."
These time-honored Republican set-pieces don't mean anything in and of themselves. They're like a Wagnerian lent-motif: the same theme is played in another key or in another tempo with or without strings, horns, etc., all the vary the mood.
The Republican party's baseline has, since 1968 (Richard Nixon's Southern Strategy), been driven by racism. It goes something like this, whether it was Nixon or Trump or the thousands of GOP presidents, senators, representatives, governors since then: "They're coming after yours. Vote for us and we'll keep them away. We're you're only hope."
Those who left the Democratic Party in 1968 in a nationwide backlash against the Civil Rights movement and its (very modest) gains are aging, in their 70's, 80's or older. They're frail and, if not well off, desperately need affordable health care and continuing Social Security.
But they're afraid; they've marked the Republican ballot for half a century and think it's the right thing to do. Like someone under Wagner's spell, they hear the same music but in different keys and instruments, the hypnotic effect keeping them in the GOP's pocket. Their message is safe rather than seductive, like Wagner's scores, but the party isn't interested in soaring music that frees the subconscious.
Republicans are interested in putting in place a ruling oligarchy with the rest of us poor, sick or dead.
41
@ Soxared '04, '07, '13 - "Sometimes dead is better." - King - "Old folks died off and little fellars come" - Steinbeck -
The preservation of the rule of law has to supersede any policy issues, even thous as important as social security and medicare. Let's hope we can preserve all.
16
Democracy in America took a severe haircut in the 2000 election. But Republicans have been chopping away at democracy since the Voting Rights Act of 1965. Over the past two decades they have become more brazen, supporting a tyrant.
With the 2018 congressional elections just over 2 months away, Professor Krugman asks, "What if, thanks to [gerrymandering], the minority prevails?
One answer, obviously, is that the unindicted co-conspirator in chief will continue to be protected from the law. And for those concerned with the survival of American democracy, that has to be the most important issue at stake in November."
And that is really what is at stake in November. What is left of democracy in America may be permanently stamped out and a despot's rule extended...perhaps for life.
Americans need to act. What Republicans have done to our nation is unforgivable. They are a minority that is dictating (yes, just as dictators) their will upon the majority. That is not democracy, that is not an expression of the will of the people.
If you do not act now, your children and grandchildren will grow up in a country unrecognizable as America. The rule of law will be gone, democracy will be gone, equality of all and the pursuit of happiness will be gone. Our nation will become a reflection of Putin's Russia.
69
@jabarry, The US is today a more pernicious interlocked directorship than at any time in is prior history.
"does it not seem that even more than just
social security and medicare are on the ballot?
the way it looks this time, the entire voting system
seems to need a massive overhaul. otherwise,
you'll just get more of the s[h]ame, ad infinitum",
says gerry mandering, from somewhere out there.
16
Of course they will cut the benefits of what are essentially insurance programs, but not the premiums. They need those premiums to pay for their wars and military parades.
It's never the lower tiers of a society that wreck a country. And those upper tiers have no intention of changing that tradition.
55
@Harry Finch, and all that military spending is justified by constant war and provocation by the stupid politicians Americans choose to represent us.
3
For the economy to work well, investment and consumption must be balanced. If there is too little consumption, there is little need for investment to expand production because there is no market for increased production. Investment that increases efficiency, such as automation, throws people out of work and thus decreases consumption and the need for investment. Too little consumption shrinks the economy.
If there is too much available for investment, returns on safe investments go down and investments with decent returns are increasingly risky. Investments become increasingly overvalued until their value collapses in what is euphemistically called a correction. Sometimes the surplus investments take the form of unneeded factories, stores, or office buildings which go empty, but sometimes they are financial, in which case the value just vanishes. This means that financial stuff has less reality than buildings or people or skills or organization. Unlike these, it can just vanish, which makes it less real.
What is less real is structuring the reality of what is more real, including us. We need a better balance, less investment and more consumption; this can most easily be achieved by higher taxes on investment. The healthier economy produced by this change will allow everybody to do better because the pie will be bigger.
18
The only solution is to pay off all federal IOUs at once. Pay off all bond holders and stop issuing new ones. The deficit, such as it exists, should only be a number in a ledger. If the federal government is short of tax receipts to pay for operations, then just issue more currency. The backstop to too much spending will be the inflation rate.
The Laffer curve is all wrong (laughable!). It isn't tax cuts that promote more growth; it's higher government spending that promotes growth in the economy. There is no preset limit which is right for the economy in terms of government spending vs. private spending. Just as all private corporations are eventually owned by individuals, all income is eventually earned by individuals, who then spend it on the broader economy. The only thing different between government and private is that we don't see the exorbitant compensations for executives in the public sector. If you think government spending is bad, just ask the defense industry.
8
@P, Stable mixed economies have public sectors that comprise from one third to two thirds of the economy. This coercive money movement is the flywheel that stabilizes them.
3
Tariffs and taxes have driven Trump's plein jeu, more noise than national success. Ask Wisconsin or Iowa soy farmers, Southern pork producers, small industrial manufacturers, or American icons like Whirlpool, Honeywell, 3M, Harley-Davidson, investment and corporati will tell you Trump's numbers don't work—remember his casinos went bankrupt surrounded by money with rigged odds!
Look at his energy, tax, trade, consumer, and environmental policies: Trump's rigs the odds so the House (the corporati and wealthy) wins. Yet he loses! The VA, healthcare, education, housing are out of reach and opiate addiction is out of control. Banking rates and energy prices are going up!
Trump doesn't understand the numbers—trade is not profit or loss, it is a velocity number—easy leverage with supported goals rather than rants and threats. Sadly, Trump has no trade goals after the fights. He picks fights and embraces conflict for its own sake with petty inventions of hate-driven patriotism. Winning is his favorite illusion: it hides his desperation.
He learned nothing in 2009, nothing from the big Greek fight with the EU, the fault lines of British austerity, steady but often corrupt growth in Africa--nothing was learned from Pan-Pacific nations seeking trade protections and building a structure (albeit flawed!) for workers rights. Nothing has been learned by the man who sees the world as points of personal leverage for his appetites, under the guise of a common dream of prosperity.
41
@Walter
First, we must hold the assumption that he is being manipulated, and that all of these moves (especially tariffs/taxes) are for his backers (the international ones) that are making the real money. (10's of billions)
The President and his family are making their money off of the nickel and dime graft (emoluments), while the big money is in the anarchy that all of these moves are making. (shorts - which already have been illuminated upon)
All in an effort to buy up things (again) for pennies on the ruble/dollar when the markets (world and domestic) invariably crash again .
We are being sold out.
45
@Walter Rhett, A country with a dope for a president is only going to get more strung out.
2
Trump and the republicans have made the rich(which includes themselves) richer and the poor poorer with the their 2017 tax. con. Even the business news says it. 57 percent of the tax cuts have gone into stock buybacks by companies. stock buybacks strengthen and raise company stock prices temporarily, increasing the value of stocks owned by investors, typically CEOs, executives and billionaires who own 85 percent of all stocks. The investors then sell their stock making a ton of money to buy private planes and yachts. Average wages are flat or negative after inflation, running at 3 percent. The fed is going to raise rates 4 times in the next 12 months. Car and house loans will become more expensive because of higher interest payments. The money sloshing around because of the tax con itself fuels inflation, higher interest rates and higher home prices(which increases the likelihood of a real estate crash like in 2008). With 1.5 trillion added to the deficit, the next trump and republican move is to slash the safety net. This represents a huge financial loss for the average american. 40 percent of social security checks go into medical bills. A larger chunk is going to go out in future. With trump and the republicans wrecking the safety net to enrich their donors,and the 1 percent of the wealthiest including the trump family, people will be increasingly forced to dip into their retirement savings to pay medical bills.It is a Trump and GOP engineered disaster.
66
@observer: A lot of Trumpists are going to find themselves without refunds next April when they see what this mess of a law does for the modestly rich. The economy is being doped with reduced withholding rates too, all to scam the public past the November election with a fake boom.
3
The rich have gotten richer, but the poor have not gotten poorer (see nytimes article: https://www.nytimes.com/2018/08/21/opinion/happiness-inequality-prosperi.... The gains over the last 10 years have gone mainly to stock values, and the rich have more stock than the poor. As the article points out however, there are less poor now and the poor have in general seen an improvement in their finances, it's just that the rich have seen a greater improvement. As the article also points out, if happiness is due to one's situation getting better, then the overwhelming majority, both rich and poor, should be happier. Unfortunately, happiness is often dependent on whether one is doing better than one's neighbor. In that case, if one compares one's situation with the rich, then one will feel less happy.
@observer
Correction: it is a Trump and GOP engineered GENOCIDE. No need for labor camps, cattle cars, etc.
Just pull the plug on Social Security & deny healthcare by doing that with Medicare. And there you have it...mass murder, and mass suicide out of desperation. The GOP wants to "disappear" 25% of the population...and it's not from the top down, just the "disposables."
Thank you for focusing on Congress. It's a strange thing to keep sending people to Congress who are against Government.
The Republicans still like fat cost-plus government contracts that oversee themselves (since civil service jobs that once did are eliminated or understaffed), all at costs 4X higher than full and open competition. Everybody loves a winner. Oversight takes a back seat to Overruns when Republicans are majority.
Thanks to these 'constitution-loving' T-party (T is for Take) Republicans, America effectively has a tricameral government: Donors and Lobbyists, House and Senate. Freedom can survive an undeclared Russian agent as Chief Executive, but not a corrupt culture in Its lawmakers. The system is not rigged, it's bewitched.
14
Guilty verdict on Paul Manafort & guilty plea by Michael Cohen maybe bad news for Republicans but it isn't good for Democrats as they may stress less on healthcare as the most important issue for this November and may not gain control of the House.
If Republicans keep control of both chambers of Congress they may cut Medicare & Social Security as well as repeal ACA in their attempt to cut the deficits created by the huge tax-cuts mostly for the rich & corporations.
Sorry for repeating what I have written before about a modest tax-hike on the richest & cuts for working poor:
Have another higher marginal rate of 50% on the top 0.05% incomes, from all sources. This would bring in hundreds of $billions annually to significantly reduce the deficit.
Cut payroll tax on first $10K to 1% and to 2% on the second $10K. Lift the cap but cut it again to 1% beyond say, $150K to be less unpalatable to the rich.
8
My wife and I are not rich, but we earn a pretty good living. By the time we make it to retirement age social security and Medicare will provide us almost nothing. Yet you, in your infinite wisdom, have decided that we should pay an extra $60,000 a year into social security, for benefits we will never see. Who are you to decide how to spend my hard earned money?
1
@Clearheaded
If you are making well over $6 million, to pay additional $60,000 in payroll tax as per my proposal, you can afford to pay that much. And you must be "classified" as "rich," as you will fall in the top 0.07-0.08% income (To fall in the top 1% you need to make only around $700K. I believe top 1percenters are considered "rich.")
Such infusions to SS trust fund will also ensure the SS solvency, hopefully indefinitely, so that you & your wife & your children & grandchildren could collect it when they need it. We shall not expect "free lunch," unless poor.
'Although the average combined sales taxes in the U.S. for 2015, latest data available, was 8.45%, in certain poorer areas, such as Arab and Piedmont Alabama, the sales taxes reached 12.5%'. Further, the bottom fifth in incomes pays 7 times more in sales tax, as a share of their income than the top 1% does! And sales tax & payroll tax are far too regressive and quite unfair if there's any justification to progressive income tax.
Furthermore, "most" incomes up to about $100K is hard-earned, but most incomes over $1 million is hardly earned, but based mostly based on "luck."
@Clearheaded
I would recommend to explore, for instance, https://www.cnbc.com/2018/02/27/how-much-you-need-to-earn-to-be-part-of-... to get a better idea about the income distribution in America for 2015, latest IRS data available.
There were about 1.42 million tax-filers who made up the top 1%, with minimum income of about $500K; there were 1,412 filers with a minimum income ~ 60 million. While the top 1% paid income tax at a comparable rate of "195%" (see figures in the above site) of their incomes, the top 0.001% (1,412 filers) with a minimum income of nearly $60 million paid only at a rate of about 165% of their incomes. That means the top 0.001% in incomes paid at a lower rate in federal income tax than the top 1%. They ought to pay at a higher rate, which justifies their paying at 50% rate on their humungous investment incomes or hedge-fund commission incomes. As prez Trump said they are getting away with ….
Correcting the Dr. Johnson quotation: It's a *foolish* consistency that is the hobgoblin of little minds.
Republicans are above all that.
11
@Thomas Zaslavsky, Dr. Johnson would have loved fractals.
@Thomas Zaslavsky Any by "Dr. Johnson," do you mean Ralph Waldo Emerson?
1
The GOP has figured out that older folk will vote for them no matter what the Republicans do. So why not slash their Social Security and Medicare?
30
@Tony Mendoza - slash? can you tell me what govt program has been slashed in the last 20 years?
Don’t assume… I’m not voting for them and never have. Hands off my Social Security and Medicare. I’ve paid into it and waited a long time for it.
2
@Tony Mendoza It's not the older folk that will get their checks slashed. That would be an instant political loser for the GOP. Most of them will still vote that way if the cuts are directed at the generations behind them. GW Bush tried that with his privatization proposals and it quickly fell flat. Since the ideas of massive cuts by Republicans are there for all to see, The Dems need to hit on this one, along with health care, early and often.
Great column. So do you think that maybe you can get through to Democrats running this November to at least mention Social Security, Medicaid, Medicare, and the social safety net in general? I keep hearing from people about how the tax cuts have boosted the economy tremendously, even if these same people have received little benefit (unless they own stocks). This narrative is growing because Trump repeats it daily but the Democrats offer no counter-argument.
Can you please ask the ones you know, since I cannot seem to ever get through directly to my two Senators or Congressperson, to come up with a simple slogan about this? Like:
***Republicans cut taxes for the rich and want to cut your Social Security and Medicare; Democrats want to cut taxes for the working people and SAVE Social Security & ensure everyone has affordable, quality health care!***
Even the first part alone would work. Please, get through to the Democrats. Regular people need someone who can get them to listen. Continuing silence and the assumption that voters will rationally sort things out is not an option, given that we're facing a precipice with this horribly corrupt president and his GOP enablers.
31
A partial solution to the problem Prof. Krugman takes note of would, of course, entail the raising of the income limit above which no FICA taxes are payable. Why not raise that income cap to, say, whatever Donald Trump earned in the year prior to his taking the oath of office? Let's also bear in mind that The Donald has always maintained that he would absolutely not make any cuts to SSA or Medicare. And then let's bear in mind that he also promised great health care for all Americans at low, low cost and lots and lots of infrastructure spending. And a wall Mexico would pay for and peace in the Middle East and an end to violent crime and...
38
@stu freeman, sensible but risky since it will turn out miraculously that Trump earned no more than his secretary. That is, if Trump is not in the place he belongs, wearing stripes.
16
@stu freeman--yes! Even if a FICA phase out is retained, there is no reason why in 2018 the upper limit should be so low. That said. THomas Z's snarky point is also in the money. Better not tie any increase to DT's stated income. It's likely to backfire.
2
The real danger is not what is on the ballot, but the ballots themselves. I wish all the pundits were talking less about the motivation of republicans, and more about the fact that voting machines, leaving no trails, are accepted at face value as giving an honest count of votes. There have been innumerable demonstrations of the ease by which these machines can be hacked - votes changed, counts manipulated, votes not counted.
It is imperative that we return to paper ballots that are hand-counted, particularly in swing states. So what if it takes a little longer? We at least would have the assurance that the ballots were (probably) counted honestly, and that they were available should the need for a recount or audit arise.
The digital age, despite its obvious benefits, has made us careless and lazy when it comes to protecting our rights. Okay, privacy is a thing of the past, but we still need to have confidence in the way our votes are counted.
"Open the pod door, Hal."
"I'm sorry, Dave; I can't do that."
37
@michaeltide
Indeed. Not only should there be paper ballots, but they should be mailed (or at least a national holiday in person), and of course, voting should be mandatory.
I don't think republicans would ever hold office again.
29
"Lather, rinse, repeat" indeed.
This GOP bait-and-switch has been playing non-stop for 40 years now. Like Charlie Brown, every election cycle, the American voters still try to kick the football that Lucy (the GOP) yanks away at the last second.
And We the People always end up flat on our backs with the wind knocked out of us (and our wallets picked again by a larcenous GOP just doing their duty to their plutocratic puppet masters).
WHY do We the People keep falling for this same tired re-run every election cycle? It's like watching the same horror movie for the twentieth time and screaming at the screen, "Hey! - Don't open that door!"
But we always do - and the GOP laughs all the way to the bank with our money in their pockets - headed off to some posh resort where they'll sit down with the plutocrats and say, "Ten million for you, one million for me."
Nice work if you can get it.
Seriously, polling consistently shows that 70% - 80% of Americans want to see Medicare and Social Security strengthened. Not so many years ago, Social Security was known as "the Third Rail of American politics".
So who turned off the electricity to that Third Rail? How can the GOP even dare mention the contemplation of cuts to Medicare and Social Security without getting clobbered in any subsequent election?
If the Democrats can't figure this riddle out and effectively tar the GOP with this obvious brush handed to them on a silver platter - the American Middle Class will be burnt toast.
37
@Dave
Your rant/plea does not fall on deaf ears friend. We do have to keep in context, that all of this is happening because of only 77k votes over 3 states (with the help of foreign powers),and that the left is consistently getting the popular vote.
That does not help us now, and there is an incredible amount of pain to so many, but demographics are indeed shifting, so that even ridiculous gerrymandering, poll taxes and the need for 37 pieces of new ID to vote, will not matter anymore.
There is also no more give as far as taxes, because even the base is losing jobs, their health care, pensions, houses and the like. I think that enough of them are not going to vote against themselves any longer, no matter tribe and social wedge issues.
Keep the faith.
15
"WHY do We the People keep falling for this same tired re-run every election cycle?"
Guns, God, etc.
etc. mostly = racism
@FunkyIrishman
“Only 77k votes over 3 states”? Given the plight of the people, it should have been a piece of cake for the party I remember. Who killed my brother?
The cynicism inherent in Republican policy making is nothing new. It grows more blatant and less sub rosa with time. We thought it reached its apogee when Ronald Reagan ran on the promises to cut defense spending, reduce taxes and eliminate the deficit. Everyone except Arthur Laffer knew that doing all three was impossible.
No matter. The inexorable march of duplicity continues, growing ever more bold. Sacred cows are slaughtered with impunity and little regard for the unsavory consequences. Naysayers are vilified as unpatriotic and un-American.
It is a “long con” with which we are faced. Even Bernie Madoff would blush with shame at his own comparative amateurism. He barely scratched the surface. How humbled he must feel at having left so much on the table. So many easy marks, so little time.
3
When he was in college Paul Ryan used "cutting entitlements" as a pick up line for a date.
1
@Paul
Knowing Ryan, I can't tell if this is true or not :)
Point well taken. Republicans are subservient to a crooked president as long as they can pursue their cherished long term goals: subvert the Supreme Court by appointing Justices that will sustain their agenda, and serve their donors by continuing the shameless scam of redistributing wealth from those who have little to those who have too much for their own good. This increasing wealth-gap between the haves and the have-nots will create political instability and will weaken our country when people finally realize that they have been conned. The next election ill show how many Americans had enough of these shenanigans.
7
Trump, in a book published with his name on the cover in 2000, didn't think much of Social Security. He said the retirement age should be raised to 70, that it should be privatized & everyone should start investing in stocks. He called it a Ponzi scheme.
Now, of course, he claims that the immense boost to the economy from the tax cuts will save the program. He even gave Paul Ryan a mini Biden-like talk on the stupidity of messing with SS as a politician, from his perspective, a take any politician wanting to win should avoid.
As his fellow Republicans begin to compensate on revenue loss & start to cut programs, he'll grimace, shake his head, sign the bills & watch his base approval rise.
7
Intelligence is 90% memory.
10
Shortly after the election, my Trump voting step-mother was visiting from South Caroline for Thanksgiving. One night, I ran into her on the way back from moving the car. She had snuck out front for a cigarette. To that point, we had avoided politics, but I could not contain myself any longer. “Must be nice to know you’re going to have Medicare,” I said. With neither understanding nor irony, she replied, “Oh, I got my Medicare already.”
12
What’s interesting is the poor states that will be hurt most by these reductions just love Trump. It’s clear racism trumps self interest. Amazing.
21
There is no bargaining with republicans. There will be no meeting of the minds with republicans. Why no? Because they aren't interested in compromise. They're only interesting in "winning." And that's what the do, generally speaking. They win. How else were they able to get away with as much as they've gotten away with?
Now the baseball bat is in our hands. All of these republicans, who either tacitly conspired with Trump through their silence or dismissive comments or were avowed members in his gang of thugs and thieves, must be held to account.
There will be much work to be done to get us back on the right track once we rid ourselves of these swamp-dwellers and grifters.
5
Saving Obamacare, Medicaid and Medicare are very important for our future. But there will still be an elephant in the room – US healthcare costing double what it does in other civilized countries. Millions of Americans who do not qualify for subsidies just cannot pay for healthcare. We need a bi-partisan effort to fight the lobbies and to bring these costs down.
11
Democrats and Democratic politicians need to become comfortable making the accurate case that Republicans are—and I say this thoughtfully and after much rational consideration—pure evil and a clear and present danger to the rest of us. They are dishonest or (at best) culpably gullible, and they are mostly fully conscious and malevolent in their choices. Yes, this extends to those who may happen to also be members of your family, church, or child’s coaching team. I challenge you to list a single exception to this rule: you cannot. Where their motives are at least logical (corporatist, white supremecist), they are always base and cruel. Obama was simply incapable of acknowedging this for reasons that escape me, and we are still saddled with politicians who act like it is a terrible tragedy when (primarily young) people articulate this truth. What’s the point in pretending these villains are worthy of anything but contempt as they energetically seek to destroy our lives, our children’s lives, and the ecology of the earth itself? There is nothing more to say and no point in communicating with, pointing out the hypocrisy of, or trying to negotiate in good faith with the faithless.
22
Um, he was the first black president.
@Noisejoke True. And that means he can't say what the vast majority of the country and his constituents believe? (and which is also true, fwiw)
I don't buy it. I don't think he wanted to say it because criticizing Republicans and their capitalist system didn't feel necessary or decorous to someone in his (by then extremely privileged and highly educated) social circle, which is exactly why (non-black) Rahm, Pelosi, and the rest are equally reluctant to articulate a need for profound structural change and to call out the forces propping up our existing mess.
They are bandits, plain and simple.
14
THE only way to save som semblance of a social contract and decent society is for the blue states to secede. Our ramshackle constitution hands a veto to a tiny number of out of touch yahoos out in the boondocks who don’t care or are incapable of learning what the consequences are. The only solution is to let those places go and reconstitute the areas with an interest in a civilized society go about shaping an actual democracy where some pigs are twenty times more equal than others with liberty and justice for all.
7
hey Donnie ..... BORROW another $2 TRILLION
more tax cuts ..... SUPERHEAT this economy
still no infra-structure money .... potholes everywhere
we want our TRUMP-CARE right now
2
Yes, whatever happened to that massive infrastructure program? Why is nobody, not even Democrats, asking this question? That pipe dream was a scam predicated on a "public/private partnership". In other words, the government would pour billions into projects whose funding would be administered by trustworthy agents like Goldman Sachs, skimming off obscene sums in "management fees". Gary Cohn signed on for two things, the tax cut and the infrastructure program. Those were his marching orders from the generals in Goldman. When it became clear that the latter was not to be, he cut bait and fled back to the mother ship, only half a billion dollars richer.
For years, Americans have been told that they can have the same government for less money and were willing to believe it because less taxes were dangled in front of them . Now a fiscal crisis is on its way and it is likely to damage not just Medicare and Social Security but to spill over into other priorities such as education and infrastructure. We are moving closer to becoming a very wealthy, third world country complete with the awful distribution of national wealth that is a mark of many third world countries
10
Let me make it simple for every American voter...
Elect Republicans, ANY Republican, and Social Security, Medicare and all other safety net programs that benefit average Americans are at risk.
20
Not only do the Republicans cut taxes and then claim the resulting deficit as an excuse to slash the safety net, but when Democrats gain power and raise taxes for its repair, conservatives howl about the "tax-and-spend" liberals. I can only assume that Republican voters are extremely rich and don't need Medicare, Medicaid, or Social Security, or they're just willfully ignorant--or, like our bogus POTUS, both of the above.
4
@carrobin - when was the safety net last "slashed"?
Craziness.
It was Obama who wanted to raise the age of Medicare to 67 and the Republicans who vetoed it.
If the Democrats won't go along , the Republicans don't have 61 Senators. If the reactionary Republicans and the reactionary New Democrats like Obama and Hillary pass something, the populist Trump will veto it.
2
@Jerry Hough: The Republicans vetoed the increase of the Medicare age because they opposed everything Obama presented, no matter what. Remember the ACA was modeled on Massachssett’s Romneycare which was in turn modeled on a plan by the conservative Heritage Foundation? Nonetheless, the Republicans tried to repeal it dozens of times and almost succeeded under Trump and are now actively sabotaging the ACA. All because Obama proposed it.
7
Trumpers believe in logic and common sense.
Wealthy people know how to make money. We must help them make even more money by cutting regulations and with tax cuts.
This will result in a booming economy that will help everyone. Maga
Social Security and Medicare are great but it would be even better if the federal government wasn't involved and I had the money in my own hands.
It's difficult to argue with this way of thinking using facts and history.
They have to be out voted.
10
There has been little wage growth over the past 16 years for most American workers, yet businesses profits are soaring to new heights (see S&P as an example). However, if we continue to value capital over labor, then it seems likely government will always have to intervene for loss locked out of important economic gains. The need for safeguards, especially in this case, is also very logical.
2
@Sammy Nice sarcasm.
1
@JG
The lack of wage growth may be Trump's Achilles heel. Even if the tax breaks etc. should somehow work and there is a boom, unfortunately most Americans won't benefit economically any more than they did with the last two presidents.
Will the continuing, stagnant wages change votes or will the con go on?
Well if Democrats keep countering this technique by limiting spending on the working class while Republicans keep cutting taxes on the rich, it will happen over and over again.
When Bernie laid out an agenda like Northern Europe, Hillary and Krugman called it fairy dust. Trump embraced it and promised tax cuts for the rich too.
Promise workers what they need. Being against Trump is not enough.
6
@McGloin
He "embraced" it the same we he "embraced" the flag on stage when he spoke at the conference of the Federation of Independent Businesses.
Then again, he promised farmers what they need: $12 billion in tax payer money to bail them out from his tariffs.
It's not just cutting taxes, but also INCREASING military spending that is part of the Republican strategy to balloon the deficit in order to decrease social spending. The Republican dream, in my estimation, is to create an absolutist corporate-military state, whereby any type of democratic control of the economy is structurally barred.
104
Comparing capitalism and socialism is apples and oranges. Capitalism is private ownership of industry and its proceeds and socialism is citizenry services paid for through taxation of wealth.
Some see socialism as redistribution of wealth. The reality is capitalism needs a redistribution of wealth in order to thrive. Actually, the whole point of capitalism is redistribution of wealth. That economic system requires a healthy business environment with an educated populace who feel they are getting ahead. they then have the confidence to spend on what the marketplace provides. By keeping all the money at the top, the 1 percent will shrink as there is less money to flow through the system to make business grow.
there is no need to fear social programs provided by a well funded and we'll run government. As the New Deal showed, the economy grows fast and well when the most people can afford at least the basic necessities.
The biggest anti-capitalist system we have is the military. Reform it before dismantling basic social services. Put those tax dollars back in circulation instead of sinking them into military stockpiles of underused weapons, equipment and underdeveloped land.
26
People are willing to vote for The Robber Barons running our government because they think Billionaires really care about the common man. If you a white guy from the Midwest who used to work on the assembly line for a decent wage you blame people invading from South of The Border for your plight. If your a coal miner you can't blame natural gas and the truly nasty things coal does to our children you have to blame those East and West Coast Liberals. So why are we shocked that almost 90 percent of The Rights supporters think they are coming for only East and West Coast liberals Social Security and Medicare. The angel of Social Security and Medicare death will bypass them because they are really the good Americans.
13
I think all you need to know about the Republicans and their honesty is that G. Gordon Liddy is still a popular right wing pundit with a following of his radio show and buyers of his books.
The man tried to steal an election and was convicted of a felony.
The republicans want power at any cost. It’s not about money. It’s about control.
20
What is sometimes missed it seems is the idea of tax cuts is sold as a way to 'help' those who are the 'takers' of the system to pull themselves up by their 'boot straps.' It's all coded racism for which half the country is a complete sucker.
If tax cuts were sold truthfully then you'd see people bringing home a mostly disabled grandma who can no longer afford to reside in an assisted living tower. Then those people trying to figure out how to work/raise kids/care-for-elderly while working 60 hours/week and based on average wage getting a whopping few hundred bucks a year more. Then in a couple months they're all homeless because banks don't see color. Ok they see red and if you're in it you're out of your home.
There is absolutely no reason it would ever work except when you frame the whole tax system as a bigoted taker/maker zero sum game. Then the real America shows up and votes. It would have happened under any Republican, but it took one who lied profusely and played to the worst impulses of racial bias to actually bring those people out to vote and get him elected. Sad! Like actually very sad not just saying it to make a point of our dear leader's misplaced vocabulary.
3
I have a neighbor who last year put a Trump placard on his lawn on a block where political posters are never displayed, a sure sign that it's liberal.
Maybe it's my Chinese DNA but I've been polite and civil towards him. It's easy to write him off as an angry white guy who sees Trump as his revenge, even though he's a high income professional and doesn't seem as if he's experienced much economic insecurity -- judging from his ostentatious display of Tesla and Range Rover and a home that dwarfs everyone else in the neighborhood. He says the tax cuts paid for the cars.
He also owns guns, a lot of them, which he mentions whenever I encounter him.
As Trump has slithered further into the slime, my neighbor (five house down, luckily) has become more belligerent and obnoxious, like Trump, spouting Fox fake news. He targets me because my other neighbors avoid him.
I made the mistake of engaging him on gun control before I learned he was a gun nut. He complimented me on my English saying most Chinese engineers he works with are incomprehensible.
I saw him yesterday taking out the garbage. I said it was garbage day for the country and Trump was halfway in the bin. Your guy is officially a crook I said fully expecting him to take a swing at me. Instead he looked wounded and didn't reply.
I made a placard that said Mueller For President and planted it on my lawn. This morning two houses had Hillary placards up, opposite the mega mansion.
The worm turns.
555
@Yuri Asian I love this story! Thanks for posting. I, too, find that people in my neighborhood who have been secretly sane, patriotically liberal, and morally sound Democrats need only a little encouragement from a brave soul like you to show their true colors. We can rebuild a community, block by block, of voters who aren't taken in by the con Paul Krugman describes here. In my case, we started with a protest in the local park against taking kids away from their parents and putting them in cages. To our surprise, hundreds showed up. Just last week, we hosted a potluck in that same park. Community is the cure for fear, which is what your Trump-supporting neighbor trades in.
2
@Yuri Asian Yes, yes it has. Now that the worm is turning, help it roll all the way over by not rubbing that man's face in it. Don't give him the umph to want to hit you back for it. Now is the time to turn the other cheek while standing strong. You might get that other cheek slapped but it is a small price to pay if the payoff for the risk is big, that he will vote and vote out the gop.
1
@Yuri Asian ...and the worms (or spirochetes, the tiny worms which cause syphilis) are Republican.
1
Krugman wrote: The puzzle is why Republicans keep getting away with this bait-and-switch.
Answer: We humans are an ignorant lot, some a bit more, some a bit less.
17
The evil Republican Party has practiced the same con for years and should be turned out of office because of their crimes. However, the people who shoulder most of the blame are the uneducated, gullible voters who vote for them as well as the apathetic nonvoters who sit out the elections.
Get out the vote. Take a friend to the polls. Encourage friends to register and vote absentee. Throw the GOP authoritarian elites out of office. Do yourself and the nation a favor. Vote.
21
Wherever we go from here, what a time to be alive. The twenty first century as predicted by Charles Manson (and ‘Dr. Strangelove’). Far out, man.
It’s like a future dystopia without the wait.
4
Part of the problem, as I have said before, is most journalists are genetically incapable of understanding economics.
“The puzzle is why Republicans keep getting away with this bait-and-switch.” Answer: because ~ 45% of American voters, largely male and almost exclusively white, value, perhaps to the exclusion of all else, white tribal hegemony.
23
The big problem here is that too much of the media still treats the Republican Party and the conservative movement as legitimate, when in practice they are now effectively a criminal conspiracy looting the country for the rich. They use all the tools of a confidence trickster: deceptive advertising, bait & switch, and outright deception - while scapegoating Democrats for the mess they make.
Their whole purpose is to make the rich richer. Hasn't anyone in the press ever read Atlas Shrugged even once? It's Paul Ryan's Bible - especially the part about Ragnar Danneskjöld, who makes a career of stealing foreign aid packages to give the money to the rich.
The corruption and mendacity of the Trump administration is nothing the GOP wouldn't be doing in any case - just louder. Trump has made a career out of walking away with other people's money; in that regard the GOP was primed and ready for him long ago.
Democrats really REALLY need to stop echoing concern about the deficit in a way that reinforces the GOP budget scam. They need to frame it as what it is: organized wealth transfer from the bottom to the top. Lord knows they have enough real world examples to show that the GOP does not have anyone's best interests at heart other than their own.
"GOPus delenda est." - Kevin Drum
26
Hmmm. This means the future of your health care and social benefits is in the hands of voters in swing districts that lean either Republican or Democrat. Based on the blind faith and cult like following of Republicans in said districts, methinks that you'll be pulling out your Visa's before heading to your local doctor's office or hospital for a visit. Good luck with that.
For the 50% of the American population who hasn't consumed the orange Trump juice, you should look to emigrating to Canada. We welcome all and if you need to visit a doctor or hospital, you can keep your Visa in your wallet.
8
@Steve sounds great. I may come and just bring my state with me plus for two other stuff north of us who are equally sick of being ruled by a tyranny of the minority of racist rubes
4
@Steve: Better for the Blue Coastal states to seceed en bloc and form a more or less horseshoe shaped North American Union with Canada, along an improved model of the EU. More states would follow eventually when they turn blue and they see the benefits, with the borders of the Union more or less along the Mason Dixon line and northern Texas and Arizona borders. California could even go it alone, being in the top 10 of GDP world wide, but there’s strength in being part of a progressive union. And progressives still living in the red states could move to the blue states if they wished and vice versa.
1
@Anna
I love this idea!
Questions asked by the media need to be more direct. Something like, “Senator Blecch, are deficits a good thing or not?” The answer sets up the next question.
“Yes.” Then why in this case do you want to reduce it?
“No.” Then why are you promoting policies that increase it?
“(mumblemumbletrickledownunleashmarketforcesfreedomfreedomblah)”
“Senator, I’m sure the voters would like to see the data that supports that view. Can you provide some sources?”
“(muttermutternotmyjobkenyanislamistterroristlibertysupportourtroops)”
“Thank you Senator. I think we now have a better understanding of your views.
"Next up, president trump's visit to a catechism class. Stay tuned."
6
Nothing is worse for the future of American prosperity and the average American than the duplicitous Republican plan of bait and switch. They pass a true Tax Scam that cuts Corporate taxes and taxes of the extreme wealthy and implode the deficit by 1.5 trillion dollars. Then they have the chutzpah to use their own created deficit to starve the beast and use their own self created deficits as an excuse to cut all social programs including Medicare and Social Security.
They need to be held responsibility for this scam.
Not only should they be voted out of power,
but they need to be replaced by a new more moderate
Conservative party that is committed to sensible policy choices that enhance social programs and tax plans that benefit the average American not the privileged view.
They are despicable as the President they abet and support. Just horrible!
8
Well, faux deficit hawks in the republican party must be 'happy' to have gotten away with their hypocritical stance, cutting taxes for the 'rich and powerful' corporate world and still have the gall to claim it'll pay for itself. Paul Ryan, and certainly McConnell, are two con men that got away with 'murder', seemingly unperturbed. Trump may be just the dumb ignoramus willing to sign off their irresponsible selling of all reason and common sense. And the reason they are willing to overlook Trump's despicability.
3
It is one of the great mysteries of our times, that so many people believe despite all evidence that the GOP is fiscally responsible. I waffle between believing that the entire nation is brainwashed and the entire nation is made up of masochists. I don't believe psychology is a very accurate science, but I would say at least that Americans are insane. I say these things because it seems implausible that the whole country is that stupid. Even though it appears that way.
2
thank God for "rural" America!
So many brown people in foreign lands need killing with billion-dollar wonder weapons that there just isn't enough money to keep grandma from starving.
Priorities.
21
I expect that we will end up like the Middle East. Just the plan to destroy the of safety net of fellow Americans is evil. Those involved will not live in peace. Vote.
4
"If the G.O.P. holds its majority, Social Security and Medicare as we know them will be very much in danger."
I have a hard time believing the GOP would be that stupid.
1
Eduardo....then perhaps it'll be easier for you to believe that the GOP would be that greedy..... because they are.
They're very accomplished sociopaths.
15
@Eduardo. Why would it be stupid? Half of Americans will blame black people, Democrats, gays, muslims, and immigrants regardless of what happens
conservativism is believing tax cuts are the answer to every problem and brown people are the source of every problem.
10
@Eduardo
It's easy to believe, because that is what they say.
QED
3
The huge debt (over $1 trillion) created by the GOP "tax cut" will be used for the typical GOP ranted rationale of "We can't afford it!"--this time for Medicare and Social Security.
Mittens gave the game away at that 2012 Boca Raton fundraiser when he used the term "47% takers." In other words, some 150 million fellow Americans were "life unworthy of life" (to use a more candid Nazi euphemism) and should vanish at little or no cost.
This is the kind of thing that Mitt Romney meant. It makes the program of the Wannsee Protocol (the working details of the Final Solution) seem kind of expensive and quaint, doesn't it?
5
Yes, voters need to know these things and Democrats need to remind them and the media needs to make sure the message isn't lost in the idiot's tweets and scandals. There is a load for everyone to carry. Can we do that anymore?
4
"What will happen if the blue wave in the midterm elections falls short?"
It's almost unimaginable that the House will not turn blue. But if it doesn't my wife and I, both from Massachusetts, have already decided to leave the "red" state of Georgia and head North to blue country.
I'm on Medicare, and so here in Georgia they'll buy into cutting back on benefits because it's patriotic and they'll be fewer abortions, and more Christians, and white folks. I mean these folks in rural Georgia will buy any Republican propaganda, And the politicians here are just a bunch of leaches, sucking on the blood of "big money".
5
Bullseye on every point. Including a forecast that the GOP might hold on to the House that raises my anxiety that young Democrats and the media will not understand the horrific state of our society without Social Security Insurance, Medicare, the Affordable Care Act, and the other important components of the social safety net.
I hope you will ask other experts what conditions were like in the United States before the FDR government created the Social Security Insurance Program
I talk with young voting age voters regularly and can tell you that they don't know the history of these programs, how they work, and the long-standing opposition of the GOP to Social Insurance and Medicare.
They are simply not aware of the GOP's nearly half-century-long strategy of cutting taxes then bemoaning the deficits and advocating reductions in Social Security, Medicare, and the other programs in the social safety net.
Some seem to have a sense that the huge number of boomers born after WWII and lasting to about 1960 has had a huge impact on our society, economy, and environment.
This is the principal reason voters should TURN OUT in this mid-term election, just 70+ days from now on 6 November, cast a vote for every "D" on the ballot, and assure that the Democrats regain control of the House, its Committees' majorities, and the proportion of staffers who will be working these issues.
I hope you will use your expertise to educate journalists and media wonks on the GOP budget ploy.
12
Much worse than the social cuts that come with a major tax break, are the delays on repairs of our infrastructure, and the nuclear waste site depository clean ups, we are rapidly running out of time to take care of. The presidents first responsibility is to insure the safety and security of the country and its people, a sworn duty he is ill prepared to uphold on this present fiscal course and these priorities. His presidency may be in real jeopardy even before his first term expires, under the conditions of upheaval and unexpected changes now affecting our planet, that offer little hope of second chances to those who do not recognize, or understand, the nature of the times we are living in.
11
Goals, for the minority party, are clear: healthcare, infrastructure, social safety net, livable wage. We are outspent 20:1, because of the money on the other side. China Turkey, the fragile, will crash the market by January 2019 maybe.This November vote is just the beginning. It is certainly cheaper to correct before things get more broken.
3
Social Security loans money to the overall federal budget, not the other way around. The system is in surplus. Social security has no borrowing power, nor does it spend a penny beyond its yearly intake. The predicted payments gap, circa 2034. can easily be fixed by removing the cap on FICA taxes. Medicare and runaway healthcare costs are a problem in both the public and private sectors.
36
@Big Ten Grad The higher the FICA cap is raised, the more redistributive that Social Security and Medicare become, and then that leads to lessened support with the current electorate. Some raising of the FICA cap is politically feasible I think, but probably not removal for the long term. Leave SS and Medicare redistribution alone, but I think there is another argument for capital gains to be taxed the same as wages using progressive rate brackets. Also estate taxes. I think those will be needed to keep the deficits and debts under control, keeping the economy and inflation stable.
2
We don't need to stick our heads in the sand. The gap can also be "fixed" by cutting benefits 25%.
http://www.crfb.org/blogs/real-story-social-security-deficits
1
@Big Ten Grad. And the US could institute a NHS single payer system for the cost of what just the public spending alone is (saving ALL of the private spending.). Of course, a precondition for that is that Americans aren’t morons, so that clearly ain’t happening
2
An additional aspect of the GOP long-term strategy is take resources away from the federal government. Power and wealth will increasingly flow to the powerful and wealthy. The 99% will be increasingly disempowered in addition to being made increasingly vulnerable to falling into permanent debt and effective serfdom.
33
Those Americans who insist on playing Charlie Brown to the GOP's Lucy deserve what they get. The Charlies include not just the ones who vote Republican but the ones who stay home as if nothing magtters, and they take the rest of us down with them.
77
@mancuroc
The Sophists have 24 hundred years of power and practice. There is no one who tries to speak truth that can compete with a Antonin Scalia or Ted Cruz. Socratics can only bring penknives to gun fights. We drink the Hemlock or enjoy the martyrdom because we will not betray ourselves to win a contest where winning depends on betraying all we believe in.
Jesus purportedly said it best, "Father, forgive them, for they not what they are doing." Luke 23 34
@mancuroc Defeatist and counterproductive. I understand the sentiment, and boy do I living in pence country. But this is the same miss-focused anger and resentment that trump voters vote to destroy the safety net with. As you do point out, they take you, who was not fooled. down with you. Please, I beg of you and everybody else who wants to take out their frustration on others, Don't! Please don't. Instead, encourage your liberal voting friends and neighbors, especially in swing trump voting areas to vote. Otherwise, your're just helping the gop do their worst.
1
@mancuroc
Yes, but the majority, the decent Americans who voted for Hillary, don't deserve any of this.
Bush tax cuts-
In 2013 CBPP estimated that, when the associated interest costs are taken into account, the Bush tax cuts (including those that policymakers made permanent) would add $5.6 trillion to deficits from 2001 to 2018
https://www.cbpp.org/research/federal-tax/the-legacy-of-the-2001-and-200...
Trump tax cuts-
The Office of Management and Budget said this month that it had revised its forecasts from earlier this year to account for nearly $1 trillion of additional debt over the next decade — on average, almost $100 billion more a year in deficits.
https://www.nytimes.com/2018/07/25/business/trump-corporate-tax-cut-defi...
$6.6 trillion dollars in tax cuts and now the want Social Security.
Criminals.
74
@Mark
I think there should be a law passed that republicans must wear orange jump suits when passing anymore laws. (especially tax law)
Just a thought.
2
Capitalism is what built (builds) America; Socialism, responsibility-shifting, has brought down almost every government that has tried it. Republicans are capitalists, Democrats are socialists; it may sound simplistic but it's roughly correct. At bottom America is an economic, not a political, society. Making economic decisions through the political process is a fundamental error, but that's what Democrats always want to do. Their base constituency lives on the margins of the economy and doesn't care about economic growth of efficient capital allocation, they just want someone to drop an unearned check in their mailbox. Voters should have the sense not to go along with this. When looked at from this correct point of view Mr. Trump's policies make perfect sense and merit our support, even if some of his friends are a little sketchy.
2
@Ron
The vast majority of Americans want to work, but albeit fairly compensated, and with the possibility of some equitable future for themselves and their families. In so doing, that requires a fair tax structure (Progressive), where essentially if you make more, then you pay more taxes Progressively upwards - not less.
That is essentially what today's capitalists/republicans want, and that is to lock in the ''Socialism'' (the profits) for themselves at the top, and have all of the little people at the bottom partake in ''capitalism'' (costs). If there is not enough money to funnel up to them, then there are always bailouts (never money for social programs) for them, at the further cost to the little people.
No one is advocating ''free'' anything, nor are people sitting around their mailboxes to wait for some magical fairy dust to appear, such as you suggest.
People are waiting for election day though ...
54
@Ronald B. Duke
Under this viewpoint, then the only reason for the American government to exist is to serve the capitalists and the companies and corporations they own. The many millions of American citizens who don't fall into this category then are irrelevant, apart from the tax dollars they pay.
28
@Ronald B. Duke
Our nation is much more than a mere Monopoly board on which economic players contest for accumulation of wealth. That we treat it as such has everything to do with our current crisis.
20
The "starve the beast" meme needs to be repeated until everyday Americans understand what is happening. The GOP wants to privatize every aspect of government, so that they can repay their cronies who fund their campaigns. We are all expected to pay for the privilege of privatization while our services and benefits are reduced or taken away altogether. Meanwhile, they scare us into thinking we must be eternally at war to fund billions of profit dollars for the military contractors and arms suppliers, while actually decreasing the safety and security of our nation. There is no benefit for anybody except the biggest campaign donors, and we all pay. That is the plan, and it will continue to succeed until and unless we vote these criminals out of office.
15
The argument I hear in this hornet's nest of a Republican stronghold is that the Democrats want to "give their money away."
But they refuse to believe that the Republicans want to take it.
45
@KJ
Sadly, when you point to the massive amount of corporate welfare their eyes go blank.
On the other hand, if Republicans continue to control Congress and are successful in cutting Medicare, Social Security and eliminating ACA those Trump supporters who vote for Republicans will be those hoisted most highly with their own petards.
Poetic justice.
17
@HapinOregon
They may be hoisted on their own petards, but they will blame "those (dark skinned) people" for their plight and continue to be Trumpites.
4
@Jack be Quick
So far as I know there are no known cures for bigotry or stupidity...
We need more government, not less. But will the voters support an expansion of government programs? Are people so gullible that they believe the Republican ploys? I suppose some white Americans find it in their interest to reduce Medicare and SS because they don't depend on these things: they have private health insurance and live off their investments. So, the question is, how do you convince the other part of the electorate -- white and non-white -- to vote Democratic in order to preserve and possibly extent these social programs?
7
I sincerely hope that the Democrats who are hoping to be part of the Blue Wave are talking to voters about what kind of future they want. If, as I expect, it's a future in which they don't have to worry about how to pay for the medical expenses of themselves, their children and their parents, don't have to worry that they can never afford to retire, don't have to be faced with absolutely no safety net should they need it, then those Democrats better be able to explain why that future is NOT going to come from the current administration.
The voters who put Trump in the White House and support his Republican Congress enablers have hitched their future to a mirage, yet won't realize it's a mirage until the cool water of prosperity they hope to drink is just sand. Telling them Trump is bad, or criminal, or ignorant or incompetent will not work, as that attacks their pride and integrity. Approach them through their hearts by listening honestly and carefully to their dreams; their minds will follow.
13
The only thing that appears to trickle down is that "foolish consistency" of supply side, voodoo, bait n switch economics. Jokes been on us since the 70s.
7
Dr. Krugman, I believe that a large swath of the adult population is no longer naive about the cynical true intentions of these Republican hypocrites following their recent tax cut gift to the G.O.P. funding plutocrats and corporate interests. Any future attempt by them to tamper with Social Security or Medicare would be met with the Mother of All Political Resistance. This sustained would be very ugly and, I’m afraid, violent. Congressional Republicans would wade into such treacherous waters at their great peril.
5
It's hard for me to find sympathy for older folks when they vote in very high numbers for Republicans. I have been working since I was 13 years old, more than 35 years, and I have known for a long time Social Security won't be there for me. I won't retire. I will die at my desk. What a kick in the teeth, to pay into a system that old folks currently get to tap into and then vote against my future.
8
@MJ Don't believe it, Republicans love to say that Social Security can't be sustained, but it can and it must and your generation has to fight for it. It wasn't like Social Security was handed to us on a silver platter, it was long fought for and it works. If they can make massive tax cuts they can also pay for social security, this country is rich enough to pay for almost anything--but nothing comes easy when there are people who want your money.
10
@MJ
Don't drink the Kool-Aid. I receive Social Security and Canada and Quebec pensions. I know Quebec and Canada pensions will be there for my grandchildren because our pensions are managed by the best fund managers on the planet.
I can never figure out why the man who looks for the best paid and most successful fund manager with whom to invest won't pay the taxes to hire the most competent managers to run the world's most important investments the investments in health education and welfare that will determine all our futures.
3
@MJ You don't get it. The same thing can be said about the F-35. There's no "fund" to pay for it. We fund it year by year. The only reason Social Security won't be there for you is if you and enough others keep believing the lies, evasions, and 1/2-truths from the GOP & their enablers in the MSM.
Demand we fund both the military & the elderly the same way. There's no reason we can't do it. Only propaganda. Don't fall for the repeated and repeated and repeated *lies*. *Lies!*
3
Time for AARP (or are they in the pocket of the GOP?) to make noise... And, let's revive the Gray Panthers! Cuts to Medicare and Social Security will impact older/elderly women to a MUCH greater extent than men... These two social programs have kept most out of poverty!
21
@Louise
AARP has close ties to the insurance industry.
1
"The puzzle is why Republicans keep getting away with this bait-and-switch."
The Republican base is obsessed with controlling the sex lives of other people and tormented by the idea that someone a shade or two darker than them may be sharing in the safety net.
The real puzzle is why is the base so distressed about the "other" and how come, even after decades, they haven't noticed that the G.O.P. donor class uses the bases's preachers and prejudices to keep them in line and rob them blind.
30
The MAGA-heads can't or won't comprehend Krugman's clear and straightforward analysis. And it is not like this is new! Even George H. W. Bush knew that supply-side claims were bogus "voodoo economics."
Is it just too complicated for tiny minds to comprehend, or is it something in the GOP Kool-Aid? In any case I agree with those who see this as a failure in public education, and Democrats too are complicit when they fail to bring the points in this article relentlessly to voters. It is not politics! Our lives depend on it.
12
@William O, Beeman
Policies are too complicated for poorly educated Americans. They are not voting for their own best interests; they are voting for the leader of the white tribe who will keep them safe from scary dark people. It's all about tribalism and fear. No matter what Trump and his criminal organization do, he's a hero in their besotted minds.
4
The GOP clearly does not care about the collective well-being of the American citizenry and, thus, as an extension, the USA in general. It will only get worse for us all in the long run if the trend does not err, and in the short run, those that voted for and continue to support this ignorant, narcissistic child and his enablers may feel even more financial pain. They won't wake up, though; they can't, and may not want to.
12
The first thing , as far as economic poliv is concerned, that the electorate must demand through their votes in the midterm elections, is that the government should STOP continually pouring more and more benefits into the laps of those who are already the very wealthiest. That always comes at the expense of the real needs of our society and impacts primarily those who can afford it least.
9
I became a Democrat after the first Regan presidency. Tax cuts that would pay for themselves in fact created huge deficits. Then starve the beast talk. I finally saw the Republican scam. Republican party sells all kinds of side shows and fincial lies. In the end the rich gets richer and rest of us fight each other. Only the government is big enough to curb capitalism to help the people. That's why the Republican party hates big government.
33
“but hey, consistency is the hobgoblin of little minds. So, apparently, is honesty.)”
No
“A FOOLISH consistency is the hobgoblin of little minds. A great person does not have to think consistently from one day to the next.”
Self-Reliance, Emerson.
5
@In deed
Changing ones mind in the light of new evidence is indeed a sign of intelligence, but that's not what Paul is talking about when referring to these deficit hawk charlatans. He's referring to they're not being consistent with the principles they espouse because they are not acting from principle but from expedience in an attempt to deceive voters. I thought his point was rather clear, but if you have an alternative explanation, l'd love to hear it.
As a Canadian, I suspect the tax cuts don't really amount that much to the middle class but I don't really know. I see on tv or comments on the NYT's, middle class persons, or slightly lower, boasting about how their pay checks are higher. What I don't see or hear are any of the 1% bragging about their gains. Maybe they're too busy reinvesting in the Make America Great Again program to comment about their windfall?
4
"The puzzle is why Republicans keep getting away with this bait-and-switch."
How can you be puzzled? Look who's President.
13
The Republican leadership are masters of deception and propaganda. They are remarkably adept at repeating their points to brainwash the populace by sheer repetition. At the same time over the years, absent strong leaders, the Democrats have remained largely silent in the face of the onslaught by Republicans. As you know, if you repeat a lie often enough, everyone will believe it and remarkably, Democrats fail to cite that rote lying. Democrats portray nearly silent dignity in the face of this deception by Republicans. We need strong fighters to help the weak.
Republicans regained power on the premise of repealing the Affordable Care Act, and behold how they repeated that mission so frequently that the voters voted to lose their life sustaining health care. That is the power of propaganda.
Republicans, once in power, legislated the massive Tax Cuts to repay the wealthy for their campaign dollars and voters to buy their future loyalty and voting with money, meager as it was, and also to assure continued campaign funding from the wealthy to stay in power. Republicans are far more corrupt than I am cynical.
There is no arguing any longer that this is class warfare against the elderly, disabled, infirm, weak and those of very modest means in America, complete with propaganda and lies to effect their sinister ends.
Democrats must raise alarms and frequently. Weak leaders must be emboldened and very public and fight for us all as our representatives, not cower from fighting.
17
@Shakinspear
Please, do realize that Democrats do not have propaganda arm that would reach 50-60 millions of Americans. Conservatives have that, plus thousands of evangelical congregations telling them to avoid liberals.
I am sick and tired of people not realizing that simple difference. If Schumer would go for verbal fight with Trump he would lose. And I don’t see how that can be changed in a meaningfull way. Even MSM is often playing defense versus right wing propaganda. They freaquently bend over to recognize conservative point of view, even if it is nonsense.
Here is another difference: republicans will vote for a crook, if necessary, and they always show up. Liberals, not so much, even if candidate is quite acceptable and with a very good platform. They seem wishing for something urealistic or are always unsatisfied as if waiting for another FDR or JFK.
This election is up to American people, not Democratic party. Democratic candidates are very good and with good proposls. If American people won’t see that than it is their loss.
1
First, like most readers of the NYT, I am not naive, or stupid. But, I am constantly amazed at the depths of GOP duplicity and cruelty. The Elderly that absolutely rely on their Medicare and Social Security are least able to absorb or deal with cuts to those programs. So why do they vote against their own interests, for GOP candidates ??? Is it the FOX brainwashing ?? Or something even worse : their Church. I’ve heard with my own very astute ears, secondhand, and read about so- called religious leaders peddling the GOP line. Maybe people attending Evangelical churches are more gullible, and more willing to believe those with presumed authority. Who knows ??? People, speak with your Parents or Grandparents. Ask them what, exactly, are their plans, IF their Monthly SS checks are CUT. What happens if Medicare suddenly requires that they pay 25percent of ALL charges. Or 50 Percent. Make them think, then think some more. My Parents are retired, in Florida. They were long time GOP voters, mostly due to the influence of their church. I have told them NOT to ever mention the name Trump in my presence, because if they voted for Him I would be extremely upset. Not visiting again, upset. That may be what it takes, with many people. Uncomfortable, strained conversations and family relations, OR National disgrace and disaster.
You choose. Seriously.
26
All the sources of foolish voting that you mention are involved but being enmeshed in fundamentalist/evangelical churches is a huge contributor. Whatever is spouted by the preachers and the deacons is absorbed as the gospel truth. There are always Bible verses to "prove" all of the ideas they are advocating. Flim-flam and misdirection from the pulpits and the Sunday School rooms is common and it is typically reinforced in the informal get-togethers of "small groups".
2
Thank you Dr Krugman. You are the Paul Krugman I have been waiting for. It is the capacity to see unintended consequences that makes you one of the world's foremost economists.
No one outside our little world read The Foreword in 1964 but if they had they would have seen today's GOP and a Donald Trumplike President. We know our history and seeing Buckley, Reagan Nixon and Goldwater at the Cow Palace in San Francisco we didn't need tea leaves or crystal balls. It is 1772 and the East India Company has three warehouses filled with tea and not enough to pay the Hessian Army that maintains it property in over half the world or its navy that that transports treasure across the seven seas. The East India Company could not compete with the tea merchants of Boston Montreal or across the World. The tax the East India Company put on everyone else's tea in order to sell its own tea was an explosion we hear echoing today. Real history teaches real lessons.
7
@Memphrie et Moi
I have watched this week as Trump is compared to George the Third. History records George III as a kind and well loved monarch. The ships in Boston Harbour flew the flag of the East India Company. The tax the East India Company placed on competitors tea was the tax East India needed to run its world of mercenary armies, it navy and its bureaucracy which was larger than Britain's. The American Revolution was the result of too small government and a too powerful private sector.
1
I’m 61; old, and I am convinced that the main purpose of the GOP is to cut taxes for rich people. That is their raison d’être. Their second goal is to make life miserable for ‘takers’ (their term). If clean air, or healthcare is sacrificed for the first goal, too bad.
40
Oh, dear. That link to the WaPO article detailing imaginary Democratic plans to cut SS and Medicare is worse than the disease.
What does that self-declared non-partisan "fact checker", Glenn Kessler, have to say about "entitlements". It's a doozy:
"O’Connor [the Dem] says he stands “against any cuts to Social Security and Medicare” — potentially an unrealistic pledge, given the burdens placed on old-age programs by the retirement of the baby-boom generation."
Who would have guessed that Glenn Kessler is an expert on sovereign currencies and national finances and he just *knows* that "entitlements MUST BE CUT?
I mean, all the Very Serious People say so, right? So it must be true! I mean, Pete Peterson!
When this level of discourse passes for neutral analysis, Democrats are done for. And, alas, they can thank themselves. Remember Obama comparing the national debt to your household budget?
4
Aren’t the elderly one of the biggest Republican voting blocs? Let them cut Social Security. But if they do, they’d better stop making us younger workers pay FICA taxes to support it and/or give us our contributions back.
6
I have a great idea. Why don't all the people wearing MAGMA hats voluntarily agree to surrender their Social Security checks and Medicare benefits back to the goverment. Boom, the budget is balanced and they can now claim they walk the talk. Win-win scenario as I see it.
12
The crazy right has tried to destroy Social Security for seventy years. It is the ultimate dream of Koch crowd. They are closer now than ever. Don't think seniors can fall back to eating cat food. Have you checked the price of Friskies lately?
When I saw the seniors lined up to vote for Trump in 2016 all I could think of was an abattoir.
70
Paul, I've been reading you for years. I'm one of your disciples. Is there any chance that you would accept a Cabinet position with the next Democrat administration--assuming, of course, there is another Democrat administration?
15
You are right. The con has been perpetuated at least since the Reagan administration, and it still works. Promise tax cuts for voters, give tax cuts to the wealthy. Create deficits, then run against them. Cut any spending that doesn't specifically go to big business and the wealthy. Transfer public assets directly into the hands of the wealthy, and cal it ''reform.'' Shift the tax burden downward, accept the bribes for doing so. Let financial interests write their own rules. Rob voters of their insurance, their economic security, their safety net; pocket the money; blame the poor, blame immigrants, blame liberals. Repeat. The GOP IS not a political party; they're a criminal organization. I understand how the Fox news audience keeps getting conned. But why do actual reporters and the news media keep treating them, decade after decade, as if they were acting in good faith? Why are Democrats always bending over backward to compromise with them, instead of filing lawsuits, instead of calling a lie a lie? Is everyone, maybe, part of this game?
16
If the GOP holds its majority, Social Security and Medicare as we know them will be very much in danger."...As will medicaid, abortion, legal immigration, gay rights, the separation of church and state, gun background checks, voter's rights, income equality, unions, worker's rights, restrictions on rogue policemen, racial harmony, a free press, a nonpartisan judiciary, DOJ, IRS, EPA, and, in the end, our Constitution will all be in danger. At that point the only reason to stay will be family and geography. America will still appear on our maps but it's reason for being will have disappeared.
179
everybody comments about how this is the gop playbook. fine but remember they at the same time have allowed the american populace to arm itself to the gills.
it took a huge act of violence to form our Union. it just may take another to save it. vote the gop out and keep your ammo dry.
4
Another way to look at it is that most white geezers will have it coming. Trump buried Hillary 53% - 45% among the 65+ set -- this was the only age demographic that this obscene excuse for a man carried. Anyone looking at American elections knows that white oldsters show up to vote, that they out show up any other age group, and that they vote Republican by overwhelming margins. This applies here in up state NY, and carries throughout the nation. The central irony is that the harder Democrats "fight" for Social Security and Medicare, the harder they are in fact fighting for white seniors who vote Republican come election day. I'll leave the conundrum to other commentators. Could not have anything to do with race, could it? No, of course not. Just culture, right? Disclaimer: I am white and 74, actually galloping towards 75.
26
@William Colgan The oldsters know that they will not lose their social security, what will happen is "phase in" changes, those born after certain dates (think 1980) will experience lessening benefits, such as higher retirement age, so the seniors are not worried, of course that is the biggest problem--everyone is only worried about their own situation.
1
@William Colgan
That age group is also the last to get defined pensions, and have enjoyed the greatest increase in real estate values.
The irony to me is that the success of liberal social programs allow this age group to vote for cultural regression.
2
Hillary didn't lose because she offended the "deplorables", she lost because she didn't have anything to offer them, or any non-deplorable for that matter. Most Democrats running for office will never take the chance of offending this crowd by pointing out how they've been regularly duped by the GOP and so they will never reap any possible rewards either. I mean through a VERY concise, oft-repeated argument, not just calling them "deplorables". Bernie was faring well with this approach, so of course, he had to stopped. Even if you could sway just 20% of these graying Foxbots, it would have earthshattering consequences. Really, what do the Dems have to lose?
I turn on Foxnews to watch how a fundamentally biased network operates. I quickly change channels disgusted. I sincerely want Democrats to win to the mid-term and then I read Paul Krugman and immediately, the partisan disgust factor rears it's head. I still want the Democrats to win as Trump is an unacceptable leader but I find the entrenched pitchfork partisanship from both sides ridiculous
5
@Chris maybe depends on which end of the pitchfork you are on.
5
@Chris
Yes, it is long past the time for Congress to repass the Fairness Doctrine and to require propaganda organizations such as the falsely named "Fox 'News'" to present even-handed, objective news instead of rightwing extremist propaganda. What news organization continuously creates polarization and hatred to the point where its viewers refuse to acknowledge different points of view? What kind of organization gets away with demonizing the enire Democratic Party, Progressives & Liberals? What kind of company provides completely unfair & unbalanced propaganda, all of the time, 24/7?
Fox has never been a news organization. Its claims of being "fair and balanced" have been the grossest insult to the concept of Truth since Nazism, Communism, and Fascism. Fox is no different from those totalitarian systems with respect to the destructive ends that it seeks, the malevolent whom they serve, and the utter scorched earth policy it has pursued since its inception.
Fox is as un-American as any organization can be. It belongs to those who are Nazis, Communists, & Fascists -- who have never respected human or constitutional rights and never will.
13
Social Security, Medicare and Medicaid will be under attack even if the Democrats take the House. How will the Dems address the GOP-caused federal budget deficits? There aren’t many options. They can raise taxes to increase revenue. They can reduce expenses by going after the big federal expenditures - entitlements and the DOD.
I guess they could just let the federal budget spin further out of control, but it’s unlikely that voters would remember who contributed most to the problem. Many of our voters can’t remember what their representatives said or did last week, let alone last year, and their memories are heavily influenced by their political beliefs. Most GOP voters think that they remember that Obama caused the bank bailout (TARP) and that no jobs were created while Obama was president.
So, if the Dems take the House, they will face many poor fiscal choices. And those choices will likely get worse when the national economy hits an inevitable downturn during their watch.
Isn’t the GOP great? What patriots!
6
The fact that Mr. Krugman (and many others) finds it necessary to point out facts that should have been obvious for decades is a direct indictment of American voters.
The Hood Robin party (steal from the poor and give to the rich) has been playing the same game for at least 40 years. Why do so many people misunderstand or refuse to believe decades of economic and political evidence of this fact?
I'll repeat myself: Liberals and progressives need a simple, coherent platform that assures the majority of Americans that it's way past time for the 90% to benefit; the 10% doesn't need any more help.
Use your voice. Vote.
18
I've never understood why the ultra wealthy, like the Koch brothers, are so anxious to cut Social Security and Medicare, which we all pay into our entire working lives to support those already retired. Is it too much to ask that we be given the same benefits we provided to our seniors before us? How much money do these wealthy people need that they need to cause hardships for the vast majority of the population so that they can save some money on their taxes?
46
@alterego They need people to be poor so that they have to work for low wages and live in fear of losing their jobs otherwise the people would fearlessly rise up and strike and take huge amounts of money from the capitalists in the form of taxes on the rich.
1
@alterego
Conservative politics is based on fear. How to instill fear in American public is the means to conservative power. Poverty and the fear ot it, health care and the fear of losing it, job and the fear of losing it, guns and the fear of government taking them, overall irrational fear of government, etc. All those threats and fears are real because of meager safety nets and because of individual citizens being left alone at the mercy of markets. Note that we have been talking about health care for decades and very little has been done. Why? Because it would take away one wedge issue away. The rise of right wing media only exacerbated the fear factor and led this country to almost irreversible divisions. It is like the country is living a nighmare for no apparent reason.
You do not have those fears in most of Europe. Largely satisfied society with citizens protected by safety nets wouldn’t go for extreme right wing and religious conservatism. Look at many European countries where their conservatives are to the left of our democrats. They have their problems in many places but in most circumstances they do not fear poverty. What ultra conservatives in Europe were able to achieve is to use the mass migration to try to instill fear, and it worked to some degree. Citizens overwhelmed with fear do not think rationally, they are prone to propaganda and prone to follow demagogues. We see that everywhere.
IN US FEAR AND HATRED IS THE CONSERVATIVE TICKET TO POWER. IT WORKS!
1
This gets no ink, but I want to express my thanks to Paul Krugman for stepping up to the plate during the dog days of August (which include healthy chunks of June, July and perhaps even September) and filling NYT real estate with columns in the vaca-absence of other pundits (not to mention moderators). Now, people need vacations and this isn’t a dig at other regular contributors, but Krugman clearly and yet again vindicates his status as the NYT’s valued anchor in Opinion, and I appreciate it. It doesn’t get said enough: the man has a superb and inspirational work ethic.
And he simply phones-in nothing: his last offering, “Partisanship, Parasites, and Polarization” (without a comments section -- ahem), gave us the treat of watching an econ Nobelist’s mind at work. It telegraphed nothing else so intensely as a macro diva seeking to frame in words relationships that are more elegantly expressed as sets of differential and integral equations in calculus. He sought to discern the relationships between putatively selfless public service by whatever hook and its true motivations, which he proposes are mostly if not entirely pecuniary and self-interested. And he may have a case.
As a stalking horse to a new theory of true motivations underpinning political effort and investment, we may have been given the opportunity to read some of the working-papers of a pitch for a second econ Nobel. I anxiously await the calculus – I may even remember enough calculus to understand it. …
11
…
THIS piece is a sad return to a fallacious argument. He asserts that last year’s tax bill is a “con” when it cut the taxes of most earners in America – something that Republicans DO. He disagrees because it starves the left of the means for building an ever more embracive administrative state, and because it didn’t punish high-earners for their ickiness in BEING high-earners.
If Republicans repeal the ACA, they’ll be doing America a favor IF they have a workable replacement. If they simply repeal the ACA, then Democrats will regain undivided federal government in 2020 and may actually become relevant again at state and local levels. Extremists on the right need to grow up: you don’t permit an entitlement to be enacted, a large dependent constituency to form, then simply repeal it without affording equivalent “free stuff”. Not without committing political suicide.
But why is Krugman so outraged that Republicans seek to cut social spending on the argument that we have less tax “revenue” (until the turbo-charged economy makes up for lower marginal rates with greater taxable economic activity) and can no longer afford current levels of social expenditure (over 50% of TOTAL outlays)? Of COURSE that was the plan all along. Apart from the fact that our provision of such yuge quantities of free cheese is SUCH a wasteful boondoggle, it’s OFFENSIVE to Republicans. One only needs to look at the state of our physical infrastructure to understand just one of the reasons WHY.
@Richard Luettgen
"He asserts that last year’s tax bill is a “con” when it cut the taxes of most earners in America –"
That's a pretty low bar to set considering the net tax cut once returns are filed next year might account for $20-40 per week for most earners.
Now, if you want to know how to REALLY cut taxes then you must look at the stimulus which was the largest ($245 billion) middle class tax cut in American history.
The large scale use of qualifiers and modifiers by conservatives when trying to find something good to say about Trump 's one-man agenda belies Trump's "tough guy" personae.
1
The Republican Party will NEVER have a workable replacement to the ACA because they don't want one, as evidenced by eight years of doing NOTHING to address the issue. But then, republicans seem to have trouble with any topic that doesn't have a profit in it.
8
Why should Social Security and Medicare benefits be reduced to pay for a debt neither caused.
Since each program's trust funds show a positive balance this proves neither program has contributed one cent to the debt.
Raising the salary cap on wages subject to the SS payroll tax would ensure permanent solvency for SS.
During the HRC -Sanders primary debate Sanders asked HRC if she would support raising the cap.
She declined to support this.
13
Macroeconomic budgeting seems simple to me. Start with the premise that when the economy does well, all of our problems are smaller. So prioritize spending and taxes in that manner. Tax in a way that does the least damage to the economy. The estate tax does less damage than the income tax. Taxes on higher incomes do less damage to consumption than taxes on lower incomes -- and 2/3 of the economy is driven by consumption. Spend in a way that does the most for the economy. Republicans do none of any of that.
29
More people should do research themselves, there are some really sound tax reporting being done, using corporations own tax filings. The ITEP, has written quite a few of these reports.
https://itep.org/?s=how+much+did+corporations+pay+in+federal+taxes
https://hbr.org/2014/09/profits-without-prosperity
These reports, demonstrate the outright lies that the GOP uses over and over to promote the lie that lower corporate tax rates drive investment, and create jobs, yet no empirical evidence exists to validate that assertion, which by the way, has been around since the 1920s.
Prices for goods and services consumers pay for, corporate taxes have been factored into the price of those goods or services. However, you don't see Apple lowering the price of an iPhone by 14% because that's how much of tax break they received. It's no wonder that Apple is showing more profits, they aren't passing that tax break on to us, they are keeping the money. In their quarterly earnings call, they tell investors, look we made more in profits. This happens every time a Republican gets into office, it's give em, a tax break, and roll back regulations that protect the citizens health, so corporations can make even more money.
Stock buybacks that are totaling 1 TRILLION dollars. Corporations used to save money to pay for R&D, raises for workers, and upgrades to their factory. Now, they can just go to congress, and get bailed out using the tax payers money that they've been so willing to steal.
20
@James Young
Your solution - that the public should read financial studies in an attempt to educate themselves about the actual state of the economy is on target. The problem is that the majority of Americans are lazy or so despondent (I vote lazy) they do not read print journalism, listen to in-depth news analysis on TV and radio, and refuse to attend grassroots town meetings. Trump and GOP voters literally are digging their own graves and do not realize it. R.I.P.
If I’m not mistaken federal tax receipts during the Reagan administration went from around $500 billion annual revenue to almost $1 trillion. So far this year federal tax receipts for the first six months are at a record high. April saw the largest surplus in tax receipts to spending of any month in American history. If revenues are increasing after the tax cuts, shouldn’t the largest spending bill in history, that was signed by President Trump, be to blame for the increased deficit?
@Joseph Spil Does this mean you don't think they should cut Social Security and Medicare and instead should cut defense spending, which got the biggest increase in that budget?
9
@Joseph Spil
What you are not stating is that the hole the tax cut created by reagan was a trillion $ when that 500 billion was made and when the tax revenue was a trillion the cost was a trillion and a half. So in the end, we went 500 billion into the hole. Which is why reagan raised taxes to help cover the deficit caused by the tax cuts.
8
@Joseph Spilits a one time boost, bolstered by the repatriation tax on foreign earnings...corporate tax receipts are way down...
5
Thank you, Mr. Krugman. Again. I'm so sorry you have to keep repeating this because so many folks (even on the Left) refuse to see the obvious truth. And their lack of a clue may very well be the end for many of us.
11
Whenever the GOP majority federal government has tried to go after Medicare and Social Security in the past, they lose. AARP and other groups that represent older folks put on a full-blast PR campaign to shut them down ASAP. Everyone in this country supports Social Security and Medicare, so that will sink whatever's left of their "base" since most of them seem to be older people anyway.
7
@Sheila That's why they don't usually propose more than minor cuts (COLA changes, for example) for people who are already receiving benefits. These cuts will mainly affect future retirees.
But, eventually, those folks will wake up and say, hey, I'm paying taxes, but I won't get benefits. That's when a majority will support outright repeal.
Always remember, don't just play the next ball on the table, look ahead a couple of balls, so you can plan where to leave the cue ball after you make your shot.
3
One thing we must do is to donate to organizations that register voters.
https://www.voterparticipation.org/support-our-work/donate-to-vpc/
If there's one thing that makes Russian-Republicans politically ill, it's democracy and voting in record numbers.
We have a long uphill battle thanks to the roaring success of Pachyderm Spongiform Encephalopathy that has organ-harvested 40% of America's brains and hypnotized them into a political Club Med for Hypocrisy, Cognitive Dissonance, White Spite and nationally-assisted suicide.
Kansans recently voted to bankrupt their own state by following Sam Brownback and the GOP state legislature over a mindless tax-cut cliff; the legislature belatedly corrected that Republican state's GOP-assisted-suicide, but severe damage was done not just by Republicans in office, but the Kansas suckers who mindlessly voted Republican nihilists into office.
It's not an exaggeration to say that the Republican Party is trying to kill and bankrupt America and Americans while earnestly duping them with fake Christianity, Gun Worship and and proud membership in the White Wonder Bread Society.
I want real infrastructure, affordable healthcare, Social Security and Medicare, real voting rights and real representative government...and we need higher taxes to pay for it.
Taxes are the price of civilization, and the Republican Party refuses to pay for civilization.
The best the GOP can offer Americans is more coal in their Christmas stockings.
Nice GOPeople.
981
@Socrates
“Real infrastructure”——That’s the only campaign promise Trump made that made me feel a touch of hope for his presidency, though I did not vote for him and never will.
Now that he is in office the only infrastructure he concerns himself with is the incredibly costly and totally unproductive border wall.
4
@Socrates
Everyone should read Jonathan Chait’s Excellent book “The Big Con:Crackpot Economics and the Fleecing of America”. It clearly explains how the Republican Party turned its back on truth when they bought into Reagan’s supply side snake oil with its magical self funding tax cuts for the rich.
Their rejection of the reality based world started with tax cuts and then spread to their views on pretty much everything. Poll after poll has shown that Americans, including Republican rank and file have rejected not just the idea of tax cuts for the rich but many other major Republican policy goals. As a result Republicans have had to win elections by lying, spinning and smearing their opponents. The book also shows clearly how the mainstream media has aided and abetted this dishonesty with their faux balance and focus on process over substance. I pay close attention to politics but even I have been shocked by some of what I read in Chait’s book.
4
@Socrates I love this sentence, thank you: If there's one thing that makes Russian-Republicans politically ill, it's democracy and voting in record numbers.
2
Macron on France Is not just taking about it, he is DOING it.
He cut the taxes for the rich, and he cut the retirement benefit for retirees
https://www.thelocal.fr/20180315/youre-bleeding-us-dry-why-are-frances-p...
Piketty commented early that Macron (educated, polished, knowledgeable ) and Trump (crass businessman) have the same economic policy
http://piketty.blog.lemonde.fr/2017/12/12/trump-macron-same-fight/
That brings up the fundamental question : Is Macron a polished version of Trump OR are both forced in a global society where capital moves to where it is taxed less, work to where wages AND social costs, including retirement are cheapest ?
I.e. is what we seeing in France and the US yet another distributive effect of globalization ?
If so. Mr Krugman shares a part of the responsibility as promoted globalization, outsourcing without thinking through through its distributive effects.
3
@Woof
Governance in a democracy requires an attempt to find the sweet spot. Here in Canada we have Liberals, Conservative and democratic socialists and good governance means all three must move left and right as required and do as little as possible when things are in proper balance. Macron is a middle of the road conservative and the people of France expect him to cut taxes and reduce benefits because that is what is needed. If Macron's policy works he will be rewarded but if he fails France will soon have a new President. How can anyone possibly believe that policy must only be driven in one direction? What is in that GOP Kool-aid? You need higher taxes and greater benefits to get you started in the right direction and you need an electorate that understands what democratic governance is all about.
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@Woof
Known troll
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@Woof
They cut benefits when necessary. After cuts they are still way above in benefits compared with what we have. Same in Scandinavia, the budget is more trasnparent and people see the need for cuts easily. You don’t see rich running away with loot, as in US.
The point is we cut taxes and benefits for no rational reason, the economy and the country is not benefiting, quite the opposite, debt and budget deficits skyrocket.
A big part of the attack on the Affordable Care Act was that the cuts to healthcare were needed to fund the tax gift to the rich.
And, that was never going to be enough. So, what was next?
Cuts to Social Security and Medicare.
Republican strategy is a lot like Trump: don’t listen to what they say, just watch what they try to do.
The mendacity and corruption is right out there in the open. And a vote for any Republican, anywhere, is an endorsement of those acts.
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Trump makes much of the strength of the economy and of course wants credit for it. I say give it to him. If I want to improve my personal economic activity (say for the next five years) all I have to do is borrow a shedload of money - remortgage the house - and spend down my capital. Refusing to pay taxes which seems to be the in thing would also work. Things will look good for a while and I will have fun in the Lambo. But sooner or later the bills will come due and frankly I don't have the chutzpah to walk away from them. So I won't; and in my dull way I will continue to live within my means, try to not steal from my neighbors or my child, and continue to pay a reasonable amount to society for roads, bridges, decent drugs, an understandable police system and a sustainable environment.
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@Andrew
Good on ya' lad. I was worrying about you there for the first bit, but then you came around to your senses. If only we could get ...
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It is Republican orthodoxy that we, as a nation, cannot “afford” programs for the needy, the elderly, and for (other people’s) children.
We CAN, apparently, afford tax breaks for the wealthy, enormously profitable corporations, and private school tuition.
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@Babs
Shall we add a massive military-industrial complex to what we can "afford"? There always seems to be enough money to build ways to kill one another.
@Babs
Absolutely right-----But don't forget the several trillions (with a T) that we manage to find to fight wars of opportunity that actually make us less secure while filling the wallets of arms suppliers and defense contractors.
Professor Krugman is right, as usual, and smart politicians know it. Senator Sherrod Brown of Ohio, a Democrat, who is leading in his race for reelection, has focused heavily on the threats to Obamacare, Medicare, and Social Security should Republicans hold both houses of Congress in November.
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@lydgate
Ohio native here. Sherrod Brown is my guy, a real working class hero and very smart man. 2020, that’s his time.
Seriously.
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@lydgate This should be what all Dems run on, forget Trump it is the GOP that should be run against.
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Although I agree with Professor Krugman's analysis of GOP hypocrisy, their position on taxes and social programs makes a kind of sense, if you accept their central premise, which formed the basis of Reagan's approach to governing. Borrowing from Barry Goldwater's 1964 campaign, Reagan attributed the problems facing the country to the activism of the federal government.
Since then, the Republicans have challenged the legitimacy of Washington, except in the areas of national defense and internal security. This bare-boned approach to the proper role of the federal government would certainly justify cuts in income taxes along with the dismantling of the social safety net.
If Republicans campaigned on this platform, they would commit political suicide. It nevertheless explains their policy preferences.
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@James Lee And the self-destruction of the Republican Party. What it represents--and has for decades--is NOT what Americans want; it's what wealthy American thrive on.
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@James Lee
In 1964 the average American was at his peak in all aspects of standard of living. The Civil Rights Act had just past the average income provide a lifestyle no one ever could believed possible. Every year the future looked more promising.
The Goldwater campaign started with a speech written by a Libertarian philosopher declaring war on evolution and moderation. The Klan paraded outside the Cow Palace with Goldwater placards and Confederate flags.
1964 was America at its greatest and most equal and it was the year America started its long steady decline. I hope 1964-2018 will go down in history as the Moral Depression when America forgot who it was and embraced its worst instincts.
GOP conservatism has not been kind to most Americans from number one in all things good to number one only in military power and economic growth benefiting the 10% at the expense of the 90%.
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The Senate will never go to the Democrats. The people with money, Republicans, always control the government even with a Democratic President and Democrat controlled house. Whenever a Democrat becomes president, the Republicans always control the narrative.
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I understand the social evil of the strategy. But I don't understand the Republican concept of the deficit. Who owns most of the deficit (debt)? You and I. Isn't the deficit merely the equivalent of taxation, that is, if government income is less than expenditure we'll print a bond, promising to pay in the future. It's redeemable from you and I at any time. So....the republican plan was to "cut taxes", but since it raised the deficit it isn't really a tax cut. It's just redistribution of wealth to the wealthiest.
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A strong blue wave this year could make it possible for the Democrats to gain control of one or both chambers of Congress, which would probably help to halt or reduce the cuts in social safety nets intended by the GOP politicians. Democrats, are you smart enough to unite and go to the polls and vote for the Democratic nominees or the strongest Democratic candidates -- centrists, progressive, or socialists -- these are better than let the GOP candidates win . If you cannot unite, Democrats, you don't deserve to win control of the House or the Senate.
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