Good column, as was his warning when the tax cuts were passed. If McConnell were an honest man he would separate both the social security taxes and expenses (medicare and social security) from the rest of the budget and solve the remaining debt separately - by forcing corporations to pay more taxes.
But McConnell et all are liars. Too bad for us.
97
There aren't enough rich people to vote in folks who enact such laws. It's the stupid, ignorant majority of Americans who haven't a clue about what they are voting for so long as they can keep their guns, watch football and keep minorites and immigrants away from where they live. Again we have met the enemy and he is us, as Pogo said.
107
the only people buying into the republican scam are the idots who vote for them. and of course they are the ones who will be hurt the most when the republicans carry through on phase two.
38
Sheldon Adelson's tax bill decreased by 1.2 Billion (with a "B") dollars as a result of the Republican's Redistribution of Wealth to the Wealthy Act of 2018.
We are all suckers.
54
A local college kid developed an app called allaregreen.us which shows campaign financing each congressional member has on file, when you hover over a member's name in a news article the info pops out on a small screen. Mitch McConnell comes in at $30,845,825. Definitely got his, so go suck wind for the rest of the country!
63
Yeah, there’s no excuse for voting Republican if you’re not a billionaire. The GOP makes P.T. Barnum look like a saint by comparison.
GOPus delenda est.
32
Your denunciations are your means of silencing those you disagree with.
1
Please don’t try to paint one political party in this country black and the other white. Both political parties have ruined our democracy economically and socially. Career politicians who enjoy platinum healthcare benefits and retire with a pension and those same medical benefits have no idea of how the rest of the country lives. The whole system is broken. Who else in this country can vote themselves pay raises? What kind of “representatives “ pander to lobbyists and party Big Wigs instead of their constituents? P.J. O’Rourke was right almost thirty years ago when he called them by the title of his book, A Parliment of Whores. Solution? Put the terms under which they serve to a Referendum Vote. For once, let the people’s voices be heard. Bypass the lobbyists and big money on both sides of the aisle.
8
The deficit is up 18% from last year and lyin' Mitch McConnell would have you believe it was due to entitlements. Not so fast Mitch. entitlements didn't go up 18% in one year. The gigantic increase in the deficit is due primarily on two factors, the tax cut and, increased military spending. It is high time we started calling out these lying Republicans for what they are, unpatriotic traitors.
53
When are Americans going to wake up and realize they have a vote?
29
Why aren't the Democrats dropping copies of this article from rooftops or from planes in every tight race?
38
Thank you Paul Krugman. I admire how you actually take the time and care enough for this country to actually respond to your public. Too bad most of our politicians seem to either lying, unresponsive or even uncaring. You are one of the many reasons I am a NYT subscriber. Like John Lennon once sang, "just gimme some truth."
22
They claimed the tax cuts would “pay for themselves,” and (surprise) they were wrong. Oopsie. They ought to them.
11
Trump, Treasury Secretary Mnuchin, and Sen. Tim Scott African American Sen. Tim Scott(R-S.C.) have been plotting an opportunity zone program created by the 2017 tax law. The rules (REG-115420-18) provide investors with guidelines about how they can qualify for special tax breaks in so-called opportunity zones -- economically disadvantaged areas where the U.S. government is trying to promote investment.
The Internal Revenue Service unveiled proposed regulations Oct. 19 for what Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin says could be a $100 billion investment opportunity for real estate and businesses in distressed areas.The rules (REG-115420-18) provide investors with guidelines about how they can qualify for special tax breaks in so-called opportunity zones -- economically disadvantaged areas where the U.S. government is trying to promote investment.
Jim Brown, Kanye West, and other blacks met with Trump recently at the White House to discuss this effort. The Black group referred to the generations when the South Side of Chicago was a thriving haven for Black migration North from the deep South. US Steel was the domino catalyst for jobs, dignity, family values, entertainment, retail, restaurants.
After that meeting Democrats and the NAACP supported by liberal media J Street Jews, Muslim Brotherhood Mosques and Russian, Chinese, and Iranians called West crazy.
Can they actually win with lies and betrayal? They already have with DT. Worked like a charm. Heaven help us .
31
"It really does now look like President Donald J. Trump, and markets are plunging. When might we expect them to recover? A first-pass answer is never… So we are very probably looking at a global recession, with no end in sight." Paul Krugman of the New York Times the day after the election.
You were wrong about an economic apocalypse.
You were wrong about trade wars.
And now you want us to believe this?
Sounds more like wishful thinking, based upon pure hatred for Trump. But then again, that's just my opinion.
2
Is this the same prediction of an unending market crash when Trump was elected?
This sounds like a repeat of the strategy of the Bush Administration, where they believed if they let spending go unchecked, at some point they could use it as an excuse to downsize government. If I remember correctly, the NY Times did a long in depth dive on it back then in the magazine section on a Sunday
2
Mr. Krugman,
Thank you for this column; it is very much appreciated. And thank you for responding to so many comments.
Sincerely,
MJB
7
Please tell us which Democrats voted against this deficit exploding tax plan ?
3
For years the Republicans have been pushing Orwellian rhetoric and their supporters...enthralled to Fox and rightwing propaganda have bought it. It's amazing to me that Trump supporters actually believed Trump's claim that he was going to push for universal healthcare while he was attacking Obamacare. And even when he came very close to repealing the ACA, only failing by John McCain's vote, they still believed he wouldn't take away the Obamacare programs that so many of them depended on.
What is striking to me is that Republicans seem to have embraced the kind of language that Orwell's Big Brother used. And now we have Ruddy Giuliani saying 'Truth isn't Truth' and the 'Alternate Facts' lady blithely spouting this nonsense. The Republicans have been doing that sort of thing for years, but now they have perfected it under Trump.
All they need are their gerrymandered devotees to follow blindly and drag the rest of us into their Orwellian nightmare and Big Brother will be smiling and watching to make sure there is no choice but his way where truth isn't truth forever more.
11
Republicans can lie and accuse Democrats of trying to de-fund Medicare and SS all they like. But if they really are going to try and do away with them, they will have to cast virtually every vote against them to do it. And, then, FINALLY, all their Fox-News-watching supporters will have to accept the truth. No doubt some of them will still vote for them anyway, but you have to assume a great number of them will oppose it.
So what will happen then?
Well we know one thing. Republicans can never, ever vote to raise a tax--many of them have even SWORN not to.
So my guess is that they'll try to disguise cutting the programs in some way--try to make it look like they are only "improving" them, or "reforming" them, or giving people "more choices". Then when the details come out, they'll accuse Democrats of lying about them until the vote is passed and its too late.
Or maybe they will just keeping threatening to cut them every now and then, but keep them, along with all the other government spending on programs they actually do like, and we'll have deficits that will make Reagan and Bush 43 look frugal by comparison.
Or, maybe the public will come to their senses and deny them a majority next month.
But I wouldn't count on it!
12
For Ryan and McConnell, the soaring deficits from the budget and tax cut are not a bug but a feature. These fellas are playing the long game and doing it well.
The GOP doesn't like the social safety net. But they have a problem: Americans do like it (just like people in developed nations around the world). Thus, the GOP changes the terms of the debate. If the country is bankrupt, then it can't pay for the social safety net. Thus, the GOP can argue (however disingenuously) that they would like to provide the social safety net but, alas, there is no money. Genius: they manufacture the disease that demands the cure they seek.
Dangerous? Dishonest? Destabilizing? Cruel? Yes!
But for reasons unclear to me, Americans who will suffer the most under this scam don't get it. To the contrary, GOP supporters destined to suffer poverty, loss of health care, and other horrors still vote for this corrupt cabal with gusto. I guess the GOP base is simply distracted by all of the conspiracy theories and disinformation. As of today, you would have to give the GOP better than a 50% chance of executing this scam.
I for one thought that once Trump's dishonesty, corruption, and incompetence, were documented for all to see, that we would see a reversion to reality. That has not happened. Democrats will be lucky to get control of the House.
Buckle up, it is going to get even uglier before this ends.
11
I’m positive you wouldn’t hear anything from Krugman about deficits if Hillary was President. How about the good professor’s prediction that if Trump was elected the stock market would crash and unemployment would skyrocket ? I’m still waiting for him to address those things but the crickets are too loud.
1
In answer to your question of whether a dishonest campaign can actually win, the answer is most assuredly YES, as 2016 proved. BUT, it can only win when Dems opt out of voting.
If we get our side out IN FORCE to vote, we can beat the pants off the right wing, even in what are now red states. They're only red because Dems didn't vote in the last election.
So organize a post voting party with your friends to get them out to vote too. We need to take our country back from the brink that the Republicans have brought us to.
16
Mr. Krugman, can you please explain why Australia, Canada and many other countries, with less potential than the US, have a thriving middle class. Average city homes in these countries cost $2 million. Are they in bubble territory, are we destroying our middle class or both? Bloomberg has just ranked us 54th out of 56 countries for healthcare efficiency. Our education system is mediocre. How can we learn from other countries or is our Lobbyocracy doomed?
9
The news media are partly to blame. There is absolutely no challenge to the baloney spewed by McConnell and Ryan.
All we get are sound bites from both sides.
Perhaps one of the networks would eliminate some of the unwatchable blabber on network TV and lay out in great detail the National's financial condition as a public service over a couple of evenings.
Unbiased and factual supported by data.
22
Thanks to Dr. Krugman for steadfastly speaking the obvious truth. If only more people would read to learn as opposed to watch Fox.
11
Paul, have you seen "Fix It" a businessman's take on Medicare-For-All where he details how MFA would save Americans $500 billion per year in overall health care costs?
If so, how about an opinion and a critique?
5
First they went after your kids, cutting the budget for their education, restricting the more sophisticated educations to only those with the means to pay hugh sums for the ‘privilege’.
To everyone who has voted against
school funding because your kids
are already out of school, the politicians you elected are now coming after your Social Security and Medicare.
Maybe that is what it will take to
hit the reset button on the GOP
and send it back to the Party of Lincoln.
When you defund education you are creating future generations
who are ill equiped to make intelligent choices in the voting booth. You have ended up with the most ill equiped president in American history making decisions that will impact your family for generations to come. Good luck with that, Loosers.
10
What the Republican Party wants to accomplish is so different than what ordinary Americans want that voters cannot understand how radical the party is.
Republicans support Roe v Wade, gun control, defense cuts,
and general support for government programs. (See below for cites).
As Paul states, McConnell is setting the groundwork for cuts to social programs for politicians and media while Ryan is supporting Republicans running on the canard that Democrats will eviscerate those same programs. If you don't pay attention to this stuff (and most people don't have the time) you just don't know how radical the Republicans are.
Roe v Wade (http://fortune.com/2018/07/23/roe-wade-republicans-poll/),
gun control (https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/monkey-cage/wp/2017/10/03/lots-of-re...,
defense cuts (http://time.com/4253842/defense-spending-obama-congress-poll-voters/),
general support for government programs (http://www.pewresearch.org/fact-tank/2017/05/26/few-americans-support-cu....
2
Chief Crazy Excuse speaks:
“I think it’s pretty safe to say that entitlement changes, .. may well be difficult if not impossible to achieve when you have unified government,” McConnell said.
So, self-anointed party of fiscal conservativism ADMITS that they couldn't change entitlements because they controlled all 3 branches.
“..Democrats are promising ‘Medicare for all,”’ he said. “I mean, my gosh, we can’t sustain the Medicare we have at the rate we’re going and that’s the height of irresponsibility.”
https://bloomberg.com/amp/news/articles/2018-10-16/mcconnell-blames-enti...
Tribal leader of oath breakers is NOW worried about "the height of irresponsibility".
History of Chief Crazy Excuse:
Weaponizing Garland nomination - Not Worried
Repealing without Replacing ACA - Not Worried
Ending tax revenue for not having health insurance, starting in 2019 - Not Worried
Eliminating tax revenue from corporations (half), estates (all), and personal income (half, for those who can use pass-through deduction) - Not Worried
Passing huge spending bill on defense, but nothing for nation's infrastructure - Not Worried
Expanding federal spending on private & religious schools - Not Worried
Ignoring that citizens paid into & depend upon "social safety net" programs - Not Worried
Spending $79,000,000 to get 1 man to his golf courses - Not Worried
The thought of Democrats saving heath care for sick people with pre-existing conditions - TERRIFIED
11
Let me see, isn't Krugman the guy who said on Trump's election night success to get out of the market because the sky is falling? since then, the market is up 35%. Isn't he the guy who said in the spring of 2017 that we would never see any GDP growth above 2%? I mean, for a guy who can't get the basics right, why are we paying attention to him now?
2
Thank you for placing the word "entitlements" in the quotation marks where it belongs. Social Security and Medicare are hard-earned benefits; tax breaks for those that already have and believe that they should have more are entitlements.
Consider the difference in tone between "I earned this" and "I'm entitled to this": The earners are portrayed as grubbers and it pains me every time I read or hear a non-Republican refer to "entitlements".
12
Let's see the actual revenue numbers
FY 2019 - $3.422 trillion, estimated.
FY 2018 - $3.34 trillion, estimated.
FY 2017 - $3.32 trillion.
FY 2016 - $3.27 trillion.
FY 2015 - $3.25 trillion.
It looks like revenue growth in dollar terms and even % terms is higher during trump years compared to Obama'a last year.
So question is why is misrepresenting the reason for deficit increase.
@PJ Revenue and deficit are not the same thing. The Revenue is going up. Spending is going up faster. The amount that the revenue would have increased is dramatically lower than it would have been without the tax cuts. Ergo- the argument can be made that the increasing deficits are due to the tax cuts.
It won't be a problem once the Republicons slash 'entitlements' to try to make up for the deficits that they created for the tax cut, tilted heavily towards the wealthy. They'll keep doing that until people start voting in their own economic self interest instead of being distracted by spurious 'problems' like crime committed by illegal immigrants (it's like 'illegal crime', but more focused). But you keep on focusing on the revenues if that makes you feel better...
11
I just read that Kamala Harris is suggesting a tax cut for middle and poor families of $3000 for individual and $ 6000 for families. Wouldn't it help more to kickstart the economy if tens of millions of people would go shopping and bought TVs, cars, materials to fix their houses, clothes, saved little bit for colleges? How did current tax cuts help the economy?
8
When I was working I saved hard and started investing. When I retired and saw the difference in tax rates between what I used to pay when I kept my nose to the grindstone and how much less tax was due on capital gains, I was insulted. In my job I DID help build the company I worked for. But since living on my investments, I have never once sent back money to help build any of those companies from my capital gain. The most a company gets from me is a second order boost to reputation.
So explain to me why our taxation system favors capital gains "to build our economy" rather than the employee taxed at higher ordinary income rates who REALLY builds our country's economy? It's an insult to every hard working American. Voters need to know how disrespected they are!
28
If you are not keeping your money in mattress, that capital is providing jobs to the employees.
One way to look at it is - what happens if all investors withdraw their investments in the company. All the employees will be out of job.
It is not that difficult.
1
Trump was supposed to propose "healthcare for everybody" according to a campaign promise that so far has not come to fruition. He ran as a populist but so far as fallen in line with the traditional GOP stance on healthcare. What would be a way forward with healthcare? If Democrats could win the House and somehow get healthcare legislation through the Senate as well, what should it look like? Trump will sign whatever Congress puts in front of him.
1
Stop calling it a "Tax Cut", as if US citizens are the primary beneficiaries - we're not.
Fact is, the benefit fall to corporations. It should be called the "Corporate Tax Give-Away".
24
Lets say we kept Obama's policies and kept a growth rate of less than 2% growth that he claimed was the new norm. Instead you get more than 3% growth rate and unemployment rate which is lowest in 4 decades.
If it improves the employment rate by 1%. who do you thi benefits from it. At least 2 million people ho did not have jobs before. And I will bet you that these are not 1%. Now they have a salary and live with dignity.
Or as Chomsky called it “Corporate Welfare”
7
Thank you, Professor, for your cogent replies to questions on people's minds. Unusual to do that, and praiseworthy.
7
You mean Susan Collin's crocodile tears to McConnell to protect children is for naught? Trump is now reached world encompassing corruption. He and Kushner will have a gargantuan payout if they get war with Iran.
12
It's probably just a matter of time before the Republicans erase all taxes for the top 10% and close down all "safety net" and "entitlement" programs for the 90%. Better buy that Mega Millions ticket today.
16
One need not be a political analyst to recognize that Republicans were disingenuous when they said the deficit from tax cuts would be paid for. It was clear from Ryan's comments in particular that Medicaid, Medicare and Social Security would be on the chopping block after the tax cut bill was passed.
As a former social worker, I know that most people do not have enough in savings to fund their own retirement. Furthermore, people have paid into Medicare and Social Security for decades in order to receive benefits when they need them due to disability and/or retirement.
Just this week, I listened to Henry McMaster of SC, in a debate with Democratic candidate James Smith, claim that SC can't afford to expand Medicaid. Not only were McMaster's numbers wrong, but he also showed that he really doesn't care about poor people in SC.
I'm tired of good ol' boys at all levels of government. In the richest country of the world, we should be delighted to help those who need help. Many wealthy people would say the same.
20
I favor a wealth tax. The first $3 million are tax free. Then the next $10 million are taxed at 0.1%. After 70 years, the tax takes everything, but this is to pay for the protection of the wealthy. It will even the playing field, bigly.
2
I have never understood the logic of Republicans, these "Christian values" voters, who condemn programs that help feed/shelter the poor and elderly but have no issue with those dollars going into the pockets of the super rich. This tax cut did not benefit the vast majority of voters; their benefits and wages did not increase; they did not see substantial declines in their tax rates. Now the GOP wants to cut the safety net and healthcare to give even more tax relief to their wealthy donors. It amazes me that Republican voters fail to see how these tax-cut/trickle-down policies hurt them now and in the future when they retire. Yet they will line up and vote R again and again hoping for a different outcome that will somehow Make them Great Again. I guess that truly is the definition of insanity.
24
Gee, Paul, I thought you said we'd be in a recession by now.
3
I think often of your column right after the election and your strong impulse to "quietude." It's worse than we feared and there doesn't seem to be a bottom. You have "persisted," continuing to speak strongly to these issues, but the gap between reality and perception appears unbridgeable at this point. To give up or say nothing is to become complicit. It's tempting for people of our generation to go the quietude direction and cede the legacy of this to future generations, but it is unacceptable to leave the lies and hypocrisy unchallenged and simply resign ourselves to this world.
9
The word "republican" in republican party seems to have a positive ring but in fact it is a misnomer as these gerrymandering, voter suppressing duplicitous rich have no interest in preserving our republic.
15
If Dems can't distill this outrage into a 10 second sound bite, they deserve to lose.
3
Ask McConnell and Trump why the price of crude oil has more than doubled in about two years. Let us dictate the social narrative that tells Congress, not them telling us.
4
It is indeed not a scam, but an effort to grow the economy. Please note the following dire predictions regarding Trumps economic decisions:
We are very probably looking at a global recession, with no end in sight. I suppose we could get lucky somehow. But on economics, as on everything else, a terrible thing has just happened.” Paul Krugman, Nobel winner and New York Times columnist.
“Under Trump, I would expect a protracted recession to begin within 18 months. The damage would be felt far beyond the United States.” Larry Summers, former Harvard president and Treasury secretary.
“President Trump could destroy the world economy.” Washington Post editorial.
“Trump’s budget assumes 3% annual growth. . . . That’s extremely unlikely.” Jason Furman, chairman of Obama’s Council of Economic Advisers.
“If Trump thinks he can get more than 3% growth, he’s dreaming.” Michael Hiltzik, Pulitzer-winning economics writer for the Los Angeles Times.
I wish we could stop calling the other side liars and scammers when all they have is a different view/philosophy of economics... I suppose it sells newspapers though. There is nothing nefarious on either as far as I am concerned. We already have the most progressive tax code in the world. The idea that it is all going to be solved by taxing "the rich" sets up class envy and warfare.
So did Trump get lucky, Krugman?
2
Is this the same Paul Krugman who said there would be an endless, worldwide recession if Trump was elected?
Thought so.
3
Trump Great Depression is coming.
3
In Minnesota the Republicans are running ads accusing the Democrats of attempting to do exactly what the Republicans have actually been doing for decades! They make Democrats seem like the enemy of social security and pre-existing conditions. Savage liars!
21
Voters figuring something out? It is to laugh.
3
In the world of traditional balanced news reporting the PSB New Hour presented a fact based analysis of what the actual causes of the dramatic rise in the national deficit. Their findings that of when you slash taxes on extremely wealthy individuals and highly profitable corporations the consequences of Trumps tax policy results in less money coming in to support anything our federal government funds. The other causes of the dramatic increase in the deficit: the large increase in military spending and the dramatic increases on meeting obligations to service the interest on the ever expanding national debt. As Trump attempts an unprecedented beat down of the Fed, it has been well and openly discussed in non-biased business reporting news that after our continued recovery from the dramatic crash that occurred, recovering was an extremely urgent, complex problem that President Obama addressed. By the time of Trump’s election Obama’s policies had rescued us from a complete economic collapse and stabilized our entire economy. Most living individuals have learned about the Great Depression.
As Trump continues to lie his way through anything by any means possible, spreading entirely false information and to incite mob violence via Twitter, Fox and these rallies for the faithful resembling and using actual tactics the Nazis in fact used in their rise to the horror they became
Is this really what most Republicans who voted for him really wanted. No it’s not.
14
There should be a balanced budget now with full employment and a robust economy. With the GOP tax policies and spending, that will never happen, but somehow their constituents never see that.
7
During October of every election cycle, the Democrats trot out the old Republicans will rob granny to give to the rich and then push her off the cliff lies. In reality...
(1) Tax revenues are slightly higher after the most recent GOP tax reform because a reduced tax burden (and deregulation) has finally resulted in recovery level economic growth after a near decade of depression. In short, the tax reform did indeed "pay for itself."
(2) The current deficit increase is entirely due to the increased spending the bipartisan progressive establishment in Congress enacted and Trump signed.
(3) The bureaucracy in charge of Medicare and Social Security are the ones stating these programs will be insolvent in about a decade because their benefits are outgrowing their income. Actually, Social Security has been spending more than it taxes since 2009 and making up the difference by "cashing in" IOUs from Congress from when that esteemed body spent every penny of the SS tax surplus to expand other parts of the welfare state. Treasury is paying off these IOUs by borrowing money. In a decade, the IOUs run out and SS will only pay about 77 cents on the dollar in benefits.
(4) Obamacare enacted entirely by Democrats was the only legislation to cut Medicare benefits. Not a single Republican voted for the monstrosity and every Democrat is defending it from any changes.
Can an op-ed this dishonest actually convince anyone to vote for Democrats? We’ll find out in less than three weeks.
1
I'd just like the thank/compliment you for responding to comments. I imagine that the practice threatens to become a huge time sink, but a single response to those who say "Prof. Krugman is ignoring..." or "Everybody knows that entitlement spending is unsustainable..." can make a big difference in the way your arguments are received. No response to this comment necessary.
5
I would put forth the theory that the Republicans don't mind losing the House this year . Why?
a) They really have no ideas for new policies
b) They will be able to stoke up anger against obstructionist Dems in '20
c) The gravitational pull of a long, drawn-out, ultimately pointless confrontation between the Democrats and Trump is irresistible.
If this sounds far fetched, simply look at the money. The wealthiest of donors know that House Republicans have tapped their potential. Trump and McConnell on the other hand are pivotal players in the long-term plan for the pauperization of working- and lower-middle class Americans.
Democratic control of the House will make for good entertainment perhaps, but very little of anything else.
4
Someone really needs to sit down with ol' Mitch and explain how Social Security and Medicare are actually funded. You'd think after all these years in government he would know. You start to think he might be disingenuous about those claims!
78
@Hootin Annie
WIth general revenues and its spending continuously exceeds previous budgeting.
@Parker
Parker you are incorrect. SS is funded by the FICA payroll deduction. Cutting SS would have no effect on the budget. If they took money from the SS fund it would be a Ponzi Scheme and then dear Mitch could be arrested and jailed. Look up this video of reagan explaining it on YT; Ronald Reagan: "Social Security Has NOTHING to Do With the Deficit!"
I tried posting the link but the Times has not posted either of those posts.
2
Didn't they do more than just cut taxes. I believe they broke the sequester to massively increase military spending?
Aren't we going to get a surge in revenue through tariffs that will be passed along to US consumers that will impact revenue on the plus side while acting as a sales tax on consumers? Won't that offset some of the tax relief to Corporations?
1
To NYT - Thank you for adding NYT Replies. Makes it more of a conversation.
4
I wonder, from an economic perspective, how the Republicans keep getting away with ignoring externalities as a cost of the ‘savings’ policies they want to institute. They want to cut back on health coverage- they point to the fact that people won’t have to buy insurance or pay the penalty for not buying insurance. They don’t bring up the fact that bankruptcies dropped by 50% after the ACA was instituted. Or that after the first 2 years costs of care dropped because people were now getting actual preventative maintenance care, rather than working through the backlog of unaddressed problems. Same thing with the environmental protections rollbacks- no one talks about the societal costs of the cleanups that are going to be done later, or the health problems ensuing. How is this allowed? Why aren’t these mandatory parts of these calculations? And why doesn’t the media do a better job of pointing this out?
10
@Leigh
Now calculate the external costs of increased taxation.
@Parker Well- in the pure case of the tax cuts- it's a question of where do the costs of the downstream effects happen. For example- cuts in government health insurance subsidies shift the cost of caring for the uninsured onto people who have insurance by forcing hospitals to shift their ER costs to other patients. I find it interesting that Republicans, who invented the 'death panel' bullet point to preventive passage of the ACA are perfectly fine with trying to cut Medicare and Medicaid, which will have exactly the same effect by leaving more elderly people with no health coverage. Hypocrites. This is just one example. By purely focusing on 'here's what you pay in taxes' they skew the conversation away from a holistic strategy. Many low income people who got an initial tax cut may find that they are losing more in services than they saved in taxes. It's a bait and switch to hide the fact that they're just passing money to the wealthy.
1
Half the voters don’t vote. Many of them get benefits. It’s easy to take the benefits away since they don’t vote.
4
@David Anderson More than half the voters don't pay taxes, so it's easy for them to vote for an increase in freebies!
1
The wealthy should pay much more in taxes because they've realized almost all the economic gains in GDP for decades over the middle class.
My heart weeps when someone worth 10 million pays a million. What a tragedy.
3
@David this is always an interesting sound bite. Who are the 50% who don't pay taxes? Are you referring to the 44% (up from 43.4% under Obama) who don't pay individual income tax? Because, based on what we know, you can put our current president, his son in law, and most of his family on that list. Are those the freebies you're referring to? Many of the rest are retirees, or working people who pay more in payroll taxes than they owe in income tax. The myth of the 50% freeloaders is actually a myth. Well, except for the family currently living at 1600 Pennsylvania Ave...
4
Whenever taxes are cut or raised, it takes a while for people to adjust their behavior.
For FY18, IRS revenue from personal income taxes is at an all time high. Part of that is due to cutting personal income taxes directly and people spending more, and part of it is due to cutting corporate income taxes that led to wage hikes and bonuses.
As corporations invest more in the US, tax revenue will start going up again too, but that takes time.
1
Will the Republicans be able to usher in their New Feudalism to replace the New Deal? Will their corruption of the federal judiciary with Republican apparatchiks work to refine Republican voter suppression and partisan jerrymandering? Will the Republicans attain their goal of a "permanent" legislative majority with a minority of voters' support? Will Americans accept taxation without representation?
Everything the Republicans are attempting will legitimize another revolution. Its going to get real ugly folks.
6
And Democrats are silent, when they should be protesting boldly, loudly, and constantly, making a spectacle, that might get some attention. Schumer must go. He has zero charisma.
3
@goldenboy- Yes, there is a serious deficit in leadership but I think that is due to the weaponization of the character assassination machine that the GOP has developed. No one wants to get in the crosshairs of the HATE machine.
2
Republican voters do not see it that way. Is it because they are poor? uneducated? or just gullible? God knows. Unfortunately for us they are the minority and they are ruling this country at there own detriments.
“Medicare and Medicaid are the single biggest drivers of the federal deficits and federal debt”...President Barack Obama, June 25, 2009.
3
@Sparky Obama did his part by adding $10 TRILLION in new debt so now interest payments are a huge driver of the deficits. Thanks Obama!!!
1
Isn’t thou shalt not lie one of the Ten Commandments that Republicans want posted in every public building?
The hypocrisy of the GOP is staggering and is only matched by the Party’s bigotry.
Sadly, the hatred that most Republicans have for the “other,” i.e. black and brown people blinds them to the Party’s hypocrisy.
9
Mitch, laughing, says "My pension and health insurance are safe, yours are negotiable"
14
It's hard to forget the contempt McConnell had toward former President Obama. How he ended up getting re-elected to another term as Senator is an embarrassment.
7
Kentucky. Need I say more?
2
You have to be really dumb not to have seen this scam at the start. The Republican view of our society is one that protects the privileged. For the rest of us it will be dog eat dog. So far Trump has trained his dogs well and has achieved their loyalty with a tax cut treat. However, when they find out there is no food in the bowl, they won't go after the owner/ trainer but the weakest of the other dogs in the room, particularly any dogs that aren't like them or that come from the outside.
7
Hello Dr. Krugman, I was wondering if you could speak to the different ways in which a rural GOP constituent is susceptible to this double speak compared to an urban one (if you think there is any difference). What tangible, daily experiences of environment, society, and economy do you think are key in understanding the ways in which a GOP constituent interacts with and processes McConnell types and the consequences of their policies? Is the only tangible experience television? Thank you.
Look, the tax code has been rich friendly for decades. It doesn’t surprise me that Trump and other real estate people pay little to no taxes. They rigged it that way.
For all the crowing about our high tax rate for corporations, when you get into the reality of it all, slews of lawyers and accountants work to reduce those dollars to be taxed every year. And, it pays off for those corporations. In addition, legal fees are likely write offs too.
Frankly, since corporations are “people too” with all the rights of individuals, they should pay their share.
For all the rich that “donate” to special interests and set up these foundations, it is a tax break. Few are doing it for any other reason.
One thing Trump was right about is the system being rigged, just not for the little guy.
5
People who are dependent on federal income programs and health programs and voted Republican deserve to lose everything that they depend on. Unfortunately, those of us who were listening and didn't vote Republican will suffer too.
11
For at least thirty years, Republicans have controlled the narrative that taxes are evil and that they must always be lowered. Democrats don't offer a counter narrative about what our taxes actually pay for and how it improves our lives. Regardless of eye-popping campaign contributions, Republicans win because their messaging is more effective. A general rule these days is that Democrats are better at governing, but Republicans are far better at campaigning. Get with it, Democrats!
7
The GOP is walking on most tenets of Conservatism. They reflect greed and avarice in an acute sense with the principle intent of destroying the Nation’s safety net under the guise of getting rid of more government.
2
Let them live in our shoes! It's called "back-stabbing" and out right "theft." McConnell and the GOP have painted a bright red slash across the lives of needy and retired and soon to be retired Americans. These are not constituent friendly elected officials. Not for one minute. They cut the taxes and now ask, "See, WE"VE cut taxes, what are YOU going to do about it?"
The people don't forget that by trying to repeal the ACA, the Republicans were trying to delete the protections to millions of Americans with pre-existing medical conditions. This basic premise of the ACA is very important to anyone with a human brain, a family, or at least one friend. Maybe Robinson Crusoe "who lived eight and twenty years in an un-inhabited island on the coast of America" did not know anyone with a pre-existing medical condition, namely high blood pressure, to mention only one.
It looks that the Republican slogan regarding healthcare is: "Don't dare to get sick ever."
No, they are not going to win.
1
This article represents exactly why more liberally minded folks can't get behind the democratic party.
Why you ask?
Because both assumptions can be true.
Yes, the Republicans are lying plain and simple, and yes, entitlements are a challenge that need to be dealt with as a byproduct of, among other things, a population that is aging and living longer.
In this time of falsehoods, mostly put forth by the republican party, nuance and color have taken a backseat to simple, black and white or us against them political arguments.
2
Automaker Henry Ford figured out more than 100 years ago that he had to pay autoworkers enough to be able to afford the actual cars they built. Current Republicans however cannot seem to realize that if they penalize more and more Americans, cutting Medicare and social security, raising the age of retirement, slashing Obama care and keeping wages low, that pretty soon they won't have anyone in their party at all. All these old white people whom they count on also happen to need these entitlements. All younger voters are growing sick and tired of their money going to people like the Koch brothers. Younger voters are also more likely to be one or more of these: female, a person of color or married to a person of color, LGBTQ or related to or friends with someone who is LBTGQ, and concerned about climate change. Huh...interesting that all these categories of folks ARE NOT represented nor cared about by the likes of McConnell, his lord and master Trump or pretty boy Paul Ryan and their party of greed, formerly known as the GOP. Ryan's already figured this out and is thus taking "more time with his family." GOP voters are in fact a dying breed who can only win by cheating. The party has painted itself into a smaller and smaller corner, representing fewer and fewer Americans. Their days are numbered if we look at the long game. Couldn't happen to a nicer bunch.
6
The thing that amazes me is that so many working class voters support Trump and the Republican Party, against their own long term self interest.
Do you know why?
2
Because the Republicans have managed to convince their base that the Republicans are the party of morality and family values and that the Democrats are the party of Godless immorality.
3
@bobdc6
Racism and abortion.
3
This was the Republican plan from the outset. SO obvious. The “rich”, by whatever your interpretation thereof, have reaped the benefit of a windfall tax break financed on the shoulders of the average American and his/her progeny. THEY will not have to be concerned about Medicare, Social Security or other social safety nets - THEY have lots of money. Perhaps a less-expensive Ferrari or a slightly smaller boat or one fewer vacation home in a gated community, but I doubt it.
Strike two for the rest of us as McConnell, in his best sneering grin, and Trump in his best fat-cat con, are positioning to claim that there isn’t enough money to cover our entitlements - and entitlements they are. We paid for them throughout our lives and depend upon them in our old age. SUCH UNABASHED GREED and irresponsibility.
The only people we have to blame for these thieves are ourselves - for having allowed them to con us. They have been rewarded with riches and want even more at our expense. TIME TO PUT THEM WHERE THEY BELONG: OUT OF POWER and in jail with the rest of the Trump crooks.
8
Why should the poor and the middle class bail out the rich? Trump and his cronies disdain helping the poor out but have no problem taking away our essentials to give to the welfare of the upper class.
5
Trump has perfected "Whack-a-Dem" government: let random ideas, no matter how ridiculous or offensive, pop up in random patterns at dizzying speed so that the opposition spends all their time reflexively reacting, reacting, reacting. Trump retains command of the field. Everybody else just ends up looking frantic and foolish.
The Democrats need to create their own rapid fire version of "Whack-a-Don", putting out tightly-phrased ideas and tense, terse memorable challenges at blistering speed, forcing Trump and his cronies on the defensive. Only then will they start to gain traction. It may well be too late for the midterms.
7
Across the highway from my subdivision here in Burnet there is a trailer park. The trailers have seen better days, the vehicles parked out front are dented and old. The children one sees from time to time playing out front appear dirty. You could say they are from central casting for the role of poor white folk. If I were a betting man I would bet they are on Medicaid and who knows what other public assistance. Yet they display a large Ted Cruz sign. I guess they see no contradiction in supporting a man for whom they are only takers. And unfortunately you see similar places throughout the Hill Country. As long as voters really do not see how they get manipulated to vote against their economic interests the GOP will keep a grip on all of us.
2
The deficit was going down steadily till trump, the gop and the november 2016 election. Then the gop enacted their disastrous defense spending and corporate tax cut. The stock market went nowhere- the stock and bond market have returned zero or gone negative, wages are flat, our tax bill is up because of the salt deduction limit, interest rates and gas prices are up, home affordability is down. This is another trump and gop made disaster. Their immigration war is attracting more illegal immigration(keep my kids!). Trump and the gop are making the economy another of his big failed casinos. If hillary and democrats were elected and ran congress, we would have paid more debt down and medicare, social security and health care would be on a solid footing in a steadily growing economy(since 2009) with decreasing unemployment. Instead with trump and the gop we have oligarchy, fascism, beating up reporters, massive fraud, corruption, lies, collusion, voter suppression, an impending health crisis because the gop are taking away food stamps and flu shots from legal immigrants
9
"Why do they think they can get away with this?" Because years ago "stealth candidates" were elected to school boards and local governments in order to eliminate "civics" and independent thinking form education and all public life. Schools became job training places instead of educational institutions, partly because it allowed employers to eliminate apprenticeship programs, and also because an ignorant electorate is easy to manipulate.
Democracy requires an informed citizenry and demagogues flourish in its absence.
5
@Cassandra
Bingo! You've hit the nail on the head. Today's political reality has been decades in the making. An uneducated and uninformed electorate is the dream of the oligarchy and the enabler of a rapid slide into authoritarianism. To think that the GOP desires otherwise is hopelessly naive. Thank you for your spot on assessment of the root cause of today's intractable plight.
1
Dear NYTimes, and Mr. Krugman,
I'm very pleased to find a NYT Replies to the comment section. Actually, I've been in France for the past ten blissful days, and tried to miss as much of home news as I could, so this may have started a few weeks ago, but nevertheless I am pleased to see this. Mr. Krugman and others have much to teach us.
Help me out here. During WW1 and WW2, the top tax rate was less than 20%, but as soon as these wars ended, the top tax rate jumped to 90%. Why? tks
The top rate in 1942 was 94%
7
Thank you very much for staying on the thread and responding to these posts, Professor.
You made the point years back that health care is one of the most labor-intensive industries in existence, and one that is very difficult to outsource. When health care spending is curtailed to finance tax cuts for the 1%, one of the most enduring and effective stimulus programs is what is being cut.
2
Every politician who is up for reelection and voted for this tax cut just need to be voted out of office.
Beginning with Susan Collins and the rest of the old rich white men. Maybe Orin Hatch will find a way o live forever since he is finally leaving office, he can return his social security check back to people who need it.
Voting matters ad demonstrating matters and there will be no more cuts to social security, or anything else.
3
In an era when defined benefit pension plans are nearly passé and more Americans are responsible for funding their own retirements through 401(k) and 403(b) plans Social Security has reverted to being the insurance plan against impoverishment among the elderly that it once was back in the 1930s and 1940s. One would hope that supporters of the GOP would understand that an "entitlement" like Social Security is potentially all that keeps them from spending their golden years asking customers on the other side of the fast food counter "would you like to super size that?" In addition, if the GOP's double whammy vision of a voucher system for Medicare and block grant funding for Medicaid comes to fruition then seniors in the next twenty years could see their meager incomes and remaining accumulated wealth spent on paying hospitals and doctors to simply stay alive.
2
Krugman always nails it. Its still the economy and always will be. And the biggest betrayal of our hopes for improvement in the lives of the majority of us was perpetrated by the republican tax cut for millionaires and billionaires at the expense of those struggling. It sneaks by with the phony tactic that, everybody gets a tax cut. A couple hundred bucks for you and me, millions for republican constituency. That fact sits there like a birthday cake in our faces but doesn't make it into awareness. Now McConnell insults our intelligence with that the deficit is out of control. This should be seen as a gift to Democrat campaigns, local and national. Rescuing Social Security from these pirates is a crusade with a built in loyalty. How many ways can this message be elaborated on by speech writers? Republicans trying to cultivate an excuse to take Social Security away from our elderly to give to their Elite.
These “entitlement “ programs are paid for directly by citizens and have nothing to do with the deficit, NOTHING NOTHING.!!!!!
The deficit comes from the increases in spending on the military and the decrease in revenue.
6
If I could rid 'our' government of one person, my pick would ... of course ... be trump.
But then we'd be left with pence ... so I'd 'still' be happy to pick mcconnell -- yet still so sad to have had to leave sessions, jordan, meadows, nunes and so many others on our 'table.'
(Note: I give thanks to Paul Ryan for 'offing' himself.)
1
Tax Cuts mostly for the wealthy.
Middle class then pays for government operations that benefit the wealthy.
Deregulation that eventually further enriches the wealthy.
Exports of crude oil allowed that helped double prices for consumers.
The poor get poorer and the rich get richer, as we all know through history.
It's the "Hoods Robin'"
1
You'd think that Paul Krugman would take some time off from GOP-bashing to acknowledge the extraordinary performance of the economy since Trump's election.
Another newspaper has described what happened: "The stock market began to surge on the day after the election in anticipation of pro-growth policies and the liberation of animal business spirits."
"Deregulation lifted the visible foot of government off business, and tax reform broke the logjam on investment created by the highest corporate tax rate in the developed world. Congress overrode late Obama-era rules no fewer than 16 times with the Congressional Review Act, freeing businesses to invest in new opportunities rather than paying to meet new federal regulation. Barriers to oil and gas production and transport were lifted."
"Capital investment has surged." Fancy that. Wasn't Paul predicting that tax reform wouldn't help investment? Not to forget that wages at the bottom of the pyramid are showing healthy growth for the first time in how many years.
On second thoughts, why doesn't Paul go back to bashing the GOP. Rather that than return to advocating loony-tune policies that damage the GDP.
2
Really? At what cost? Increasing debt payment, rising interest rates, rising inflation rates (eating the meager salary increases) all leading to a future fiscal crises. Speaking of salaries, where are all of those high wages that were promised?
10
@Ian Maitland
Please Ian. The economy has grown steadily for more than a 100 months since the Obama Administration turned it around in 2009 night. It's called momentum and sound fiscal/monetary policies. Trumps tax cut was ill-timed with the economy at or near full employment/capacity, and reducing regulations is a counterproductive way to "juice" the economy.
10
@Ian Maitland
The fact is that capital investment has not surged…but stock buybacks—which benefit only shareholders—have surged.
The deregulation has increased pollution around the country with no consequences to the polluters. It will just increase the cost of future problems for the super fund…short term profits for long term problems.
The GOP has put the same problems that caused the last recession into motion—short term gains with huge deficits have resulted along with high risk and huge private debt increases. It takes a bit to cause the good economy Trump was handed to crash, but Trump inc will manage to do so.
2
The Republicans did similar back in '10 when they were pushing Jobs Jobs JOBS For Everyone to gain in the National Wealth...and then pivoted to saying they had been voted in Only to kill Obamacare and any Obama-type legislation.
That led to the Just Say No Congress for the rest of Obama's term, including refusing to even talk to Merrick Garland who was President Obama's rightful choice, and should have received the proper hearings and then Seating of Garland as Supreme Court Justice.
The Republican Pivot on their Health Care Protection is a major racket, and hopefully even the deep Republicans will see this as the supreme lie TO THEM as it really is.
They are not so much lying to Democrats, because we know that said data is false. The GOP Base is not always as cognizant of this and so get taken in by the good sounding lies, and then have to suffer the consequences, which the perpetrators then lie again about who caused the problem.
This has been the Republican way of doing things, as well as guiding the educations and contacts of kids from Jr High on as far as indoctrinating their kids to be the next Party Leaders, Legislators and Judges.
The kids are promised future seats in Government before they leave highschool. I know, I have seen it myself with individual leaving State Legislator position this year that I went to school with.
His track led just where he told me they had promised him it would go, and he said he was Forced to be Republican by 'Family Consideration'.
Mr. Krugman, one of the real issues I see in the narrative on taxes is the characterization of the 1%. From where I sit, that percentage is considerably too high to actually reflect those who are principally benefiting from the US economy to say nothing of those who are benefiting from this insane tax cut. Secondly, if the justification for the corporate tax rate cut was to make the US system more competitive, from an effective tax rate perspective, why then did they not also close all the loopholes that have resulted in the declining corporate tax revenues paid to the Treasury.
2
@Bob
There are two reasons that the loopholes weren't closed:
(1) Republicans controlled the process and didn't even give lip service to debate and compromise.
(2) McConnell stopped pushing for revenue neutrality because a Republican is in the WH and would benefit from the economic juice.
2
Amen. I watched the clip with McConnel and immediately thought back to the many times Dr. Krugman has made the case he makes in this article. Some of us were skeptical of Dr. Krugman's view due to his partisanship, but it is as clear as a blue sky to anyone who wants to see.
But to win elections and win on these issues the Democrats are going to need to recognize the true moral foundations of why people support these programs. People are more likely to support these programs when they feel "we're in it together" and part of one greater whole. This is exactly why Dr. Krugman mentions racism as a wedge keeping people from showing support. Yet the Democrats are increasingly full of the most divisive language I've ever heard. The near constant vicious denunciations, the search and destroy tactics, the frothing hatred. How do we expect people to support society-wide programs when we tell them that it's really just a bare knuckles quest for power and domination?
Eliminate healthcare insurance for senators and congress people and then we will see how much cutting there will be to healthcare. Mostly they are hypocrites.
3
Paul - I think it's cool you are replying to comments. Thanks!
4
Wow! Professor Krugman has responded to a bunch of comments here. I love it.
5
Mr Krugman, I'm getting the sense that the GOP simply doesn't care anymore about fostering a sustainable economy, which would include keeping aggregate demand (& thus wages) high enough to keep the whole system moving forward. Every arm of the state is being systematically dismantled & undermined, except the military. Education is run by a woman determined to undermine public education. The EPA is being run by people who want to destroy its capacity to regulate. HUD is being run by people who want to wreck it. Etc. It seems the 1% and their GOP enablers are in the initial phases of a hunker-down strategy to weather the coming storms, especially climate change, the prospect of rising seas displacing tens of millions of people, an increasingly unstable world marked by endemic warfare & growing numbers of failed states and desperate uprooted people. My read is they're gobbling up as many properties & as much capital as they possibly can to weather the political & social & economic & ecological storms that are clearly on the horizon. It seems they just don't give a tinker's dam about whether the whole system remains sustainable -- because they see the handwriting on the wall that says in big, fat, flashing neon letters that it just ain't. Hence the endemic lying & fantasy narratives about deficit & debts & all the rest. Do you disagree?
3
Thank you for this column, Dr. Krugman. In a random meme, I saw the following: "A journalism 101 lesson. If someone says it's raining and the other person says it isn't, the job of a journalist isn't to quote them both, but to look outside and see if it's raining".
Our mainstream media is in desperate need of this remedial journalism lesson. The Republican party is working to destroy our social safety net and hand that money over to the wealthy with a giant bow on top. Republicans have been doing this for decades. They've blatantly admitted the same with people like Grover Norquist and his "starve the beast" ideology.
Listen, a scam is a scam is a scam. No matter how faux-serious and grave people like Mitch McConnell might act. Our media - and especially Democratic politicians- must stop tiptoeing around reality. Draw the accurate parallels between horrific Republican tax policies and the eroding quality of life, and economic stability, of the American people.
5
Mr. Krugman, I am hoping you will begin and relentlessly continue to write articles about the importance of our government supporting and investing in research and businesses developing viable alternative energy solutions. Americans affiliated with ALL Political Parties need to clearly understand WHY it is important to our country's economic and political stability to embrace these initiatives.
2
Thing 1: If all the dollars they put into advertising for pharmaceuticals, political ads telling us just how vile entitlements are (for the poor, not those tax cuts for the rich), and even those advertisements like the ones begging us to put Brett Kavanaugh on the Supreme Court (still haven't figured that out - to whom were they really directed), we would be a much better country.
Thing 2: Unfortunately, this is about what one expects from a group that believes that rocks falling into the ocean cause sea rise.
4
Every time I see the word "entitlement" when referring to Social security, it makes me angry. We have worked and paid into that so called entitlement, so please Mr. Ryan, Mr. McConnell save us this "double talk"and refer to any cuts contemplated for these programs as robbing their rightful owners!
5
I think in government speak, entitlement program is just one that isn't means tested.
With Republicans at the helm of Congress, the White House, the Supreme and Federal Courts, state Governors and Lieutenant Governors, School Boards, and such esoterica as textbook purchasing committees and environmental protection enforcement, and in absolute charge of the citizens that live in the USA, it's baffling what utopia they envision that requires leaving people worse off, the poor poorer and everyone and their next door neighbor clamoring for help to survive.
If regular citizens aren't protected from harms, and rich citizens dodge every tax burden, I am mystified how the GOP imagines the country can operate efficiently. Money is needed to fund the system. Killing off 25% of the population (everyone with childhood acne to high blood pressure a/k/a pre-existing conditions) isn't cost effective, and condemning people who make less than $80k annually to serfdom will eventually bring the pitchforks into the streets.
The rich are plenty rich enough, so much so, they cannot find places to put all their dough, nor enough toys and houses upon which to spend it. Oh sure, this one can spend thousands to "hunt" and kill a giraffe or that one can spend 6 figures to change the look of the bathroom countertops in the hotel they plan to sleep in for a night but, really, the rich are drowning in money. Pinching the other 99% accomplishes what, exactly?
4
Do the Republican Party leaders really think they can seek the solution for the country's deficit problem, by slashing people's entitlements?
The party leaders like Mitch McConnell and Paul Ryan should ask themselves a question as to where they stand on the Debt and Deficit? They are both responsible for supporting the Tax Reforms and the dilemma resulting from the Reforms.
Dr. Krugman, as you rightfully point out here, what Mitch McConnell is saying here about plans to cut people's entitlements is nothing new. It is premeditated.
Do we not already have this problem called 'income inequality'? Do we not have poverty here in the US? Will these issues get better in the future?
The main objective of the Tax Reforms was to benefit the rich. Just bluntly saying, the republican party had the wealthy and the party donors upper most in their minds, and not the man on the street. By cutting down on revenues coming into the government treasury, the initiative did not look at options. Also, creasting the monstrous debt.
At the same time, we are also talking about building that wall on the southern border, and spending for the military. Where will the monies come from to fund these projects? Still, are they more important or the preference, than looking at the needs of the people?
There are millions of people who depend on Social Security, Medicare and Medicaid. I am just wondering their plight in the near future. So much so, for what we can expect from those elected into Office.
1
I laugh every time a Democrat says that we should raise taxes on the rich, and then complains about the Trump tax changes that reduced the deduction for State and Local Taxes. The limit on SALT deductions raises taxes only on the rich, and yet Democrats from New York and New Jersey won't stop complaining about it. Maybe the issue is that Democrats want to be able to take political credit among the masses for talking about raising taxes on the rich, but then want to take credit for lowering taxes on the rich. That's why Democrats in New York and New Jersey are running on a campaign to eliminate the Trump limit on SALT deductions.
1
And I laugh every time I see a Trumpist try this sort of thing, so I guess we’re in balance.
6
I laugh every time a so-called fiscal conservative tries to explain why income paid in taxes to the state remains subject to federal income tax. Why is some amount of SALT deductible? Shouldn’t it be all or none?
Let’s be real. The Republican congress cynically decided to tax the earnings of people who for the most part don’t vote Republican. They unilaterally imposed taxes that specifically targeted high-tax states, states whose governments do a better job — by every measure, health and education being two — of caring for their citizens. They taxed the most productive regions, and those that contribute the most, per person, to the federal coffers.
There’s no public policy justification, and none was offered. It’s all about the money, except for the part that’s about payback.
4
Tony,
I think you are conflating the rich and the “rich”. Democrats are proposing increasing taxes on the plutocrats who control hundreds of millions of dollars in assets and who engage in the kind of tax-avoiding schemes this newspaper has brought to light recently among the president’s own family. Passive multigenerational wealth transfer and capital gains tax law are the problem here.
The SALT deduction, on the other hand, largely affects the merely “rich” doctors, dentists, lawyers, and other professional working classes who (while affluent) work for a living and for whom these taxes actually represent a substantial outlay. Finally, it is disingenuous not to at least acknowledge that the limits on this deduction were specifically targeted to those regions of the country that lean democratic.
5
It is amazing to me that Kentuckians continue to vote for both Mitch McConnell and Rand Paul. Kentucky is one of the MOST Federally dependent states in the nation and the 7th WORST GDP per capita. And yet Kentuckians still vote for guys who work against their best interests. How does this work exactly?
6
@Mark Go read one of Krugman's posts about "those people" and you'll get the answer to your question.
Japan with twice the debt to GDP ratio of the U.S. is not going b ankrupt and as their Central Bank buys the majority of their debt at zero interest rates, the Japanese debt is not much of a burden on their economy. Their spending has given Japan modern infrastructure unlike the U.S. It is unclear why this needs to be a problem here. A good clear discussion of these issues would be very useful as I fear the discussion on government debt is largely governed by propaganda not a reasoned discussion.
@Michael Cohen
But you hit the nail on the head yourself with your evaluation of Japan's debt which has gone to massive infrastructure modernization. That has not happened here, at all. Instead, the money sits in the oversized coffers of very wealthy individuals whose only intent to see anything trickle down would be the urine on their leg and into our faces as they step over us lying broke in the street. How is this not readily apparent???
2
Yes, Paul, the Republicans will.keep winning, until things are so bad that the Democrats get elected to clean up the mess, while being obstructed at every turn by the Republicans. That's been the pattern since the end of the then-record deficits of the Reagan--Bush era. And so it goes. Perpetually.
7
The pattern goes back farther than that. The GOP was a complete flop when the Great Depression hit. Thank god for FDR.
8
I too was alarmed when I saw the deficit soar. Is this only a temporary issue and we will see the deficit be reduced in coming years?
I am for tax cuts and reducing spending. I'd like to see defense spending go down not up. I'd prefer the money go to social security and medicare.
2
In a country with a functioning system of government Mr. McConnell and his legislative co-conspirators would be in prison for:
- treason; or
- prostitution (selling themselves to their wealthy donors); or
- hate crimes (against Democrats and poor people).
2
Thank you, Paul Krugman, for your personal responses. I salute you.
Who is really standing up to the Republicans on their criminal behavior vis-a-vis the economy besides Professor Krugman? The public has dimly caught on to the fact that tax reform was a huge cheat--theft from the 99% to enrich the 1%. Despite all the warnings, they continued to ignore the inevitable--that the Republicans would try to pay for their give-away to billionaires by cutting Medicare, Medicaid and Social Security. It was clear as day from the very beginning.
Now they are giving the BIG LIE that Democrats are planning to cut health care. If we don't get Democrats countering these lies with every fiber of their being, they will lose. Krugman's column needs to be distributed widely and shouted to the rafters.
VOTE!
2
Is anyone investigating the lavish spending of McConnell and wife on 'private time' as well as other members of Congress indulging? What about Eric Trump ands wife private jet flights to their vacation home all the time on Wheels Up at 17 thousand a pop? Who is paying for that? And Melania's travels? Who is paying for Don jr and Ivanka's travels and luxury hotel stays? I would like to see what deficits are created by the very greedy in this administration.......
1
Hey Paul,
I have been told that the baby boomers are the rat going through the snake. Now that the rats are getting old and needing health care, shouldn't we be talking about cutting military spending in order for us to still keep our social security and healthcare?
1
@Matt586
Would prefer a little nicer characterization of my generation that rats, please.
the problem is, is that the lies are working
The Democrats had the ability to negotiate with Trump on taxes, health care and regulations but instead questioned the legitimacy of his election and called for his impeachment. The result was Trump was driven further to the right because he needs every Republican vote to pass bills in the Congress. Roosevelt sided with Stalin during WW II so as to defeat the Nazis. Do we blame Roosevelt for communism? The Democrats and many Republicans, (Never Trump), hostility toward Trump, from day one, is to blame for the lack of compromise and moderation during the last two years. Oh and by the way, I'm a registered Democrat for 40 years and a true liberal but maybe I am to blame since I'm a White male.
1
No need to write a long piece on this , Paul. It's all totally simple. First cheat the people via tax fraud. Second cheat the people by "rewarding" the rich and stealing from the middle & the poor.
Mr Krugman still thinks policy issues and truth matter in elections. They do not. What matters is the predominant tribe near where you live, the color of your skin, and when you grew up. Even more important is your age and how that influences if you vote.
Do you guys ever get out of NYC.
1
The Krugman “The Economy will Collape when Trump becomes President” scam. Part IX
1
GOP--The Rich Leading the Gullible.
So when will we see headlines such as "Mulvaney lies that deficit up due to hurricane relief"? Stop pussyfooting around!
1
Slashing taxes for the super-wealthy, generating and generating deficits to force major cutbacks in Medicare and Social Security is the primary objective of the right wing politcal coup d'etat of 2016. The ultra-right wing oligarchy that owns and controls the GOP, the Kochs, Mercers, Adelsons, et al., not only invested hundreds of millions in the 2016 campaign because wanted massive tax breaks, but they also want to reverse every step of social progress ever made in the United States. It is called corporate fascism. Welcome to one-party Republican America.
Vote these GOP servants of the super-rich out of office!
4
Very good sir. I would like to point out that the hypocracy of Republicans and some democrats regarding health care is consistent with the general intended hypocracy of your founding document.
In reality a country born of genocide and slavery gerrymandered for white property owners in a finite world is not to be applauded. It is to be condemned.
So, perhaps you are the problem. Particularly with the belly crawlers McConnell and Trump, pretty low.
Every time I turn around, it's 1984.
Given the milquetoast response from the Democrats, and their steadfast adherence to centrist and moderate ideas and leaders (e.g., Nancy Pelosi, Chuck Schumer and Kirsten Gillibrand), I think MM is going to get his way. He is a far better (evil) and calculating than any democrat I have known in recent times. The Democrats, by comparison, are infants.
And we can all sulk for another two and most likely another 6 years about how amazingly moral we are and why, oh why, the evil GOP is getting away with it.
Paul and the others in the democratic camp didn't get the message in 2016, and it is very clear that they are refusing to get the message in 2018.
Learn to enjoy our exile for a very long time. The fault is yours for furthering centrist claptrap.
GOP = Gaslighting Old Party. Pray the voters of Kentucky come to their senses in 2020. History will rank McConnell along with Theodore Bilbo, Strom Thrumond and Jim Eastland as one of the worst Senators to serve.
5
Frank Burns captured it best in M*A*S*H, " .... never have so many suffered so much so, so few could be so happy...Oh Margaret I am so glad we're one of the few and not the many...."
Go ahead, cut the programs that your core constituency relies on.
Donald Trump and the republicans have thrown gas on the conflagration that is class warfare.
This will not end well, for anyone.
8
Hello Guess who in Kentucky, The answer to your question can be found in a book, DEMOCRACY IN CHAINS The Deep History of The Radical Right's Stealth Plan for America by Nancy MacLEAN, deeply researched and not in any way corrupted by the LIES proferating from the LIER LIER PANTS ON FIRE president and the hoard of Congressional Republicans in a frenzy of fear of losing their enormous lobby salaries in November.
I thought the Mafia was really bad. We need an investigation of the Republican party that is pillaging the wealth of Americans and taking it for themselves.
2
These economic policies in the long run are obviously self-destructive even for the ultra-rich who need middle class consumers to consume goods. I think the sharper and more focused on valid policy approaches like appealing the tax cut, medicare for all, government infrastructure and economic policy, jobs and retraining for workers, the more likely a democratic win. The MeTo movement and feminism is critical but its far from the whole story. While the Republican program is bankrupt it will be much better to draft coherent alternatives than to harp on their bankruptcy.
A strongly positive reason to vote for democrats is very useful now.
1
Mr. Krugman
Though not in your immediate discussion, it has always seemed that removing the Payroll Deduction Cap would be a great step in reducing the gap facing SS in the future. When it was instituted, $109K was a princely sum and while it is still out of reach for too many, I would think those multi-million dollar salaries if their contributed amount extended past the $109K limit, would certainly help narrow the need. I have brought this suggestion to my Senate and House Representatives with never a reply.
Is there any reason this seems not an actionable suggestion?
Thank You.
2
We do not hear this kind of talk in our local media. It is a big problem for rural america, with our disproportionate voting power. Is there any way to disseminate lucid, important information to an audience that is not inclined to independently seek it out?
5
"Can a campaign this dishonest actually win? We’ll find out in less than three weeks."
What we will find out on Nov. 6 is largely how people feel, not what they know. Joe Biden says (did so a week or so ago) that the Senate will flip and Dem.'s pick up 40 seats in the House. We'll find out indeed.
1
When all the Republican lies come home to roost, unfortunately, disenfranchised American citizens of all races, colors, creeds, etc., will find themselves on the streets and deprived of the right to vote. All I can say is keep believing the nonsense that Fox News barfs upon America on a daily basis and see where the 99% will land. The Kim-Kanye life has never been the promise of America. I am quite frightened as should every member of the 99%.
1
Phase II of the Redistribution of Wealth to the Wealthy Act of 2018 was always inevitable and entirely predictable, as Professor Krugman long ago identified. Lacking (intentionnally) an education system that enables, nay, requires the capability and deployment of critical thought, political operatives and the rich will continue to line their pockets with the money to which they feel they are more entitled than the rest of us. America is (and has been even long before Emperor Tiny) an oligarchy hiding behind some illusion of a represenative democracy. Citizens United just codified it. Vote all you want in November, but I fear the damage is done and irreversible. Those in power will never relinquish that power without blood being spilled. We (the not 1%-ers) are not fighting on a level playing field and haven't been since nefarious people recognized they could exploit government for their own means and get away with it.
2
Well Paul if Americans elect republicans this time around then they obviously need some more tough love.
1
"Can a campaign this dishonest actually win?", asks Paul. The dishonesty is indeed flagrant, but it is counterbalanced by two things, 1. the exceptional gullibility of Trump's supporters, which is itself enhanced by 2. the fact that the GOP propaganda is based on well worn American myths of success and independence. And of course racism is there in the background, and increasingly in the foreground too. So yes, it definitely can win.
2
The Republican's plan is the same as it always has been. Be fiscally irresponsible, run up the debt with no balancing offsets (except for gutting the social safety nets), involve us in never, ever ending war which costs lives, and devastates lives, while further burying us in debt, and then as usual blame the Democrats for the mess they have created. They sell swampland that is under water to their base, and their base buy it up, and keep buying even as they sink into the mire. They spew patriotism mixed with racism, misogyny, and xenophobia to their devoted fans. They spout "Christian values" to their base, while they are themselves morally bankrupt. They convince their base to cheer voting against their own good time and time and time again. They dispense the same "Kool Aide" to them through Fox News every time there is an election, just as they have this time. All that said, all we hear from the Democrats are - crickets.
They have rolled on the appointment of judges, signing off on the confirmation of 15 as they left to campaign. They could have taken on Kavanaugh with any number of valid arguments, but chose the most uncertain course that was fraught with risk (mostly for Dr. Ford). They should be screaming about McConnell's vile intentions to take down the social safety nets in the name of greed for the wealthy. Instead, they have stayed the same stale course which has fostered the political disaster we now find ourselves in. The midterm outcome is now uncertain,
1
Paul, Please remind your readers that it's all about dismantling FDR's New Deal. Right after Trump’s election, back in December of 2016, Newt Gingrich openly bragged at the Heritage Foundation that the Trump administration and Republicans in Congress were going to “break out of the Franklin Delano Roosevelt model.” That “model,” of course, created what we today refer to as “the middle class.”
Sadly since half of America thinks FDR is an agency and not the Democratic president that the Greatest Generation voted for 4 times and gave us Social Security, it would be good to remind folks. By the way, cons called him a socialist too !
3
Thank you Dr. Krugman !
This extremely devastating intended action of the GOP is coming.
It has to as they gave away the wealth of America to the already Wealthy!
After McConnel made this comment horrid comment on Monday - The News Cycle stayed focused on Saudi Arabia and the WaPo Journalist who was sadly killed.
Now, just 18 days before the Mid-Term elections, this story of intended GOP desires to heavily cut essential services to the majority of Americans, and place no blame on the huge deficit "they" created with their "Tax Scam; Phase 1".
Please, all "Not Insane" Americans - All those trying to restore order to our country -
Please - "THIS" is your war cry !
"The GOP will Steal Your Medicare, Medicaid, and Social Security and hand it over to the Wealthy, and Blame Democrats for the Deficit"
If we do not "fix this" on November 6th . . . "All will be Lost" !
3
Whether you're Democrat or Republican, everyone should be skeptical of criticism of any tax situation when it comes from those who grew up in and continue to strive in the world of tax exempt academia or think tanks. Seriously now!
1
Or worshippers in tax exempt churches, eh?
1
To answer your question: they think they can get away with it because they can. Forty-five won despite the fact that voters knew he would work with Republicans to enact a massive tax cut for billionaires, and that Paul Ryan and his ilk would push to gut "entitlements." And who voted for him in large numbers: old white people who stood to lose their safety net. Bizarre.
1
The parallel universes of fiction trumps facts is the 1984 of 2018. Lies are facts swallowed directly into the digestive tract by Trumps base. Proof? Here's a report from The NY Times:
Meet the Republicans’ Best Hope for Flipping a House Seat
Mr. Stauber’s race — in a union-heavy, Trump-friendly, mostly white working-class district that includes the mining region known as the Iron Range — is their best shot.
The very people who Republicans wage war upon by screaming medicare, social security , medicaid are entitlements needing serious pruning are asked to sacrifice what they've paid for ( See Mitch make that pitch ) Why? The tax cut to corporations and the richest of the rich has devastated the budget. These white, union people are being asked to empower and enrich the richest of the rich at their expense. Lets not talk about global warming, environmental destruction, a failing infrastructure, starving revenues for education their own children need, and on and on.
No, it's those rioting mobs of democrats who are despoiling the country by allowing millions upon millions of low wage, illegal immigrants to vote. Vote REPUBLICAN, Alternate universe is here, now.
1
I say let them. My father and his wife rant all the time about socialism and love Trump. When I suggest they don't cash those social security checks and decline Medicare (both "socialist" programs), they are dumbfounded. I hope they make massive cuts in all the benefits seniors enjoy. Maybe then they will wake up and smell the conjob.
4
Will doctor visits, vaccines, and emergency surgeries also trickle down?
2
I agree with Mr. Krugman's facts but question his belief that Republicans, particularly MM, are knowingly engaged in a cynical con game. Like most adherents of a flawed belief system, I think they are blind to those flaws and truly feel they are doing the right thing. The assumption of evil intent strikes me as counterproductive.
As I have commented earlier, the Republicans are engaged in Orwellian "double-speak", i.e., truth is fake news and vice-versa. It worked in Orwell's prescient novel and it's working now because we have an electorate nearly half of whom are ignorant if not downright stupid.
1
So what is the long term outlook for the United States when such a high percentage of the electorate is so ignorant of facts and truth?
1
The GOP is a group of wealthy party members that no longer have a true connection to conservatism other than their “family” of other wealthy Americans continues to benefit from their tax largesse. They complain about government spending excess yet they create a situation where taxes can no longer fund government fiscal responsibilities so that the have nots of our society become liable for making up the differences from their earnings rather than sharing those responsibilities. So, the downtrodden have less as the wealthy maintain and increase their financial position. The GOP fights change and progressive improvements in our society as a matter of course. When all boats rise together in our economy, we all improve. That thinking is anathema to the Republicans.
1
Lost in this debate is the fact that employers and employees have paid into these funds from the day they started working. When Congress did not want to approve funding via taxes for these benefits, they took a loan - against Social Security and Medicare "trust" funds. Now the bill is coming do and the congressional leadership doesn't want to fund the repayment of that loan against the "trust." If "Guess Who" is whom I believe he (male gender intentional) is, at least he did the honorable thing and let us know what the next step is. It also leads me to believe that the election results will favor the "Guess Who" party. People are at least being able to make an informed choice if they do their homework in advance.
It is not up to the Democratic party to save US. It is up to We the People to finally realize there is no such thing as a moderate, conservative republican. There is not one republican anywhere in the Nation that deserves your vote.
These are the facts: 40 years after the New Deal America was humming right along; building a solid middle class thanks to the G.I.Bill; building infrastructure, including an interstate highway system and the rebuilding of Europe; sending men to the moon.
40 years after Reagan and the U.S can't fill her potholes, or educate her children, or keep her old people healthy. While the wealth of those who already own it all keeps doubling and tripling; as they do nothing to fulfill their parts of the bargain that is the democracy responsible for their wealth.
If republicans retain control of both houses of Congress there won't be an election in 2020 and America, the beacon of democracy will be be dead.
2
I paid into the trust fund and we have an implied contract that requires them to pay me a return. They can't just cut benefits without returning a portion of the taxes I paid into the fund under that implied contract.
3
@Shakinspear
they will "just cut benefits", because they will tell you that "an implied contract" is meaningless.
@Shakinspear
You are correct. But they will do so anyway. Because what are you (we) going to do to stop them?
If health insurance doesn’t protect against pre-existing conditions then, it isn’t healt insurance. Under this rubric, you could get sick and you never know whether or not it will be covered by your insurance. In contract law that’s a form of bait and switch.
I got of the plane in Spain in 2016 and everyone I saw there, rich or poor, had heath insurance, for life. At the time Spain’s per capital productivity was significantly lower than ours AND they had at least 20% unemployment. Even when times are hard, those people are permitted to live.
The GNP in the US has gone up 150% since Medicare, Medicaid was invented and much more since Soc Sec was invented. We can afford those programs now better than we ever could before. What has changed is that the bulk of the 150% increase in GNP has all gone to the 1% and since 1972 the median wage was flat, before 1972, the median wage tended to increase with GNP. How might you be doing if your wage was more than double what it is now? Well it should be but that doubling was given to the 1%.
My local state representative is running on plank of decency and reasonableness. I think it’s brilliant. Just as whether a policy proposal is reasonable, and then ask if it is decent. (Intrinsic to decent and reasonableness is humane and fairness) If it is, proceed. If it isn’t its not worth consideration.
It’s neither decent nor reasonable that the 1% get to keep all the gains from increases in productivity.
1
It becomes more and more difficult to keep up both the quality and quantity of the con when you hold the reins of power (which is why the con has to be re-packaged and tweaked). Trump has been successful by continuing to masquerade as the anti-politician politician to a base so desperate for a hero that they'll willing to settle for a Nero. The results will depend on the balance of the electorate: what they see and what they do with it.
@DB very pathetic claim of his. He is not a politician by any means of the imagination. His polls are terrible. Most Americans disagree with his regressive policies. The Repubs are a bunch of boot lickers. Trump has already said that any losses to the party in midterms are not his fault. Swell bunch.
Mr. Krugman, for those of us who live in expensive areas of the country, earn a couple of hundred thousand dollars per year and under Democrat administrations have paid a 50% marginal tax rate on our income, every time you or another progressive rails about Republican tax cuts for the "rich" we wonder if you consider us "rich." We are not rich. Our economy is enjoying explosive growth due to deregulation and yes, across the board tax cuts. Republicans are predicting that deficits will come down as the growth continues. Your class warfare narrative rings especially hollow to those who you accuse of being rich, when we are not. We love tax cuts.
2
@TommyStaff,
First, there is no evidence that the economy's growth is due to deregulation or the tax cuts. Absolutely none. For now, we are continuing on trend started under Obama.
Second, how do you feel about paying those tax cuts back in 2019? Or the $10,000 cap on SALT? I sure hope you put those cuts into savings - you're going to need them soon.
3
@TommyStaff
The next time the Stock Market crashes, please be sure to blame everything else for it except deregulation.
2
You are rich. Quit complaining and pay your fair share.
Paul, like you said the repubs have been using this strategy for over 30 years so yes, the lies work. I am highly skeptical of dems taking anything back because as per normal they don't address issues head on/in a progressive stance. Yeah the economy is "growing" while few folks have better paychecks but the ultra wealthy...but wait, they don't even get paychecks. That's right, this whole economy is a paper mirage that may evaporate sooner rather than later.
2
Prof K., thanks for continuing to focus in your columns on the role that the mainstream media play in enabling Trump and the GOP agenda, with their continual false equivalence, both sides-ism, he said-she said banter and the overall disdain for complex policy issues (climate change, anyone?) in favor of horse-race analysis and poll-watching.
Democrats are constantly criticized for their "lack of ideas", but who reports on ideas any more? If the Democrats were to announce a cure for cancer, it would still play second fiddle on cable "news" to Trump's tweets, rallies and the palace intrigue and inside gossip about who will be the next Secretary of Commerce.
Unlike the GOP with its own captive media, such as Fox News and Sinclair Broadcasting, it seems that the best that Democrats can ever hope for in promoting their agenda and candidates is that the mainstream media will be kind enough to grant them their officially balanced, 50% allocation of heavily-edited air time and column space.
In the meantime, of course, as has happened since he began his campaign in 2015, the media grants Trump all the unlimited and unedited air time he wants, in exchange for the ratings and revenue he brings in for both the media companies and their on air talent (book deals, lecture fees, etc.).
It is hard to see under the current media setup, how the Democrats can possibly get a mass media forum to promote their ideas and platform.
5
Every day that goes by, I grieve more and more for this country and where it is headed. My grief is only surpassed by my feeling that anyone who voted in 2016 for the disaster that is the Trump GOP committed an unforgivable act.
7
So Republican tax cuts are bankrupting our government and the only solution is killing the causes – Social Security, Medicare, Medicaid, and all other programs which benefit the lower 90%. What’s new about that? Nothing. It is just more of the same which started under Saint Ronald Reagan.
So Republican policies are all about their benefactors. Is this a surprise to anyone? If it is, then where have you been for the last thirty-some years?
So Republicans want to deny health care to millions. Whenever has the Republican Party ever cared about the greater good except when they pretend to do so to justify sending our young to fight their wars or winning elections?
So the Republican base includes many harmed by Republican policies . Does anyone believe that the Republican base could ever be persuaded to stop supporting the madness? If you do, then do you not see that the support by the base increases with the cruelty of the Republican policies.
The Republican worldview is corrupt, immoral, and destructive. The most important question for those opposed to the Republican dystopia is what are you willing to do to end the abuse? TIme is running out.
1
Republicans are say one thing and do another. At least they still care about what people would think and vote. But President Trump doesn't care about his words at all unless it is about impeachment and 2020 election. His words mean nothing except for later revision. I feel sorry for all the previous presidents who must feel shocked, shame and disbelieve that someone like Trump can do a thing that dishonoring and discredit the office of the presidency. I will not surprise that he will change Social Security and Medicare if he were the president after 2020.
1
All of these obvious tactics are effective because we have a country brimming with voters who are incapable of clear and rational critical thought. It’s that simple. If the republicans keep the voters on the treadmill, slowly increasing the ramp angle and speed, they will not have enough time or energy to look up for fear of falling off of it. They are tired and broke and afraid.
2
The posture of the MSM and the language that they use to frame the argument absolutely hits the nail on the head.
Here's a novel journalistic idea: instead of turning every piece of reporting into an 'infotainment' policy version of WWE Smackdown, how about actually reporting the facts. And then reporting which political party's claims most closely align with those facts.
1
Despite what Mr. Lincoln said, you can fool all of the people all of the time when it comes to the GOP base . The farmers whining about the cost of the trade war don't think that the 12 billion Trump is throwing their way is welfare or a buyout, they see it as their right. This is the same electorate who once voted a Senator out of office because he "matriculated before marriage" and "his wife was a thespian", and it hasn't gotten much better.
2
One of the awful things about the deficit is that we got nothing for it except more crumbling roads and infrastructure.
GOPers have been employing intellectually dishonesty supply-side economics for three decades. Yet people still fall for the same scam over and over again. What I want to know is how beneficial the tax scam was for Trump personally. Trump's personal interests (and greed) drive most things including his attempt to control the Fed's rate hikes. How much does he owe with rates tied to prime?
1
Come on Paul, cutting taxes and eliminating government regulations will expand the economy and the US will grow out of the deficit, just like it did under GW Bush. Just tune in to FOX & FRIENDS every morning and you will learn the truth, just like Trump does.
2
An underhanded, sly plan on the part of Mitch and his cohorts. It's like the following story: An old man in his declining years still has a substantial amount of money---more than enough for his needs. He lives in a large home that has been his home for many decades. He is happy with his home and does not want to leave it. His kids ask him for money but he says he needs his money to pay his home expenses. But his spendthrift kids, who need more money, devise a plan to get at his money. They start using credit cards and bank loans , piling up a massive debt , which keeps growing, growing, while they are enjoying themselves living on the hog---a good economy, they are using this revenue to buy what they want. Finally the debt has grown too large to ignore. Then finally they are unable to pay their own mortgages. They now face losing their homes. So they now implore their father to save their homes--or else they are out on the streets. The oldest son--his name was Mitch--knew all along that this would happen, but he also knew that his pa would save the children's homes. Poor man---he loves his kids. So the father must sell and leave his own house and move into a shack , to give his kids enough to pay off their debts. The kids are happy; they put one over on the unsuspecting father (except for two of his sons --Bernie and Paul--who knew all along that their siblings were disreputable.)
1
I have been reading in these forums for years about how some day soon, the Working Class (a complete misnomer for those of us who remember when this country had an actual strong working class, by the way), aka Trump's base, is going to wake up and realize that voting for Trump and the GOP goes against their own self interests and will swing over to the Dems.
Nope.
Those who think that do not understand what this class of people has become. For them, hatred of whomever and whatever Trump and Fox News tell them to hate, fills the belly, cools the fever and keeps the rain out better than food, medicine and a sturdy roof over the head.
When the day comes when they can no longer afford cigarettes, booze, cable and McDonalds, they will hate "socialists" even more.
The right-wing oligarchy's blueprint to "keep 'em barefoot, proud and stupid" is history tested and proven and has a strong foothold in 21st Century America.
4
Grover Norquist said in 2001, 'I don't want to abolish government. I simply want to reduce it to the size where I can drag it into the bathroom and drown it in the bathtub." The Republicans loved it. He needed plenty of water to fill the tub. And the water was deficits.
The Democrats were not going to repeal the New Deal and they were not going to oppose tax cuts. How simple a strategy and how terrible. Cut taxes, keep spending and let the fear of huge deficits do their corrosive work.
What a simple scheme. How gullible are we?
2
"Can a campaign this dishonest actually win?" It worked for Brexit.
1
Here we go again, as Ron Reagan, used to say! I’m not sure that Republican push to do this is driven by any perceived gain, other than the need to undo any and all liberal social programs that exist in this country. It seems to have become a blood sport.
3
I'm surprised about the timing too. McConnell's announcement seems like political suicide just weeks out from a mid-term. We all knew Republicans planned to attack social services in the wake of their budget busting tax cut for the rich. However, stating your intent out loud right before the election seems weird. I'll acknowledge they are lying about their reasons but something strange is happening.
I wouldn't be surprised if verbal support for destroying social safety was a pre-condition from wealthy donors going into 2018. There are few other reasonable explanations. The question I'm still scratching my head about though is why does anyone buy into this nonsense? Republican policy is so far divorced from their stated aims it might as well be on Eris. You don't need a doctorate to see the gaping hole between statement and reality.
I'm not even partisan. I simply just don't understand the mental disconnect.
1
Millions of people have paid into Social Security and Medicare for their entire lives and that giant pool of money is exactly what McConnell and Trump want to put into their pockets... after they have finished selling off all of the federal lands to themselves and their friends.
The GOP idea is simple: no benefits ever. You will have to work until you drop dead. You will die at a much younger age because of it and because of the lack of healthcare. Life expectancy in the US is already dropping, it is still not as low as the GOP wants it. This is the Republican plan for dealing with human employment during the coming robot age, kill off as many humans as possible now.
Let’s have the rich pay taxes until the budget is balanced. Let’s see Trump’s returns. Let’s examine his relationship to Putin. Let’s prosecute him for fraud. Let’s do this now.
4
Suppose that corporations were not taxed at all and that everyone paid income tax at the same rate, say 15%, except that people with annual incomes of less than $50,000 paid income tax at a rate of 5%, with no deductions except for business expenses. Would the deficit increase or decrease? Providing everyone with guaranteed income is appealing because no one should fear not having a home, food, medical care or education, but would we pay people here illegally too? I am paying my son's student loan because we borrowed it and should pay it back but it is wrong that young people must incur massive debt to get an education. The three biggest costs we face are that many people like me find it very hard to find work despite the great economy I read about because we are old, environmental spoliation and climate change are hugely expensive and stupid people (I am one of them) are not needed now and will be less needed later. I don't have answers. I wish I did. I wish I knew whether to keep investing the little I have in the stock market. Nearly all Americans depend on the stock market to some extent. It seems that the stock market is propped up by corporations buying back their stock.
1
"Can a campaign this dishonest actually win?" Yes, note the Americans at the Trump rally in Montana, they are motivated as Prof. Krugman commented, "racism and fear" and not what Republican policies are going to result for their own and communities quality of life. This has been the Republican format since Reagan to Trump to convince Americans to vote against their own self-interests and to accept insane tax cuts for the 1% donor class, especially successful since Newt Gingrich poisoned the political process. Corporate fascism!
Somehow the Democrats need to get the message out, and not through spins, that we need to get rid of the increasing 'normalization of Republican lies and exaggerations' being accepted as the truth.
Mitch McConnell's proclamation that Medicare, Social Security, and Medicaid are the cause of the surge of "red ink" is the most recent example of how they're 'normalizing' lies as truths.
From the White House it's every time the President opens his mouth. Yeah, he's speaking to the gallery at these rallies, but still, increasingly he's normalizing what he lies about and his acolytes, for the most part incurious types, increrasingly, they simply take it all in as the truth.
Remember, in 1930's Europe, the emerging powers believed the more they lied and exagerrated, more and more of their message, just by simple attrition, would appear truthful. It's why we have so many commercials on television pounding away at us with messaging. Their research has shown we begin to simply accept their implied notions as being truthful.
2
The First Amendment has been abused and undermined. False advertising used to be illegal. Instead of stressing out about GMO labeling, the public might begin to insist that propaganda and lies be labeled. The Pinnochio rating system should be expanded to all news broadcasts, with chronic liars identified and fined.
4
Republicans are in the process of blatantly engineering the biggest transfer of wealth in history from middle class families to the one percent and up. Apparently close to forty percent of voters are good with that. I don’t see a fix for this insanity.
2
Paul, the Republicans really do want to support pre-existing conditions in their healthcare plans. They just define it differently than the ACA does, and that's where their dishonesty shines.
The ACA covers anyone with pre-existing conditions, at the same cost.
What the Republicans want is to provide coverage to anyone with a pre-existing, but at a varying cost. If you have such a condition, they'll stick you into a high risk pool with much higher premiums. The older will especially suffer, because age is a pre-existing condition. Old folks will get charged exorbitant premiums, so much so that many won't be able to afford them.
And this doesn't include Paul Ryan's plan, which would eliminate Medicare altogether, and replace it with vouchers for old folks to use on the open insurance market. And these vouchers would decline in value over time, with more and more of the cost burden being shifted over to Grandma.
Have the Republicans lied about all this? You bet they have. But even otherwise smart people will be fooled by it all, because it takes a lot of digging to uncover this deceit. Voters need to be far more cynical about what a politician says if they want to understand the reality of what's being said. And Republicans lie through their teeth to everyone about everything, with healthcare being no exception.
This all shows what the GOP healthcare plan really is - don't get sick, and die young. All to pay for their regressive tax cuts for the wealthy. No thanks.
5
"Why do they think they can get away with this?"
--because their boss gets away with it every day.
1
My wife and I are small business owners and have paid the full freight for Social Security and Medicare. Americans who earned these programs the old fashioned way are entitled to the retirement and health insurance plans we paid for. Republicans have always wanted to "throw old people on the trash heap like wrinkled rinds" as FDR joked about critics of Social Security. Progressives should embrace FDR's sarcasm and understand sarcasm doesn't reside in the gutter like the lie we need to reduce corporate tax rates to match other countries. Their lie is failing to disclose other countries have value added taxes that we don't, so Republicans blessed oligarchs with tax cuts and offer the rest of us manna from heaven.
2
As a thinking human, I can't stand to watch Fox News or any of the myriad lying conservative news outlets anymore. But I'm sure interested in how the Republican propaganda machine, Fox News, is spinning this. It seems that McConnell either doesn't understand the Social Security trust fund, or is just lying, or both. Social Security funds are wholly funded by us, that's us Americans. There is no connection between the trust and the federal budget, unless Congress steals money from it to fund wars and other "emergencies". But McConnell just said that Social Security was one of the reasons the deficit is soaring. I expect that's what they say on Fox News. Social Security is funded at 100% for decades, and then it can still fund over 70% of the payout. That's a fact readily observable on the federal website. Medicare can be saved by a slight increase in the salary tax and should have years ago. It's not just the economy stupid, I'm talking to you McConnell, it's the tax cuts for the rich, stupid.
I used to wonder if Republicans in Congress would be happy to see tens of millions of older Americans begging in the streets and dying in the gutters, but no longer. They seem to be looking forward to it. Thanks again all you thinking angry white voters. I'll see you in the streets, begging and dying with those of us that actually notice.
7
How do we get the Democrats to call out the Republicans for there double-speak about the Affordable Care Act? Republicans did try very hard the first year of the T Presidency to dismantle the ACA entirely!
1
What I find worrying is that McConnell is saying this now. Just like holding off the vote on the Supreme Court nominee, Mitch may know something we don't. Such as, the election is in the bag. He can make his statements now, the election will "confirm" his statements, then they can go ahead and cut "entitlements" since they have the voters' approval. Being paranoid doesn't mean they aren't out to get you.
5
If SS is self sufficient and costs the government nothing, how exactly are they going to take it away? It is our money. How do they mess with it?
@donna
Republicans have been trying to privatize Social Security for decades---they give it to some wealthy donors to "manage" (thus draining retirement funds away for profits to their donors, much as subsidized Medicare Advantage plans took funds meant for healthcare and paid it to insurance companies) and then "allow" people to invest in the stock market, giving their "managers" even more profit--this was an idea Bush and Republicans were pushing just before the 2008 crash, when people who bought the Bush/Republican line would have seen a dramatic plunge in their invested benefits, while the Republican donors/money managers laughed all the way to the bank
That Republicans are emboldened enough to tell bald-faced lies about something as critical as healthcare is indicative of where we are as a body politic.
Rather than try to win people over to their point of view, Republicans simply and emphatically state the exact opposite of their position knowing that they will revert back to their true position the second the polls close. A heinous bait and switch.
I pray that American are smart enough to smell this con. The Trump Effect is far more toxic than even the most cynical and pessimistic among us feared. This is how democracies slide into autocracy.
5
What I don't understand, is why, just why, no one has really run the numbers in relation to the effect this tax bill is having and will have in the end to the middle class?
As a RTP, most of my clients are going to be paying higher taxes this next tax year, and why? Because, when you take millions in taxes in the form of a gift to the wealthy, and lower their taxes, the net is that someone else has to pay, and once again it is the middle class.
Now, again the Republicans feel that they can take what is needed to bring down the deficit by taking a whack at the social programs, most of which people paid into, and reduce the benefits being given to those who can least afford to lose them. It is a travesty!
What I don't know is why are Democrats not screaming to the heavens telling all of this to the very middle class voters they need?? If truth no longer matters, we are doomed!
1
Mr. Krugman,
Do you believe that the Washington Post should eliminate their Pinnochio system, which instead of calling these lies, actual lies, they are cartooned into political falsehoods?
Republicans lying is such that they are a threat to the republic. Democrats should take McConnell's words and run them in every district that has a Republican claiming he, almost always he, will save insurance for pre-existing conditions.
why doesn't the Democrats run ads on Fox news telling about the tax scam and the GOP plan to reduce Medicare and Social Security? Maybe these Trumpers will hear a different story!
3
Good-
I am tired of paying Social Security. Now, since I have worked for like 40 years, I will gladly take my check for 125,000. But if McConnell needs that money for a nice night on the town I am game...he is my master you know.
1
I didn't vote for Trump and I never would. I loath McConnell. I do run my own business and I am my own corporation. My "pass through" accounting will greatly benefit from the tax cuts I did not request. I am from the midwest but left for California 20 years ago. I never attended University. I would be one of the hopeless middle aged men had I not placed a tremendous amount of energy 15 years ago learning to make money online. After watching stupid people vote against their own self interest for 4 decades I have had enough. If they are so stupid to desire an authoritarian government who rules over them, but does not care for them, they get what they deserve. I watch them chant at their Trump rallies and they frighten me. Unfortunately I am not myopic enough to believe this will not have enormous negative consequences for our civil society. My entire goal in creating wealth has not served the purpose of luxurious consumption. My goal has been independent security. I've never married and no children. My greatest desire is to generate enough cash flow to afford my own health care and get out of here. As I age I see there are many places one may live besides America. Often they are cheaper and safer. When does the scorched earth policy begin to crush American? When do smart people stop coming and more of them begin to leave? I don't know and I do not plan to stick around and watch it happen.
6
McConnell can be considered the hero to the 1%, and a patron saint of the rich, conservative donors and corporations. The rest of the nation, he must think we deserve nothing more than servitude to his mean-spirited ideology. McConnell, is he Machiavelli re-incarnated? He surely understands power and hoarding of riches.
4
The most distressing, depressing position is most likely the truth: Democrats will lose the election, maybe partly due to messaging but also due to voter suppression and gerrymandering. Trump and his ilk will be reelected, and our Republic will be degraded in all aspects that were meant to ensure that majority rule wasn't the standard. The ideals of democracy, free press, truth, and equality, will all be shattered as the GOP and a blatant dictator stock the courts, change the law, and turn our nation into another plutocracy. When they get around to the purges, the "round ups", segregating undesirables and agitators, "enemies of the People", it will be too late. It will come to an end, yes, when the environmental catastrophes (that will be ignored) overwhelm even the resources of the dictatorship. I wish it weren't so, but we've seen it before, we know what we're seeing, yet those angry, adoring (mostly white) faces behind him at the rallies tell me that we're going to repeat history.
2
@Samuel Markes Despair and defeatism is not a viable strategy. And even if it is calculated to make you feel better, it won't.
1
The deficit is up because rocks fall into the ocean and a rising tide raises all costs.
1
The reason they did the tax cut first was so that they could claim a reason for the social security cut later. This was the plan all along. Remember Bernie getting on the House floor with his big sign in which Trump said “no cut in social security”? Anyone with a brain knew this was their devious plan all along.
It was sickening to hear Mitch McConnell speak about the 'difficulty' of cutting entitlements (earned entitlements) because these programs -Social Security, Medicare, Medicaid -
are so "popular." Popular, Mitch? They're "popular" because
the real majority of Americans need these programs in order to survive. They are "popular" the same way food and water are popular. Healthcare is "popular" too, the same as affordable housing and significant wage and salary increases are "popular."
McConnell's choice of words betrays his blindness.
The GOP doesn't know the definition of a true necessity.
1
Unfortunately, the answer to Krugman's closing question is, almost certainly, "yes."
https://madsociologistblog.com/2018/07/11/do-the-consequences-of-support...
The GOP is determined to take us back to the Roaring 20's, an era in which there was no social safety net. Very few of us alive today actually lived through those days, so I'm not sure how we can have nostalgia for an era we never experienced.
Let's just remember how the Roaring 20's ended: with a stock market crash and the Great Depression. Then remember what resulted from the economic collapse: Social Security!
Now fast forward to 2008 and the Great Recession. While it was a terrible downturn, programs like Social Security and unemployment insurance helped stabilize the country. Yes, deficits increased, but these programs prevented wholesale calamity like the Depression. And now the GOP wants to undo these programs because the deficits are increasing during an economic expansion because of their ill-developed tax bill. What happens at the next economic downturn?
Thank you for responding quickly and in detail. This is a paradigm shift and I think it is wonderful.
The 2016 Trump campaign was no less dishonest than this one. And it was the Democratic party who lost those elections. Has been there a better approach in the Democratic party? I, for one has seen it in a handful of states, however, as the Prof says: We’ll find out in less than three weeks.
1
Trump and his Republican enablers prefer corporate welfare (last year’s tax cuts) to our citizen’s welfare. Social Security and Medicare are two of our nation’s most successful programs that have for decades truly made a difference and helped keep millions out of poverty. Social Security can be easily fixed with a few minor changes and Medicare should be expanded as a single-payer health insurance program for all Americans. Expanded Medicare can be funded with the repeal of last year’s corporate tax cuts and prioritizing federal spending and cutting the deficit.
3
The deficit has gone up by 17 percent this year largely because corporate tax revenue has collapsed, and defense spending and interest payments on loans has risen. Companies had a pile of cash even before the 2017 tax cut. Cutting their taxes was a reckless and very poor government from trump and the gop. They are enriching the trumps, kushners and kochs’ with their loopholes and tax cuts, and worsening tax avoidance and even outright fraud by cutting irs funding. At this rate, china, japan and saudi arabia- the big foreign lenders are going to get rich and the standard of living will drop. When an individual owes a lot of debt and his debt and interest payments keep increasing, he has less and less to spend on food, clothes and medicines and gets poorer. His credit card lender gets richer. Foreigners are increasingly paying for US defense.
2
Please don't lay the blame on Trump,This always was and still is Paul Ryan's dream. Disregard what Mr. Ryan has told us about his "impoverished" childhood when facts indicate that Ryan Construction, a family owned company, is a very large road builder in the Midwest. Mr. Ryan believes that ALL programs that benefit the middle and lower classes should be abolished and greater monies should be be directed to corporate socialism.
3
If ever the Democrats had a keystone election issue this is it. Polls show that Americans across the political spectrum support Medicare and Social Security.
Polls also show the public was never too keen on these millionaires tax cuts. Many grudgingly went along on the promise that they would produce more jobs and increase wages. So far the tax cuts haven’t satisfied either of these concerns.
So why aren’t the Democrats screaming about this? They certainly railed about Russia Gate until it was beaten into our consciousness. This attack on social welfare is far more serious than a bunch of Facebook ads.
This is the defining moment for the Democratic Party. If they loose this fight there will be no more party.
3
Can we talk about the federal minimum wage that congress won't change? I'm concerned that small bonuses in Q1 this year and Amazon's $15/hr will end up as a win in the republican column this year and in 2020. I don't intend to change the topic, it is part of the scam too. Too many voters are convinced that minimum wage increased go directly and 100% to consumer costs and have no understanding of the overall benefit to the economy as a whole. It was originally part of the "raises all boats" mentality that 1980s republicans used to taut. But now it seems they are allowing corporations to set wages for the nation.
Mr. Krugman, wondering about the ability to cite GDP growth figures as a positive when those figures reflect economic activity on one side of our bifurcated economic streams, the investor economy and the Main St. economy. If investment in "plant and capital improvements" leads to reduction in corporate labor costs (automation and IT eliminating jobs), to the purchase and flipping/rental of distressed properties narrowing the opportunity for working class people to build wealth, can this year's "growth" lead to further stress on Main St?
My concern is a great lie that squats in the middle of our debates: that there is such a thing as mainstream media.
The wealthy are aligned in practical lockstep with the GOP, and pour vast sums of money into media of all types, and are legislating to create de facto monopolies in print and terrestrial TV.
As long as my friends in the Midwest are being lied to all day, it doesn't matter what the truth is.
8
One thing not suggested in the article outright is that part of the strategy and perceived benefits of the tax scam passed was the actual planning of increased federal deficits to create an excuse to cut social security and medicare which has been the mantra of the Republicans since at least since the Tea Party takeover.
3
Dr Krugman -
The fundamental question facing our democracy is, How do we revive the concept of objective truth in a polity that has abandoned it? If half the country will believe every lie coming out their leaders' mouths - in the face of all evidence - how do you persuade them of anything? I have no expectation that your responses to your critics in this forum alone will have any impact on their beliefs. If the Fox News pundit is a more credible source of truth than a Nobel Prize-winning economist - on a question of ECONOMICS! - what is the basis for a discussion?
4
@Bryan Young: We will know the US has begun to recover when it adopts the Metric system of measurement units and drops the ludicrous conceit that it is "under God".
So true and so frustrating. The fact that I cannot get through to my own sister who watches Fox all the time and yet always says that she looks at all the news is devastating to me. I love my sister but we barely speak these days. She also finishes giving a political argument that's fresh off of Fox by saying that she is not political.
I would write editorials for my local paper but they have also leaned to the right and usually will not publish my offerings. When I see Republican ads which accuse Democrats of planning to get rid of Medicare by forcing everyone into unresponsive single payer health care I have no way to counter this lie that contains a kernel of truth.
How a party that voted to overturn the ACA 60 times is selling itself as the defender of health care is beyond me. They are also claiming that representatives who voted with Trump 90% of the time are bipartisan. The only people who listen to me if I mention this are people who already agree with me. My district will probably be sending the same representative back to the House who would never even hold a Town Hall meeting that wasn't carefully engineered to exclude the opposition (or in other words his constituents who did not vote for him).
5
So, we vote for a government controlled by Democrats and get an endless sales pitch for another Grand Bargain™? Democrats could win every election from here to eternity if only they would offer an actual alternative. But they don't, they offer slightly watered down Republican policies since their funders and the Republicans are almost all the same.
2
When the Republicans talk about cutting entitlements they always leave out military spending. They never talk about cutting military pensions which is one of the biggest entitlement expenditures, persons who are eligible can start collecting at age 37. As sure as the sun will rise tomorrow, when the Republicans explode the deficit they want to attack Social Security, Medicaid, and Medicare, it's the oldest game in their play book.
4
I would only add that when you look at annual change in real federal deficit and/or on a per capita basis over the post-war period since Ike, deficit growth over GOP tenures far exceeds the Dems. The GOP has been the party of deficits for a very long time.
6
Actually, the Democrat's lack of an economic message, including healthcare, is baffling. Republicans claim that Democrats will raise taxes and Democrats have no response. How about running hard on tax "fairness?" No tax rate increases but everyone pays them without loopholes. No more carried interest loophole. No more preferential treatment of capital gains. And charge Social Security and Medicare on every nickel earned up to infinity. Then take all of that new money, except Social Security and Medicare, and put it in an infrastructure bank to be spent rebuilding this country. Be bold for a change.
1381
@David Johnson
I may not agree with the policies but that is a whole lot better than what they are doing know. As a Republican I hope they don't take your advice!
1
@David Johnson
I'm afraid, barring a complete change in leadership, what we will find baffling when Democrats completely take over again, is how little will be reversed, a la making the Bush tax cuts permanent.
They've dropped hints all along these past two years. It's in the things they've neglected to oppose vociferously, as much as it is in the number of things they've voted for, along with the GOP majority. (The recent spending bill is one big one).
https://www.rimaregas.com/2018/05/31/in-trumpian-times-a-mighty-strange-...
1
Too many people still believe that Republicans are the party of fiscal responsiblity. This has been equated to tax cutting. Democrats need to separate these two. Refusing to raise enough money to fund prior commitments is irresponsible. If I qualify to buy a house with a $4,000 per month mortgage and then decide to reduce my work so that I only have enough to pay $3,000, that is irresponsible; my house will be foreclosed, I will be homeless and my credit rating will be ruined. Democrats need to find a good label for Republican irresponsibility and repeat it ad nauseum, just as Republicans label Democrats as "tax and spend".
473
The Republicans have claimed a desire to "Privatize" Social Security. What that means is to further enrich the rich individuals and Corporations by routing those hundreds of Billions of dollars through their entities
Tax cuts, Privatizing massive funds, enriching them further through Deregulation.
America; "It Takes a Pillage".
22
@Shakinspear
As much as "privatizing" social security sounds like a scary thing, when Republicans suggested it years ago, it would have been wildly successful. The stock market has more then doubles since then. Heck, the Nasdaq is up over 50% since Trump was elected.
@Sports Medicine
You're obviously a gambler who doesn't know the odds. Let me ask you; what do millions of seniors do for money if the stock market inevitably collapses?
Do you profit from investment services?
@Sports Medicine
And the price of crude oil is up 230 percent since Trump's campaign in 2016.
Instead of cutting Medicare, we need Medicare-For-All. Why? Not just because it will provide good health care for all our citizens, but because it will save at least 1/2 Trillion dollars annually.
Google "Fix It," a businessman's perspective on Medicare-For-All.
10
Howard Dean, where are you?
9
I would like to see an article on Social Security alone. Most Americans do not know that payroll is taxed on salary up to the first $117,000.00 to support SS. No taxes are paid on anything above the $117,000.00. WE CAN EASILY ADJUST this amount to collect more taxes for Social Security. We could increase the taxable amount to $150,000.00 or some other amount to keep Social Security funded. There is no sensible reason why this amount should not increase regularly in small increments to cover Social Security needs.
40
@Bridget Bohacz
And if the GOP since the time of Saint Ronnie hadn't been writing worthless IOUs to the SS trust fund to pay for other things (usually military related) that they didn't want to raise taxes to properly pay for, we wouldn't even need to do what you propose.
(This goes back to Al Gore's wise, though oft mocked, 'Lock box' idea, btw..)
I wake up at night and wonder can McConnell be the most despicable person in government?
34
Dont worry, he is indeed.
And McConnell’s secret is that he doesn’t care. He has never sought to be seen as a “good” or “honest” person—just as a winning politician for his crooked party.
@Mark Shyres No, he isn't, but he comes close, maybe second. The monster in the White House is obviously the most despicable by far.
3 words: 18 more days
7
Whenever any republican spouts they’re conservative, I tell them “ only the con part “. Then laugh my behind off when they bring up the deficit with a straight face. Every time a republican is President they run up our deficit and democrats end up having to clean up their recessions like the 2008 recession that was too close to a near depression ! Social Security, Medicare, and Medicaid are the only safety nets keeping the majority of the elderly and handicapped Americans from becoming destitute and dying needlessly but then the republican politicians enriched themselves with insider trading while in office ... they don’t have to worry. Plus, they have lifetime taxpayer paid healthcare for themselves and their family so, they don’t give a rat’s patootie about everyday Americans! The republicans are not serving us, they’re there to enrich themselves and their Koch brothers.
21
You can not be too cynical when it comes to Republicans.
That's a nice way of saying that if you think you are being too cynical, you are a useful fool for them. There is no bottom.
16
Ah, hypocrisy
No matter how hard they try,
A lie is a lie
12
how prescient was our sage george orwell. freedom is slavery, ignorance is strength, war is peace and the fourth rule. which i'm kind of surprised he did not state: lies are truth. i doubt george missed that one given that he observed, from a front row seat, the greatest propaganda machines of that (and maybe all) time in action during the rise of the nazis and the bolsheviks. george should have given more credit to old p. t. and condensed his line about the impossibility of overestimating the stupidity of the public, how about: sheeple are lemmings. and how could george have shortened: short term decision making assures long term failure. we all know which party's leadership, billionaire backers and sheeple would be disappeared if hypocrisy, cognitive dissonance, mendacity, callousness, greed, pig headedness and willful stupidity were fatal. and i know george respected mark twain's observation that it is hard to get a man to see truth when his paycheck is dependent on not seeing it. or how about these:sheeple (voters) forget. outrage attenuates. inconceivability is standard (normal,common, acceptable) surprise (at trump's doings) is naivete. and here's my orwellian for us dems: TRUMP IS GOOD (except for the federal judiciary). how can i say that you ask? trump has stripped off the repub sheeple voters from the billionaire backed leadership, many repub senators and congressmen are leaving and he will singlehandedly assure a democratic congress senate presidency.
6
@wfcollins Yes, but even Orwell would gape at the transformation of the word "liberal" into an epithet by psychopaths. Liberals liberate.
1
They will win if Democrats do not challenge them and repeat ad infinitum that the Republicans have given your money again, that their deficit will cost you money, that their aim is to undermine SS and Medicare. Repeat this time and again, the way they repeat their lying mantras.
11
Yes, Republicans are running on lies at this point, but have they been winning because voters really believe them? We know that many Republicans vote on racism and other social issues, but that has been true for a long time. Is it true, as Krugman continually claims, that economic issues are of no importance? Is there no discontent from the still-increasing inequality and wage stagnation? Remember that the basic Republican strategy for the last 50 years has been to divert any economic complaints to racism or other social issues (like abortion). Aside from any who may have put some faith in Trump's "populistic" lies on economic matters, how many people just do not vote because they do not see either party as really representing their economic interests?
Will it be sufficient for Democrats to run on the dishonesty and other characteristics of the Trump administration and Republican Congress, or should they have a real positive economic message? Even if running against Trump works in 2018 and 2020, other smarter rightist demagogues may arise who can get support on economic issues.
7
How do they get away with it? The answer is pretty clear. They get away with it by providing their base with something much more valuable then decent healthcare, clean air and water, and the chance to make a good living. They enrage people like you.
4
And when did enraging Liberals become more important than good governance? When deplorable adult children became enamored of a bully who lies to them.
Political journalists should start carrying bibles and ask politicians to swear on a bible that they believe what they just said. As a god fearing country we should have done this a long time.
2
Tax cuts for plutocrats buy us nothing more than more political vandals making the US political scene more infantile every day.
6
We don't have to wait three weeks. A campaign this dishonest actually won in 2016. Unfortunately, the proud Deplorables will never get that their victory is Pyrrhic. They are celebrating the confirmation of Brett Kavanaugh because they see it as the death knell for reproductive rights. What they don't get is that it also locks in the country's current economic path that keeps the rich rich, the poor poor, and the struggling working class the struggling working class for the rest of their lives and their kids lives. But, hey, it's all worth it as long as a struggling single mom in Texas doesn't have access to birth control and a rape victim in South Dakota can't get an abortion.
21
Ask your elected representative why we have to pay twice for SS? We pay the withholding, that money is put into government securities which’s used to fund government activities then it must be paid back with interest!. This is insane!! Put SS funds into mortgages or some other use that pays the fund but not one that requires th US Givernment to pay it back. Of course this would require our elected representatives to increase taxes not cut SS.
2
Cynical is the wrong word. Criminal is the right word.
15
The lack of analysis in the mainstream media reporting is apalling. Trump or the gop could say ‘so and so in the media is an idiot’ and ‘so and so’ just reports it, GOP congress members voted against the affordable care act to the last man and woman.They also voted to repeal it in 2017 to the last member. It was the same in 1993 and 1994 when they opposed health care reform. There has been no bold and major solution from the GOP for decades, or maybe ever. The idea of universal health care coverage, and the bold initiatives in the area have all come from democrats- including coverage for pre-existing conditions. The 2017 gop tax cut was a huge giveaway to ultrawealthy gop donors and has only hurt the average american. The GOP knew they were causing the deficit to rise by 1 or 2 trillion. They have nothing to sell now other than racism and xenophobia. Their supporters, especially the poorer ones face massive cuts to medicare and social security. like the farmers hit by tariffs, they are going to suffer immensely. It is coming.
8
The average person surely would have to admit that today's Republicans will go down in history as some of the most dedicated liars the world has ever known.
8
Yeah, no. The average person has proven time and again that they can’t be bothered. It’s all so boring and their vote doesn’t matter anyway.
THAT is how most people think. Until Dems finally internalize this, they will always be at a disadvantage. Stop thinking there is any reason there to appeal to. Please.
Depressing. But those who don't see what's happening as clearly as Paul Krugman probably aren't reading the NYT.
How to get them the message? If they don't get it soon, it will be as "too late" for them as it will be for the rest of us.
7
@Sachi G people who are suddenly faced with a health crisis realize that they have nothing other than ACA (aka Obamacare). The enrollment window will be reduced to a few hours on a Sunday this year. Trump & Repubs have no healthcare plan to replace it. You are on your own when ACA expires.
1
When Hannah Arendt covered the Eichmann trial she did so as a German Jewish philosopher and our community was outraged when she talked about the banality of evil. I watched today as Steve Schmidt a Republican operative did his Hannah Arendt.
Schmidt did what people like myself could never do and that is bring attention to the banality of evil. For me and so many like me, men like Lindsey Graham , Franklin Graham, Orin Hatch, Chuck Grassley, Pat Robertson and Mitch McConnell were always the worst of us. They were vile and contemptible without many redeemable qualities but it took a Republican to reveal the outrage of the banality of evil.
No matter what Paul Krugman writes, to the GOP he is the other and it matters not that he is one of the people who have made the USA the wealthiest most powerful nation on this planet.
I am a Canadian Jew and as such I grew grew up loving America and loving Jesus not as a Messiah or a demi God but as a wiser more compassionate and more understanding older brother. I know my Old and New testament and know the loudest voices extolling their Christianity are not Christian. I knew that men like Ted Cruz care little for the constitution and little for the government of We the People they have little understanding of liberty and justice for all. They are as banal as the Crusaders that travelled down the Rhine destroying the Jewish villages that had been there before there were Germans.
We need Steve Schmidt he has seen the banality of evil.
15
@Montreal Moe: Nobody who believes that nature has an emotional personality that feels for humanity can be trusted to stick to hard establishments of science when formulating public policy.
@Steve Bolger
Steve, I do not believe in the God of the Abrahamic religions and like so many of the founders I believe the Creator must adhere to the laws of the universe and there are no miracles.
Jefferson was a scientist as was Franklin that is why you were on the search for a more perfect union not a perfect union.
I am having a problem understanding what you say , I live in Quebec where 80% of us are nonbelievers and we are working towards an equilibrium that makes life as joyous as possible for as many as possible.
We are at war with the symbols and idols that give credence to supernatural interference in our past , present or future.
Today one of our leading philosophers is taking issue with our desire to make the wearing of any religious symbols illegal in the public sphere. It is a debate worthy of our finest minds.
I am reminded of the greatest debater of the early 18th century Jonathan Swift who would not debate unless he could argue successfully both sides of the debate.
I am 70 and first voted when I was 18 and I supported Charles Taylor who was running as a Democratic Socialist. I respect Dr Taylor who is the son of Canada's richest man even as he is a devout Catholic and a socialist, at 86 he is well worth listening to even for those of us who may be upset with religion's darkest legacies.
Your absence of a national politic and your country's most popular religion scare the beejeezus out of me.
Are MAGA hats a religious symbol identifying me as the other?
Of course they can. Vote.
1
Has there ever been a bigger group of hypocrites and liars in the history of the human race, than American Republicans? As someone who has studied history for about 15 years, I'm hard pressed to find one.
10
It's been true for decades that if you want to know what the Republicans are doing, just listen to what they're accusing the Democrats of doing. "Voter fraud!" "Rigged election!" (See today's Editorial Board piece on voter registration.) Two weeks ago it was Lindsay Graham's spittle-flying "You want power!!" This week it's "Democrats want to destroy Medicare!" What's next? "Democrats hate immigrants?"
7
I can’t figure out who is worse for the country, McConnel or Trump. The Democrats need to adopt the Trump slogan , Make America Great Again and vote Democrat.
8
@DSS Make America Progress Again.
1
@DSS that slogan (MAGA, MAWA) is now permanently tainted. How about changing the Democratic Party's name to the Human Decency Party?
1
McConnell is the worst—he is well aware of the harm he is doing.
1
Meanwhile, Fox "News" fans tune in to Hannity every night and say: "Garbage, give me more garbage. Give me alternative facts."
Also, Trump's vapid vanity rallies are as popular as ever.
America is in real danger of intellectual suicide.
12
Medicare is "unsustainable". Of course, it is true. But, so is the DOD. You have to pay for things. The Republicans are famous for buying stuff, then refusing to pay for it afterward. The only skill they have is scamming there white and old base into confusing the arsonists with the firemen.
8
The frog soup is almost at full boil now. Nullifying the midterms because of “tampering” is the last step into dictatorship.
10
Makes me think of Obama's State of the Union speech several years back, when a Republican congressman yelled out, "You lie!". Look who's lying now!
3
I rarely read Mr. Krugman, not because I don't like him, but because he is always so depressingly right.
8
Dr. Krugman, “truth is not the truth” in the Trumpian era – which makes it so much easier for Mitch McConnell, Paul Ryan, Mick Mulvaney, Dean Heller, Josh Hawley, Ted Cruz, et al. to spout any nonsense, including lies and falsehoods. Their predictions have literally made economics a dismal science because their numbers never add up.
The sad part is that the GOP “base” pays more for their policy skullduggery and fiscal malfeasance than it ever reaps – but yet it never seems to learn. Fool me once (Reagan), fool me twice (Bush), fool me thrice (Trump) – just doesn’t seem to wear out – shame is not what it used to be. Yes, “We’ll find out in less than three weeks,” if at least the rest of us deserve better.
10
The US government is in the hands of a first-class (branded) con-man. His 'party' exists only to shovel yet more welath toward the rich. Destroy the country? What could that possibly matter when the goal is to enrich the Koch brothers?
Why on Earth does anyone in the US expect a different result?
7
The sad fact of the matter is that stupid people get to vote, and Republicans and FOX News have done a great job of convincing those stupid people to vote against their best interests.
6
At this point if you vote for republicans you deserve that harm you voted for. Farmers? No market for those soybeans, low income? No Safety net, sick and ill? No healthcare for you. I’m sick of propping up the stupid people with my tax money and sick of coddling their abhorrent behavior. I am not one of the “nice, tolerant” democrats, y’all made sure to ruin that also. Everything republicans touch dies, and so shall you with your voting for them. Good riddance.
10
The Ruspublican double speak and spin remind me of a young girl in a bed spewing venomous fluids and vile threats while her head spins. Unfortunately the necessary exorcism will not be done by a religious deacon, the religious think this is appropriate behavior, no this exorcism will have to be done by the people by voting November 6th.
8
And the beat goes on!
2
41 ‘Depart from me, you who are cursed, into the eternal fire prepared for the devil and his angels.
42 For I was hungry and you gave me nothing to eat, I was thirsty and you gave me nothing to drink,
43 I was a stranger and you did not invite me in, I needed clothes and you did not clothe me, I was sick and in prison and you did not look after me.’
44 “They also will answer, ‘Lord, when did we see you hungry or thirsty or a stranger or needing clothes or sick or in prison, and did not help you?’
45 “He will reply, ‘Truly I tell you, whatever you did not do for one of the least of these, you did not do for me.’
46 “Then they will go away to eternal punishment...
Matthew 25:41-46
It seems to me that eternity is an unimaginably long time for punishment. The better alternative is choosing love of others and eternal life that will follow.
Love of neighbor like God commands or support of evil; which will it be? That's the choice at hand...
2
All along, starting with Reagan (actually Nixon, with Ford and Carter in between) the GOP started its long gross slide into pure fascism. Fascism slips in like a ghost. Here we are, in 2018, with a fully fascist leadership directed by le clowne orange.
A Key element of fascism is the twisting and elimination of truth. In a way religious people may actually more prone to the fascist impulse.
Its quite sad but true. The fascist leader, of course, is almost always a sociopath, potentially a psychopath, and certainly not a person of faith. People of faith, however, can often be easily manipulated by a conman. Witness the evangelical preachers, or the genocidal imams or even a far right rabbi here and there.
Worse yet, the fascist leader is often not the preacher. When a democracy collapses it can often be the last elected leader. Like Trump. A conman, a grifter, a sociopath, a pathological liar and potentially a psychopath. And loved by the evangelicals.
6
Krugman writes:"cut taxes on the rich, then use the resulting deficits as an excuse to hack away at the safety net — has been G.O.P. strategy for decades". A perfect description of what is happening in many EU countries. G.O.P is not alone..
5
The Congress didn’t pay for the Iraq War—we’re still running up the bills for Afghanistan. They ignored these when they passed “tax reform” and it was only after the likes of Trump lined their pockets that they start wailing about deficits. Of course the cuts will come from social programs—where else? These are the free-loaders who are dependent on the federal gov’t. Such dependence, everyone knows, must be broken.
By the way, does the general public know what Trump’s weekly vacations to Florida and his barnstorming for Republican candidates cost the taxpayer? We know this is just a tiny entry in the budget, but shouldn’t the Esteemed Leader be setting an example of thrift, since he’s asking cuts from federal agencies and backing cuts in social services? Look up the cost of his use of Air Force One (leaving aside security, etc.) It’s an eye-opener. I, for one, think his barnstorming should come out of Republican coffers. The Kochs and other wealthy donors would be honored to help, I’m sure. Otherwise, Democrats are contributing to Republican candidates. As Trump would say, “Terribly unfair!”
10
Yes a campaign like this can actually win. Haven’t you heard the polls are tightening? McConnell is a lot of things, but dumb isn’t one of them. He always knew how to manipulate the narrative and Trump’s win has emboldened him with the proof that voters are more gullible and apathetic than even he imagined. Remember the Tea Party chants of ‘Get the government out of my Medicare?’
McConnell knows the EC and the undemocratic Senate allow for minority rule indefinitely and all he has to do is keep the Republican Kool Aid flowing. Democrats are about to win and it’s time to crank up the blaming rhetoric. Why wait for January? Plant the seeds of doom and blame now and we are off the races before the new Congress is even sworn in. He has 2020 to think about. Economy is going to slow down. Blame the New Democratic House! People will not remember whose policies are responsible. He proved that in 2009 and 2010. Go look at Obama’s approval ratings from that time. Remember the shellacking. McConnell used a worldwide financial crisis to win a political battle.
As for Heller, Cruz and Hawley - again - never underestimate the stupidity or laziness of the American electorate AND media. Beto called out Cruz for lying and the media focused not on Cruz’ lies, but speculation on why Beto changed his tone and what are his chances in 2020 for a presidential run since he can’t win deep red Texas.
Yep - Dr. Krugman always depresses me because he is right.
Krugman ends his column positing the following question: Can a campaign this dishonest actually win? Based on my observations of an admittedly small population sample here in rural Texas I believe the answer is a resounding yes. Why do I say this? Because one need only hear recipients of free food at the local food bank and those taking advantage of the local church soup kitchen extolling the virtues of GOP candidates as moral paragons intent on protecting the unborn and the Second Amendment and keeping illegals behind the “Wall.” Or listen to my husband’s relatives praising Trump for a tax cut they themselves are not enjoying and bad mouthing Democrats because they want open borders, are intent on destroying Medicare to give it to illegals or “those lazy people” wanting free stuff from the government, and disrespect the flag and our soldiers by taking a knee during the national anthem at NFL games, never mind that when the anthem is played they themselves either run to the bathroom or to the kitchen to fetch another beer, which are surely ways to honor said flag and soldiers.
So yes, the GOP can certainly win big in the upcoming midterms because they have mastered the way to distract gullible voters with shiny objects and giving them scapegoats to blame for their problems.
13
@CEA
Yep, exactly, boobus americanus is live and well. Had some blue collar jerk in my neighborhood extolling Trump for the trade wars and for the 'great' tax cut. I pointed out to him that he was going to get slammed on property tax and state taxes, not being able to deduct them, and his response was "Well, then the town and state should cut taxes too", then of course he would wonder why the schools have 50 kids in a class,why roads stink, etc, etc *sigh*. Actually, his first words were "but I am seeing 30 bucks more a week in my paycheck"......
Entitlement programs don’t need to be slashed, but they certainly need to be cut.
Paying these massive amounts of unemployment out when we have record-setting low unemployment is absolutely obscene. Anyone who can string a sentence together can find a job nowadays .
There’s lots of sad to be cut, the government needs to get with the program and make sure that it does so
@Crossing Overhead
I hate to burst your bubble, but unemployment is not a federal program, unemployment benefits are a state program, the federal government doesn't pay for it, benefits are set for the state. At times the federal government has made funds available to states to extend benefits, but that isn't true these days. As far as anyone who can string a sentence together can get a job, that is confusing the unemployment rate with a healthy job market. A lot of those jobs that have come about, according to employment data, are not well paying jobs, most of them are at or below minimum wage.....
More importantly, though, the entitlements we are talking about are not unemployment or welfare spending, the classic dodge of the GOP and the working class idiots who support them. The entitlements they are talking about are SS and Medicare, they are real issues in the budget. The other area is defense spending and rationalizing it, we are spending 800 billion a year on defense, and a lot of that is for large scale weapons systems that are basically jobs programs, rather than for immediate needs. Programs like the F35 fighter, that is a costly white elephant (billion dollars a piece), or other cold war like programs. We spend more than the rest of the world combined, and that needs looking at..but then again, defense contractors generally are in red states and red areas, so not going to be likely to be trimmed or rationalized.
1
Including the remainder of today, we have 18 days until Election Day dawns. The dire prospects Dr. Krugman warns of have a very high likelihood of moving from being a matter of concern for, oh, 70% and more of the population, into the realm of reality. Trump is exactly the leader the Republicans have been praying for since the 1960's: Dumb as a rock; meaner than a water moccasin; absolutely devoid of any form of morality. And this is the party of God.
God's Own Party will gleefully bankrupt the elderly, snatch children from their parents and cage them like zoo animals, turn its collective back on the plight of newborns it forced to be born, washing its hands of any responsibility for the welfare of a child born to an indigent mother (who may herself be but a child) as a result of the laws it created; all the while lavishing the obscenely wealthy with even more obscene tax cuts, paid for by the elderly whose Social Security and Medicare are reduced as "too generous for society (i.e. the rich) to bear."
This approaching election may be the last for the United States. If Trump, McConnell & Co. retain full control of all three branches of government, their machinations will render the next election a joke of Russian proportions. And that only if they deign to allow a follow up election.
"I knew Donald Trump and his allies would be dishonest, but I didn’t expect the lies to be as baldfaced as they are."
They're not even lies, in the usual meaning of that word. Lies are meant to deceive or obscure, to claim that things aren't what they seem to be.
But Republican lies show complete indifference to facts. Think of Trump's claim that the crowds at his inaugural were bigger than at Obama's inaugural. He knew that everyone could see the truth, but that didn't even slow him down.
As Chico Marx said, "Who you gonna believe, me or your own eyes?"
1
I would think that the Democrats could do a much better job of laying bare the incredible dishonesty of the GOP. Perhaps I'm missing it but I don't see the Democrats hammering away at this the way, say, the GOP would were the shoe on the other foot.
3
@WhiskeyJack
Unfortunately, the one thing the GOP gets rights is that the Democrats are inept. Democrats are in the dream world of what I call the Obama universe, where they believe the answer is for the Democrats to play nice, not 'reduce ourselves to the level of the opposition' (almost direct quote of Michelle Obama), that if you are nice to the GOP, they will respect it....when the real answer is what Eric Holder said recently, the Democrats have to get down and dirty. If Trump has proved one thing, it is that the American people don't respect civility or propriety, The people that the Democrats need to attract love a good fight. I agree with another poster, they should have all kinds of media with the simple statement "The GOP are liars" or some such.
At least in my local elections, they seem to be picking that up. Some of the PAC ads are interesting, one of them characterizes the GOP house candidate as a caveman because he is anti abortion, pro guns, pro the Trump Tax cut, and also despite claiming to support Medicare, wants to make it a voucher program.
"McConnell blames “entitlements” (that is, Medicare and Social Security) for deficits, and declares (falsely) that Medicare in particular is “unsustainable”.
It is beyond belief that Americans keep swallowing this utter rubbish peddled by McConnell and his GOP cronies. The US is one of the only developed nations without a free healthcare system, yet you pay far more of your GDP for far fewer services. Just look at the UK, Canada, NZ, Australia, France, Germany for goodness sake. It is tragic to read about all the Americans who can't access health cover for pre-existing conditions, whose families are pushed into crippling debt to pay for the medical bills for crippling conditions which impact so many lives. The US has the highest maternal and neonatal mortality rate of any developed nation - how truly awful.
2
the republicans are lying because they can get away with it. they don't pay a price for it. they keep stretching the bounds to see how far they can lie. they don't pay a price in the polls, in elections, so they keep doing it. the problem is a sizable portion of the citizenry doesn't care or is too ill informed. #sad
Mr. Krugman, Bravo! Great column. I have been calling this Bizarro World since trump walked in. Up is down, black is white, greed is all. The total contempt for the non-rich is the one thing I cannot understand. It's like rich people want to make it so there is no middle class, and those that aren't rich have no health care, no social security, no hope.
The biggest anomaly that sticks out like an elepant's trunk is the non-rich right wing buys the party line, when they in fact will suffer as much as the middle of the roaders and the left. Everyone will suffer as a result of these policies, EXCEPT the RICH. EVERYONE.
Pre-existing conditions? Tough. Gut it out. No income in your senior years? Better have kids that care about you. These GOP henchmen don't give a hoot about ALL of US. They just want their power and their money and to eliminate all restrictions on themselves.
AMERICA! Wake Up! The GOP DOESN"T CARE ABOUT YOU!
10
You could say well now at least the lying is baldfaced. That might or surely would be because the 40% of us have shown that the facts do not matter, it's what tribe you belong to, not about this country as a whole or even our pocketbook or benefits but whether you are Republican (now Trump's party) or Democrat.That the lies are more blatant and noticeable, and the fact that we are so divided means even those slow to notice can hear it. When McConnell starts talking about entitlements (including social security that working people pay into) and Medicare ( that old people rely on) he is taking a gamble that perhaps he feels he can win. I doubt it. We will see.
4
Hopefully, you didn’t also think that Trump would win. We have not yet gotten to the pain point for these folks.
Dems had a golden opportunity in 2008 to really show up for “ordinary” Americans. Instead Obama, Pelosi, Reid, Geitner, etc. decided it was more important to save Wall Street than Main St. Has not worked out so well for Dems since. They could have done both, but in cowardly fashion, Geitner and Obama, claim they could not because of lack of Repub support. Then we get the blighted, racist Tea Party. Yeah, great job.
I have no confidence that the same Dem “leadership” has learned anything from that situation and still spend too much time trying to get the media to say nice things about them and trying to appeal to logic and people’s better angels that don’t exist.
They need to pay more attention to the body of work that explains why Dems need to stop chasing Repub voters and concentrate on their own disaffected voters and a handful of so-called moderates/ independents.
I am sick of seeing Dem leadership bend over for Repubs. SICK!!!
Not long ago, you may remember we had a discussion in one of these comments sections about the ineptitude of Democratic messaging, and I suggested that "REPUBLICANS LIE"--a simple, two-word message designed for the masses--be emblazoned on billboards, bumper stickers, T-shirts, etc.
While some of that has come to pass, it's certainly true is doesn't have the impact of the press honestly labeling Republican lies on a regular basis.
I'm not so blinkered as to think that Democrats don't lie from time to time, too. But the false equivalence the media allows the Republicans to get away with, as Krugman alludes to, is one of the biggest obstacles to an actual discussion of actual issues.
C'mon, press people. It's easy. Deep breath. Say, "Republicans lied today about . . .(fill in claim here, and there are plenty to choose from)". I bet you'll even feel better once you've done it.
6
My goodness, talk about depending on the low info voter. History proves Krugman very very wrong. The Bush tax cuts resulted in lower and lower deficits, not higher. After those tax cuts were passed in 2001, deficits peaked in 2004, at 413 billion. The 2005 deficit was 318 billion, 248 billion for 2006, then an incredulous 161 billion in fiscal 2007. The drop in deficits did not happen immediately after the tax cut. It takes time for business to invest that money and the fruits of those investments to show up in actual business. Democrats took over both Houses in the 2006 elections, and proceeded to explode spending, with zero votes from Republicans. Where was Krugman denouncing Obama's first 4 years that resulted in deficits of over 1.3 Trillion, with a "T" for each year? Arguing that deficits didnt matter. Look it up. Its all there. Oh, and google NYTimes Bush deficits. Theres a handy article there from 2005 illustrating how Alan Greenspan attributed the drop in deficits to a surge in economic activity - that occured as a direct result of the Bush tax cuts. Read folks, it cures liberal ignorance.
1
@Sports Medicine
Of course why bother with facts, when you can make up Fox talking points. Yes, Democrats took over both houses of congress in 2006, that is true, but you leave out some 'interesting' facts. First of all, Bush and co pulled a fast one with the costs of the afghanistan war, a lot of those costs were done outside the budget as 'emergency spending' and were accounted for in later budgets, increasing the deficits.
More importantly, you leave out the obvious, that the first fiscal year where you can argue the budget was 'democratic' (though interesting, if it was the Democrats fault, if no republicans 'voted for the budget', how come Bush didn't veto it? If no GOP voted for it, then it would be impossible to override the budget)..what you leave out of course is the economy cratering and that those huge deficits were caused by that cratering. the 2008 deficits were because of the bailouts that Bush and Paulson came up with, like 800 billion dollars, and in succeeding years it was fiscal stimulous programs. The GOP took over in 2010, and yet in following years the debt soared, they had both houses of congress, so how come they soared?
Put it this way, in its 40 year history, supply side economics has failed, because the reality is the tax cuts don't pay for themselves, and more importantly, a lot of people depend on the government who claim they don't (most red states, old people), and it would be political suicide to slash spending to make up for the losses.
4
"Republicans have concluded that they can’t win an argument on the issues, but rather than changing their policies, they’re squirting out clouds of ink and hoping voters won’t figure out where they really stand."
Further, if that doesn't work, than fear mongering about "angry mobs" (trumpeted in front of angry Trump mobs) and widespread voter suppression will!!
2
I realize the Federal Budget is not the same as my household budget. That said, when I have found myself in a shortfall, I needed to spend less or earn more.
The shameless self-dealing of the Republicans is most evident by a perpetual inability to even consider earning more, i.e. raising taxes, as a possible contribution to a budget shortfall, especially one they created in the first place.
Once assets cross the threshold of the rich, the Republicans treat it as totally out of bounds, spinning fictions like "Death Tax" for the estate tax and "Trickle Down" for the benefits of giving away our potential wealth to their personal benefactors.
We can do better and, voters willing in a few weeks, we shall.
8
Stabilization of SSA and the Medi-pogroms is in order.. Cuts are not the solution... 5% across the board budget cuts
and vastly improved Government purchasing should arrest the
ballooning deficit .. or at least start the slowing
So, the Republicans cut taxes for corporations and the rich, and now ballooning deficits bring calls to cut entitlement spending. This is not news -- it is a broken record.
Anyone who thinks for a moment to vote Republican in this, or any, election should ponder the McConnell model for the US. Just look at his home state, Kentucky: soaring poverty and opioid addiction, pollution, and political corruption to stop the band. This is the southern political tradition he has followed. And since the voters of that forlorned state have reward his deceit for decades McConnell pushes back every prospect of progress all on those terrible fronts. Despicable Mitch for America.
This column should be not just read but broadcast, with the emphasis on McConnell's statement about cuts coming due to the infamous "tax cut" surprised Krugman as they came before the midterms. But who reads this? Those by and large who know or support Krugman's view and the bleak recognition that all this and the rest is dishonest from the Republicans' campaign. And while the Ford/Kavanaugh debacle outraged women, these points are gender neutral and should be supported by men and women.
7
Great column. Republicans are now completely in the Fox bubble and never come out. I ought to know I live in a red state.
1
Mr. Krugman,
A party that is this dishonest will keep their supporters in line because the republican mantra is "ignorance is strength." The greatest accomplishment of the republicans is to convince their supporters that they can't trust the "main stream media." In other words, only listen to the party propaganda outlets.
3
"Can a campaign this dishonest actually win? We’ll find out in less than three weeks."
Actually, that question was answered on November 8, 2016.
3
Economic policy has now evolved to what makes a few people wealthy is good for Americans. This has evolved from the phrase “what is good for business is good for the country (Forbes Magazine). But this is a redirected version of the original state: Here’s what happened. In 1953, President Eisenhower nominated GM’s CEO Charles “Engine Charlie” Wilson to be Secretary of Defense. I’ll turn it over to Wikipedia:(Eddy Elfenbein quote)
During the hearings, when asked if as secretary of defense he could make a decision adverse to the interests of General Motors, Wilson answered affirmatively but added that he could not conceive of such a situation “because for years I thought what was good for the country was good for General Motors and vice versa.”
My thoughts: The economic health, the social health and value of this country is based not on a few of great wealth but on the vast majority of people and their ability to make a living wage, to enjoy a worthwhile life, to live without a worry of an impending health crisis and a world that will be livable tomorrow. Taxes are how we support our society and its economic stability.
Here's the ploy: "McConnell said it would be “very difficult to do entitlement reform, and we’re talking about Medicare, Social Security and Medicaid,” with one party in charge of Congress and the White House." In other words, if the Democrats regain the house and/or senate we will start cutting these programs. Fortunately, his ridiculous ploy seems to have fallen on deaf ears.
I'm waiting for a conservative Repiblican to try to find a way of sneaking George Soros' name in their fake argument about the deficit, and how to deal with it.
1
“Can a campaign this dishonest actually win?” Dr. Krugman, you betcha!
Donald Trump’s 2016 campaign was dishonest; who’s the current president?
Dwight Eisenhower, 1952 and 1856, didn’t have to run on white male resentment and entitlement; it was established cultural, social and political fact.
Richard Nixon’s the modern Republican father of the culture wars. The Kerner Commission report, which examined the raw,in-your-face disparities between white and black citizens, predicted that untold sums of money—paid into by taxation—would be required to repair the nation and region-wide breaches. Nixon warned Americans that, in essence, “they’re coming for you and yours.” This race-baiting has, since then, been not a plank but the cement and foundation of its political outreach (and appeal).
So it has come to pass that the Right has been mostly successful in painting Medicare, Social Security, Medicaid and SNAP as programs that only benefit the layabouts that are living off their hard-earned nine-to-fives. They know that Obamacare, which they were clever enough to solder to a black president, would strike harshly negative chords among people who would benefit from the catastrophic consequences of “pre-existing conditions.” But the Right also knew that by ginning up anger against black people, their subtle pleas about responsibility in terms of deficits would resonate with voters most susceptible to panic-mode issues.
We’ll know soon if it’s still a powerful, persuasive argument.
77
@Soxared, '04, '07, '13 The problem with what you say is that Hillary won in 2016, won the popular vote, and Nov. 6 is a popular vote election. Without the Electoral College, Hillary would have won.
@Soxared, '04, '07, '13, '18??
Go Sox!!
Trump and the Republicans despise government. They see it as a roadblock to their schemes and scams. But they have no qualms about taking taxpayer money for themselves. Now that they have run up the deficit their answer???? Let's attack the social safety net. Bunch of heartless cowards. Please vote them out real soon.
1
When truth is called a lie, when black becomes white, when corruption becomes acceptable, when character in leaders does not matter - well, anyone who's been around for a while knows things cannot continue that way. Something has to give, it always has and it always will. A crash is coming, you can feel it. The only mystery is the form it will take. And who will be in power when it comes. But, no doubt it is coming, probably sooner than later. The current situation is clearly unsustainable. This nation is completely off the rails.
6
Why am I not surprised. Every economist worth his salt -- not the pinheads advising Trump of course -- predicted the tax cut would cause a massive increase in the deficit. The only surprise here is that McConnell et al seem to forget that the last time a president tried to mess with Social Security, Dubya's privatization plan fell flat on its face and Republicans had to run for cover.
3
Deficits were guaranteed to "soar" without the tax cut. There was no routes that were on the table then or now that pointed otherwise and none pointed to deficits that would be any less than we have now. On the flip side, it is true tax cuts were represented as being able to impact this trend. Both sides were wrong.
On paper, huge spending cuts and huge tax increases are the solution. Not one of the two but both. That is the only solution that is proven on paper; the rest are hypotheticals. Meaning both sides are going against math. Whereas your article is solely focused on politics and disparaging one side through manipulation. You are trying to manipulate readers into believing tax cuts are the cause of the deficit when that is not true.
@Sage: Public spending has the same follow-on multiplier effect as private spending. Cutting it cuts tax revenues. Tax adjustments to adequately fund public spending can balance the current account without cutting public spending.
I would argue that immorality more than cynicism is the real problem among Republicans.
And, I’m not sure about Republican leaders holding their supporters in contempt. I think the two are kindred spirits.
The Republcians who support Trump and McConnell are confident that they will not be hurt by the policies being advanced. They may be naive, but they are not innocents.
8
@Michael Roush: People who support Trump and McConnell are looking forward to a "Rapture" driven by catastrophic climate change.
Why is 'defense' spending always off the table? Do we really need more battleships and bombers when we already have more than the next several countries combined?
10
Mantra for the day - Republicans don't care, and they don't share.
Don't be fooled, they just increased the deficit by 17% and are coming to take your health care and Social Security to pay for their gifts to the 1%. Republicans only represent that 1%, not the rest of us. And they want to give them more, with another tax break.
They promise no exclusion for pre-existing conditions? Remember, they tried to repeal the Affordable Care Act, with no replacement. Now they have proposed a cheap medical insurance program which does not, does not, cover pre-existing conditions.
They support Medicare for all? Listen to Mitch McConnell who says they will need to cut Medicare and Social Security because of the deficits the Republicans caused.
If you don't want medical bills to bankrupt you and your family, if you think huge tax breaks for the 1% don't work for the rest of us, remember, Republicans don't care and they don't share. Vote Democratic.
31
@Eero
Exactly correct.
REPUBLICANS:
WANT to SLASH Medicare and Social Security and ELIMINATE pre-existing conditions for medical coverage.
DEMOCRATS: Don't.
VOTE DEMOCRAT on November 6th.
REPUBLICANS ARE THE PROBLEM.
DEMOCRATS ARE THE SOLUTION.
10
“But let’s be clear: G.O.P. cynicism also involves a lot of contempt for the mainstream news media. Historically, media organizations have been remarkably unwilling to call out lies; the urge to play it safe with he-said-she-said reporting has very much worked to Republicans’ advantage, given the reality that the modern G.O.P. lies a lot more than Democrats do.”
Paul Krugman, you are spot on. The Press needs to analyze the motives and policies of each party and call them out. Vehemently. Today, when this happens, it’s call an ‘opinion’ piece and people ignore it. No wonder the modern GOP has contempt for the the Press. It’s largely toothless.
15
Krugman on Trump's election:
"We are very probably looking at a global recession, with no end in sight. I suppose we could get lucky somehow. But on economics, as on everything else, a terrible thing has just happened."
Wrong then.
Wrong now.
6
@Objectivist
Actually, economic growth figures are an illusion after the tax cuts, in that the flow of capital moved from the government to the private economy. It's a trick with the bookkeeping. Now it just looks like bigger growth.
11
@Objectivist
The clock is ticking, you think a sea of red ink bodes well for our future?
@Objectivist The markets aren't fluctuating because Munchin can't take an executive vacation to Saudi Arabia. Indicators that have always predicted recession are peaking. The drunken party on Wall Street woke up with a hangover and is starting to realize the party is over.
1
It needs to be repeated again and again that elected and appointed officials receive top-shelf medical coverage funded completely by US taxpayers. Coverage of preexisting conditions included.
31
Most people I know are not knowledgeable about financial issues.
The country is not at all prepared for us baby boomers to leave the workforce and retire. About a third of Americans have NO retirement savings at all. About another third have about a year or two of retirement income saved. Even if Social Security is preserved, these two groups of retirees will be scraping along, as healthcare costs will continue to rise faster than inflation.
The surplus in the Medicare Trust Fund will be exhausted in 2026. If significant cuts are the "answer" to that, coupled with cuts to Medicaid, lots of families will not be able to deal with mom and dad's needs in their golden years, and they will need to step up and take care of them in their homes, pay for their support and medical care, deal with them when they would have previously been in a nursing home. It's not a pretty picture.
The increase in the debt in these times of a booming economy is no accident. This is how the GOP will force a "crisis" on us, forcing significant cuts to Medicare, Medicaid and Social Security. At some point, those who don't pay attention to financial issues will realize that they've been had, but it will be too late.
36
When Repubs say they want to preserve the policy of providing health care to those with pre-existing conditions, what they are talking about is separate "bad-risk" pools so that the private insurance companies can charge 400% more to those people than healthy, young, pre-pre-existing policy holders. The Repubs are not talking about the ACA plan for pre-existing conditions, which prevents insurers from billing more for that group. The Republicans lack any sort of morals or ethics.
26
Race is a serious problem in this country for many reasons, but what I have in mind is that on election day the foremost topic on the minds of a large number of voters (particularly in the South) is the issue of race. Many voters think that the republican stand on race matches how they view race so the republicans carry the day in many places. Before the arrival of The Con Don on the scene, politicians often talked about race in code or more subtle terms.
This has been the case for many years even back in the day of the old Southern Democrats. Political campaigns are run on the basis of racial/cultural/religious antagonism and there is always some opponent, often black or brown, to run against. The ordinary voter gets the pleasure of seeing politicians run down the weak (the dark-skinned) while being solicitous for the rich and well-connected. Of course, the rich and well-connected may not care about race one way or the other. They are just interested in winning and getting the goodies -- tax cuts, government contracts, subsidies, etc. This is basically the playbook for politics in many places and for a large part of the supporters of The Con Don.
The Good Professor asks "Can a campaign this dishonest actually win?" The answer is yes and in many places it will. It has in the past.
12
If the Democrats can’t make this soaring deficit and tax cuts for the wealthy that result in cuts to Social Security and Medicare a winning campaign issue then we are destined as a nation for ever growing greed and avarice and self dealing corruption. It’s well past time for Progressives to move beyond the identity politics characterized by Elizabeth Warren’s Native American heritage and those aggrieved by language or social issues they deem politically incorrect. We could sure use a unified voice on this.
18
Watching our naive local Republican candidates turn to pretzel logic to defend tax cuts and claim they are going to save social security and medicare by "reforming entitlements" is breathtaking. When questioned on their facts during debates, divert and deflect seems to be the usual route along with a heaping helping of hypocrisy. They are even worse at dissembling than McConnell.
17
In recent history, Republicans managed to convince their base supporters that health insurance was bad for them and the voters actually voted against themselves, their well being, and longevity. They voted to lose their health care and lives.
If the Republican/Television psychological propaganda machine could convince them to do that, they certainly could convince the voters to vote against their own wallets and retirement security, and once again, their Medicare health care.
The Republican psychological manipulation is exceedingly successful and rooted in the friendly compliant Television industry everyone is consumed by during almost all their free time.
12
Republicans wanting to repeal the Affordable Care Act, is actually another Billionaire tax cut.
Republicans attempt to do away with the ACA is primarily about removing the fair Medicare tax from capital gains income (Wealthy never before had to pay their fair share of Medicare tax on their capital gains income).
That fair Medicare tax on capital gains income helped Obamacare extend Medicare another 11 yrs.
Repealing Obamacare sets Medicare back 11 yrs again and give Billionaires another tax cut.
Then a weakened Medicare is the next Domino the Republicans will want to topple (ie., state vouchers).
14
Mc Connel has never been shy of one more lie
6
You can actually hear the glee in McConnell's voice:
Yes, we've collected a lifetime of Medicare and Social Security payments from you, the little people. Suckers. Now we get to keep the money, you get whatever little we might decide, up to nothing, and you'll have to pay the rest on your own with money you don't have because we took it from you and then raised the taxes for millions living in states with higher state and local taxes.
There was a social contract. Whether it was buying a house and being able to deduct mortgage interest or being able to deduct taxes so you weren't taxed twice on the same income or having a modest provision for your future via social security and medicare. And along comes the GOP who has partially wiped it out on people who have spent decades living and upholding there end of the contract. And now they want to finish it off.
Republicanism comes down to: Be rich, or die quietly somewhere else and don't bother me. Oh, and I get your money as well as mine.
7
The election of GOP candidates by supporters is a reflection of the status of our education system and the depth of a successful propaganda strategy. I remember the interview of a woman who's husband is on the transplant list for a liver and had insurance thanks to the Obama care voting for Trump and GOP candidates. She was surprised and shocked that the GOP Congress voted to take her health care away. This was obvious and clear to a half way educated voter.
We are heading towards fascism with a leader claiming that only "he can fix it" and that bad things will happen without him creating a cult for and around him, steering up hatred and scapegoating minorities, creating conspiracies, trying to control the free press, creating and disseminating "alternative realities". Sounds familiar? Having grown up in postwar Germany to me it looks very scary.
9
Years ago, Republicans made the decision to start a class war on behalf of the rich against average working people, working poor and absolutely destitute Americans.
Then Donald Trump came along with his false populism and showed that he could mesmerize a significant minority of angry white men and women of modest means into voting against their own economic interests.
The establishment Republicans and their donor base of wealthy conservatives, lobbyists and executives of large corporations thought they had died and gone to heaven.
The actual economics of the Republican tax cuts are fairly simple. What is amazing to most Democrats is the bold dishonesty of Republicans at play. As Paul Krugman points out so well: “The cynicism is breathtaking.”
10
Mitch McConnell is the definition of pure evil. He is possibly worse than Trump, because he’s intelligent. Not only will he ram more tax cuts for the wealthy down our throats while cutting Medicare, Medicaid and Social Security, he will continue to ram conservative judges through. Since making the deal for 15 more judges with Chuck Schumer, he has already reneged on that and forced congress into session again on Saturday to slip in a few more. Democrats thankfully didn’t show up. He refused to hold hearings on Merrick Garland. He uses every trick in the book, some legal, some not so legal, but all dirty. Paul Ryan is a close second. The Republican Party has become a magnet for those with loose associations to ethics, morals, the law, and humanity. It is now nothing but a crime syndicate. And still, the people whose policies they hurt the most are head over heals are in love. Unfathomable.
13
@Frau Greta THe only consequences that concern him are those that affect his personal well being and importance. Shear malevolence in human form.
I find it ironic how Republicans always claim to know how to run our economy and always seem to put it in debt. Most managers lose their jobs and/or their companies for such incompetence.
4
Paul, it’s time to roll out the truthometer and attach the leads to the Congressional and Executive Branch Leaders. The Stanford Prison Experiment is a useful primer on interactions along with Abu Ghraib in Iraq.
The results will shock the public. It will awaken them to the false equivalencies and narrative pitched by the content con artists. Don’t Tax, Spend and blame it on services signatories tilt the truthometer every time.
1
You have to be really stupid to buy into the Republican’s rhetoric. And to make matters worse, it will be Trump’s loyal trusted base that will be hurt the most. Watching the administrations corrupt practices unfold before our eyes should be enough to convince people that the GOP is not for the people.
5
I am on Medicare and SS, not suprised to read all of this, just one more person who knows the GOP has been lying for decades on the safety net. The alarms have to sound again and again, and even then, will people hear them?
But there is one thing Dr. Krugman isn't mentioning, he never does, no one really does on this subject. I am on federal SS disability, and Medicare, not retired. I assume Dr. Krugman is also talking about disability benifits, but you never should assume anything, I don't mean to sound snarky, but it's rather annoying to have all of this, and not even mention the disabled. If anyone can tell me where the disabled figure in all of this, I will thank you profusely.
48
@Andrea W.
Social Security is officially OASDI, where the DI is disability insurance. And DI is very much in GOP crosshairs, based on the false premise that there has been widespread abuse of the benefit. To be honest, I tend not to mention DI just to minimize information overload (and save characters!). But I never forget it's there.
201
@Andrea W.
The GOP wants the disabled to crawl under a bridge, catch pneumonia or something and die, without burdening the health care system.
21
@Paul Krugman
My son is on disability and his meager benefits keep being gnawed away. Partly because of Georgia's decision not to accept Medicare expansion and partly because of what I suppose is "meanness."
Food stamps disappeared some time ago.
I hope those who put the fox in the hen house will wake up and remove him on Nov. 6..
If the Democrats cannot find and maintain their focus on these issues and hammer them home, they will continue to lose to their more selfish, cynical and no-nothing opponents. And the country will be the worse for it. So drop the identity and gender politics and focus on these issues.
1
My question is what is Mitch “Mr Obstructionist” (aka “Mr Plow Through”) McConnell really up too? Aside from the fact that cutting these programs has been a long term goal of the gop blatantly acknowledging this so close to the elections next month sounds a little fishy. Something is not right here.
72
@REZ
Politicians aren't as smart as we think; sometimes they just commit Kinsley gaffes, i.e., accidentally telling the truth. But to the extent that MM has a motive here, my guess is that he expects to see a Democratic House, and wants to saddle Dems with the blame for deficits. See, they won't cut entitlements!
229
@Paul Krugman McConnell is playing long ball for the 2024 election.
@REZ
Reason they succeed is that there are just as many dishonest voters as there are republican schemes. Like Obama once said, "you didn't earn that." But you did siphon it by means that have little to do with work, like networking and worse. Republicans don't want a community, they're too cynical and uncivilized. Look at Trump. He sits as example of it by his works. Works we all know of by the work of journalists he tries to demonize.
7
Nobody has to be a political analyst or an economist to know that if the top GOP donors wanted their tax cut and got them big time, the rest of America will pay for it.
The rest of America is fed by campaigns paid by the beneficiaries of the tax cuts in order make voters vote against their own best interest.
It is not only being dishonest. It is thinking everybody is stupid.
11
So Mr. Krugman what are we to expect in the short term? My guess is that when Democrats take the house the stock marked will drop like a stone. Trump will scream I told you so and spend the next two years further dividing the country with proof that electing Democrats will only destroy the economy.
Eventually AI will kick in and self driving trucks and other jobs that are helping to support the bottom half of the economy will give way to automation. Democrats will be perfectly positioned to take the blame. In all of this I see no good future for the working man. Can you come up with a better vision of our future?
21
@Tfstro
The stock market is already dropping because the tax cut benefits never showed up. The market is not up since the end of Jan. Also if you want a better vision of the future google MMT.
2
@Tfstro
Three things: I don't think we know what will happen to the market. The effects of AI and all that will unfold much more slowly than people imagine. And everything we know about politics says that people attribute the economy's performance to the White House, not Congress -- which is why Republicans tried to sabotage Obama.
226
@Tfstro
The market will drop because the racist players will leave it again. They sat on the sidelines in protest when Obama was president and will do so again. We’ll have to do a better job at recognizing them and working around them. Too many thought Obama’s election marked the end of racism, it wasn’t. This time we know better.
Has the fox network informed their loyal following that
Social Security, Medicaid and Medicare are on the
chopping block? PRE-EXISTING CONDITIONS, anyone?
1
What Trump and Republicans have proven is that about a third of the American public can be tricked with lies all the time.
4
The GOP’s argument goes like this: Oh dear. I have been irresponsible financially. I have spent more than I earned; borrowed money to continue having nice things; and now I am deeply in debt. What to do, what to do. I know! I will go to my employer and say, I have been so irresponsible with the money you paid me. Please drastically cut my salary to teach me a lesson. This will help me pay off my debts and reform my profligate ways.
Yeah, pretty stupid, right? Yet the GOP regularly serves up this idiocy and expects voters to be taken in by it. Time to call them on their scam. Time to vote them out, across the board. Nothing will knock sense into the Republican party except huge, recurring electoral defeat. November 6 is the time to begin.
3
I have quite a few "facebook friends" who are avid Trump supporters who get their news from right wing media and stuff posted on FB who will never read this column unfortunately. Some of them are millennials, they think that "liberals are bad" and "Republicans and Trump are good." And they have no idea what McConnell and Paul Ryan are planning.
I have also warned some 50 something year olds of this plan years ago and they looked at me like I was insane. None of these people will read this article and they are all going to suffer greatly if this plan goes through.
2
This is very much like the current situation in Great Britain, where a similarly self-serving so-called élite continues to blame everybody except those responsible (themselves) for the mess their country is in.
1
I don't want balanced reporting, I want honest reporting.
A lie is a lie is a lie, and needs to be called as such.
I never expected politicians to be 100% honest, but there is a big difference between seeing the other side of the coin, and outright lying and obfuscating.
5
I don't know what it is. Does "Republican" sound better than "Democrat"? Is the abortion issue so important to some that they are willing to ruin life on earth after birth? I cannot wrap my head around why anyone would vote for a single Republican candidate given all the bad policies and bad faith over the past 30 years or more. And I do not hold out hope that the Democrats will take the House. I fear gerrymandering and voter suppression will get the job done for the GOP. Brace yourselves for it. The question will be: what will sensible people do about it?
18
Democracy itself appears to be at risk now. True democracy is liberal and idealistic. A "government of and for the people". This is not the GOP or Trump plan. Decades of shifting national wealth upward leaves us with stunning economic inequality.
Where does it stop? We fear that if the midterms are not successful at pulling us back to the dream of a civil society with some economic balance we are lost to a stronger, corrupt regime.
Does anyone else see a parallel here with the massive failures of communism to actually be 'for the people'. Power and corruption accumulated at the top and the so called government then ends up handing control to the police state and the oligarchs.
Look at the similarities: The US has numerous real life oligarchs who buy the congress and now the GOP is in control of the entire government. The most recent evidence is the 'tax scam', along with the ability to stack the SCOTUS.
I hope the young rise to the occasion. We elders need the help.
8
We the people have destroyed our leadership role in the world now we longer need our huge military budget and can resign ourselves to being an "also ran" in the history books.
1
I have to say that the vast majority of hard working Americans won’t stand for their country turning into a banana republic. We’ve let the wealthy spend their money without fear. To send their kids to school without security. Buy property and enjoy that property without ten foot tall security gates and teams of security. They’ve trusted that we all would allow this without making them afraid to leave their front doors. Perhaps they’ll just get the dog eat dog world they love to accuse Venezuela of having. Bring it on. I have no problem participating in a gop created society.
2
Why McConnell is running the Jolly Rodger up the flag-pole right now is completely beyond me. He's usually not this stupid.
The Republicans are admitting they will lose the house now. Even if they hold a few-seat margin radical cuts to healthcare or social security simply aren't possible -- there are Republicans who will vote against that.
We have a stampede of Republicans now promising to protect pre-existing conditions.
McConnell's claim here can only play to the dumbest and least-informed voters on the right, and it will drive some voters who might have voted Republican to voting for a Democrat.
McConnell must be truly desperate to think this ploy makes sense.
8
'Anyway, at this point Republicans are proclaiming that war is peace, freedom is slavery, ignorance is strength and the party that keeps trying to kill Medicare is actually the program’s greatest defender...'
We are living the dystopia described by Orwell's 1984.
No joke.
7
they’re squirting out clouds of ink and hoping voters won’t figure out where they really stand...?
AND, they would be mostly right.--at least with the GP voters who can't see anything but HUMP in the rear view mirror. There is a class of people who are "resistant to change' and that does seem to be red staters. Our best hope this year is for the YOUNG to get out and vote because HUMP policies will have the greatest effect on them in the coming years.
1
"Can a campaign this dishonest actually win"
For the reason that Mr. Krugman cites, that FoxNews and similar right-wing media propaganda outlets provide a background "radiation" that pervades the consciousness of the electorate, this tactic has as good a chance of "success" as it has had heretofore. The blatant lying, i.e. black is white, started in earnest with the Ronald Reagan election in 1980, reaching its current height with right-wing Republican Congresses, epitomized by Messrs. Ryan and McConnell, not to mention the heinous liar-in-chief, Mr. Trump.
As is well known, voter turnout for Democratic voters is the only factor that counts in the upcoming elections. Low turnout means more of the same - worse of course - from Republican officials. High turnout, particularly if the turnout is exceptionally high, will yield interesting results however. I am doubtful of that, but we will all see shortly.
The bald-faced irresponsibility of politicians such as those cited, in particular, Messrs. Ryan and McConnell, is shocking, because so blatant, but otherwise the same as always from that group.
1
There they go again. Republicans once more hypocritically playing fast and loose with the English language, with policy, and with the economy. It never ends.
Say what you will about Bill Clinton, but that particular Democrat produced surpluses.
As Dr. Krugman states, today's fiscal fiasco was all predictable, and part of the time-worn GOP playbook. Cut taxes for the wealthy, increase the deficit, and all of a sudden, surprise of all surprises, call for a reduction in spending by cutting "entitlements" for hard-working wage earners in order to balance the budget.
When corporate executives get things this wrong in such short order, let alone by lying to their boards and shareholders, they are fired. That is what the American people should do to folks like McConnell and his cohorts.
The only true "entitlements" that need to be cut are the outsized benefit packages and perquisites given to Members of Congress, whose hands are never far from the public till. Theirs are purely voluntary jobs, and if they don't like doing them, they should politely excuse themselves from the public arena and get jobs that don't require the taxpayers to support them.
If these dishonest Republicans don't step aside, the voters should do it for them. That is what the upcoming mid-term elections should be for. The most important entitlement that needs to be front and center is the entitlement to vote, and the GOP is trying to take that away, too. How un-American.
5
The Kavanaugh confirmation, in which Republicans seized the third branch of government with the worst of all nominees on their list, confirmed as gospel the Republican strategy going forward:
There is no lie too big to tell.
Their leader and guiding light lies in all things big and small, as a matter of principle and narcissistic preening, rather than necessity. So too goes the Republican Party.
We have a new name for the Pyrrhic victory.
1
Mr. Krugman, could you please write an opinion, on who exactly are the rich ones, doing this harm, who do we have to fight?
73
@Guess who Read the book "Dark Money" by Jane Mayer. "Thirty years later, the midterm elections of 2010 ushered in the political system that the Kochs had spent so many years plotting to bring about. After the voting that year, Republicans dominated state legislatures; they controlled a clear majority of the governorships; they had taken one chamber of Congress and were on their way to winning the other. Perhaps most important, a good many of the Republicans who had won these offices were not middle-of-the-road pragmatists. They were antigovernment libertarians of the Kochs’ own political stripe. The brothers had spent or raised hundreds of millions of dollars to create majorities in their image. They had succeeded. And not merely at the polls: They had helped to finance and organize an interlocking network of think tanks, academic programs and news media outlets that far exceeded anything the liberal opposition could put together."
95
@Guess who
The rich aren't a monolithic group -- Wall Street is quite divided, including both rapacious types and people quite willing to see their taxes go up in a good cause. But people who made their money in extractive industries, like the Kochs, are entirely on the side of paying less taxes themselves (and polluting more) while taking benefits away from ordinary families.
613
@Guess who, the way to fight is vote and get others who don't vote to vote. The reason we are in this mess (a government for the rich politically connected and not for the people) is because we as Americans don't vote nearly enough. We gave away our government by not voting enough. I hope people wake up to this fact and start participating in our government by simply voting. I believe it's that simple.
59
Wealthy individuals and businesses paid for Republican campaigns.
Republicans were elected.
Lobbyists for the wealthy told the Republicans what they wanted in terms of law.
Republicans legislated favors for the wealthy.
Republicans legislated tax cuts mostly for the wealthy and hid them as a "Christmas Gift".
The wealthy paid for the following campaigns that resulted in more favors from Republican legislators.
The Republican legislators creatively portrayed their corruption as benefiting the economy and creating jobs.
The wealthy/legislator cycle continued for many elections.
Money continues to circle among the wealthy getting wealthier and their Republican legislators.
Now the slow motion obvious corruption is widely known and the Republicans are packing the courts with Republican conservative appointments to save them later when justice comes calling.
It was no accident that the Republican strategy of legislating through the courts was found to be easier than Democracy and the Supreme Court Conservative Republican appointees decided the Citizens United case in favor of the wealthy to really grease the wheels of corruption. The decision was written by Retired Justice Kennedy on behalf of the conservative members. Corporations are Not people. They are certified entities of law that exist on paper. Justice Kennedy met with people in the White House immediately following his announced retirement and soon after, his former Law Clerk, Kavanaugh, became Justice.
5
The deficit increased 17% due to the Tax Cuts for Billionaires act passed in 2017 and the GOP said, as they always do, that the cuts will pay for themselves with increased investment, wages and jobs.
How many peoples wages increased 17%?
As usual, we hear crickets from the Democrats.
11
@June If you’re hearing “crickets” from Democrats on the issues Paul Krugman so well describes in this article then I think you’re not listening.
"The point is that we’re now in a political campaign where one side’s claimed position on every major policy issue is the opposite of its true position."
And they blame everything on Democrats who haven't had Congressional power for quite some time.
This is rich: one-party rule making a mess and blaming it on the opposition. Only on an Alice-in-Wonderland media outlet like FOX News can one "prove" the case that Republicans have been held hostage by Democrats lo these past few years.
I think "ole Mitch" made a tactical error. The only thing he said that's true is that "entitlement" programs are very popular with voters.
If they come gunning for the programs that people have paid for all their working lives, well, I hope they're ready to be blown out of the water.
There's a simple solution to our mounting debt: repeal the irresponsible Republican tax bill.
Deficits are up because the super rich got a huge tax break at the expense of Joe Sixpack. Demanding Joe carry the load of deficit reduction is like asking a dying man to get off his death be and save the farm.
Even Republicans must realize you can't get blood out of a turnip. Or do they?
15
Vote
That's what we here and read, especially here.
I've got news for ya - the majority most certainly will NOT vote. They re too busy, especially with new restrictions on time and place to vote. In the event they do choose to make time, they may find they are no longer able to vote because of a typo and have thus been purged from the roles.
They don't like either candidate. Apparently they think they are choosing dates or drinking buddies.
They feel hopeless which is understandable since they see the rich getting richer; themselves not so much.
They don't read actual news. They do read whatever shows up on Facebook.
They are so wrapped up in confirmation bias, they cannot change their minds in any event.
They don't care.
9
@uwteacher A very good description of many people that I know. A lot of people are gullible or out-of-touch and, in some cases, willfully ignorant. But people often pay a tremendous price for being gullible and ignorant.
Much better to at least try to keep up with issues and base opinions on actual facts.
Have a good day.
There is a very simple solution to America's healthcare crisis. If the 1% paid higher taxes, or taxes at all for that matter, which they can easily afford, American would have enough funding for single payer health care and/or enhanced Medicare for all. In fact, I imagine that if the Trump family were forced to pay the taxes they have defrauded America out of for decades with interest, those monies alone could likely fund a year or two of healthcare for all Americans. Now, imagine if the rest of the 1% joined in, America would have the most robust and efficient single payer healthcare system on the planet.
13
@Monica. This is not true at all. The top 1700 Taxpayers already pay more than the bottom 70 Million taxpayers. With $70T in unfunded liabilities in Social Security and MEDICARE, the math just doesn't work at all no matter what the tax rate.
1
@Monica In comparison to the nhs, and factoring in population and also roughly 30% more cost due to America (it is more spread out...), there would still be change from the 1 trillion ish that medicare alone costs without even touching the other 2 trillion that is paid to insurance companies -- and all for a system that covers everyone! The super-rich would no doubt lose out due to their heavy investments in (all aspects of) healthcare and that loss could be a form of taxation. There is also the question of the 500,000 people who work in the health insurance industry that wouldn't all lose their jobs but many posts would be obsolete essentially overnight, but a program with such far reaching effects such as this would take decades to implement so the people in the positions to be lost could just not be replaced further down the line as a form of natural redundancy.
Then the economy could reap the benefits of more healthy people (infant mortality in the UK is somehow half that of the USA), more happy people (state/national mental health provisions like the UK), more productivity (cover for any and every accident and "pre-existing health condition"), no "co-pay" surprises, no worries about hospitals being covered under health insurance, no terror over an expensive ambulance journey (before the hospital deluge), no worrying about having to choose health insurance to begin with, etc.
Rick Scott just cashed out of his health-clinic chain so he'll not lose a dime, either!
@James The fact that "The top 1700 Taxpayers already pay more than the bottom 70 Million taxpayers." says a whole lot more about the obscene concentration of wealth at the top than about how virtuous the 1% is for paying their taxes. The truth is they pay a much lower portion of their income in taxes than the struggling lower middle class. The truth is they do what ever possible to avoid making their fair contribution. They are in fact proud of it. (Think Trump and Kushner, think Leona Helmsly:"only little people pay taxes".) To what ever extent these programs are "unfunded liabilities" (your number is debatable) it is because conservative ideologues have declined to fund them, preferring to throw money and tax breaks at their corporate cronies. How much did that recent "tax reform" put in the pockets of, oh I don't know, lets say the real estate industry? I didn't put much in my pocket and what it did was needed to pay skyrocketing healthcare costs. Face it, this is the rich and powerful against the rest of us. Idiots that we are, we are rabidly fighting our own interests. Propaganda works.
Republicans depend on a person who lacks sufficient education to see through their lies. They therefore support an education system that creates good followers. The problem is the democrats have to go to the same schools. Until we realize that hierarchical, performance oriented school systems are leading us away from functional democracy, Dr. Krugman’s observations will continue to ring true. People need to learn to be citizens. It doesn’t happen because we just tell them to vote.
21
Aside from all the budget hocus-pocus is s simple fact- Social Security is not funded from general revenue and is paid for. It does not contribute to the national debt or the deficit.
Despite the decades long war on Social Security by Republicans and organizations such as the Peter G Peterson Foundation, Social Security is not a ponzi scheme and will be able to serve Americans for generations to come. It has also not been served well by Democrats like Hillary Clinton who suggested means testing Social Security, which undermines it universality and organization as an insurance system.
If the income cap is removed from Social Security it will be able to function long into the future with no cuts in benefits and will not add to the debt or deficit. It is an insurance system and the only people eligible are those backed by a participant who contributed enough over a working career to qualify- it is not an entitlement.
My admonition to Republicans and "business friendly" Democrats: I and many millions of Americans have paid into the Social Security & Medicare system from our first jobs as teenagers and we expect that it will be there when we retire. To touch it would be theft of an earned benefit and betrayal of the very nation and voters that pay your salary.
Discussions on how to improve Medicare and Social Security are welcome, but cutting or gutting them are not going to happen.
31
I’vs always been intrigued by the argument that massive tax cuts are deficit neutral. That by rewarding people and corporations that don’t ever pay their taxes, or rarely, will somehow lead to economic nirvana for this country. And intriguing too, is the idea that when the expected massive deficits show up the politicians blame what safety nets exist in this land for the chaos... And what really intrigues me is that people in this land continue to believe this tale, every.. single.. time. My Father was right... people aren’t very smart.
31
Democratic candidates have made health care part of their campaigns and should be alerting voters about Medicare and Social Security as well. Perhaps their political ads should expose the voting records of Republicans and direct viewers to sources where they can check their reps voting records themselves.
11
Tax cuts
Medicare, Social Security, Obamacare, and Medicaid
Revenues
Deficits
Spending
Krugman connects the dots one way.
Republicans connect them another way.
Which is more correct? How do we evaluate their reasoning?
There are facts involved -- the growth in revenues and spending, inflation, for example.
There are views of life, government, and moral duty -- are we simply competing with each other in a zero-sum fight, or are we a society joined together in a positive-sum movement?
Krugman is using a consistent (over time and by most economists) way of counting numbers, and sees us in a positive-sum environment.
The Republicans manipulate numbers to conform to their changing arguments day to day, changing facts by redefining thing. And they are engaged in a zero-sum fight, lying to some of their supporters by saying they care about them and that the Democrats (or is it just Nancy Pelosi) are demons.
Corporate rates were just fine. In fact, too many corporations (see the investigation of Jared Kushners' businesses) avoided most taxes. And if corporations "deserve" some things, they should also be responsible for some things.
Bottom line -- learn to check out which facts are being used and how accurate those facts are, understand how those facts are being connected in an argument, and look for the consistency (internal and over time) in these arguments.
And help your friends, neighbors, and relatives understand this -- challenge them on the facts and the arguments.
10
Well here we go again. Deficits getting larger so let’s cut “entitlements”. We paid into SS and Medicare. So it is not an entitlement it is a return on investment. Fix SS. TAX all income for SS not just “up to” some number like 250000 per year. Fix Medicare. Establish a huge pool of people to finance Medicare for all.
Now here is my question. If we have Medicare for all won’t that reduce the amount of health care premiums paid by employers? If it does then that should be good for people and business, especially small business.
Meanwhile in Wisconsin the roads are crumbling, I am paying more for suspension parts every year. Also in Wisconsin the public schools are being starved. Teachers are retiring and there are fewer and fewer teachers coming out of school to replace the retiried teachers.
Run for office and hold your local leaders accountable for lunch cal problems.
Tony Evers for Govenor and Amy Klobuchar for President.
12
Cuts to Social Security, Medicare and Medicare, or do away with them entirely. Does this mean that workers will no longer have to pay into the system? Why should they, the powers that be keep "borrowing" from the well funded Social Security/Medicare. I remember a friend who is very conservative politically was shocked when she became eligible for Medicare and the cost was taken out of her Social Security check! Just goes to show you that people in general have no idea how this works. I would like to know why there has been no law passed to protect the Social Security funds.
11
@Ann: Simple: the people whose responsibility it would be to draft and pass that law you are asking for are the very same people who keep dipping into that cookie jar! Now this is not to say that they are ALL dishonest, but obviously the ones in positions of power are.
1
When a country's leadership class begins to engage in exclusionary practices; when they resort to the practices of extraction for self-interest rather than inclusive practices for the benefit of all then history shows that country will decline. Our leaders, by our voting for them (by the by), have placed our feet on that slippery slope. Less we change our ways Americans should prepare ourselves for the inevitable fall from historical grace. Vote in November folks. VOTE! Let's forestall the fall shall we?
12
Paul, you economists keep missing the issue. The whole “tax cuts to jump start the economy” argument is sleight of hand and the GOP knows it. The real purpose was to shrink the federal government and increase the power of the uber wealthy.
First, they starve the government of tax revenue. Then, like they are doing now, they say that the resulting increases deficits (caused by the tax cuts and increased borrowing) must be addressed by cutting entitlement programs and more government jobs. And for so long as they stay in power, they will continue this cycle.
So it is not about economics, Paul. It’s about their philosophy of shrinking government and giving more power to the ultra wealthy and large corporations.
13
@Jack Sonville I think that's the point Krugman was making. He didn't miss anything.
4
@Jack Sonville
The question is: can you walk and chew gum at the same time. Not either or but both!
How lucky it is that the Presidents' fans don't seem to read very much, or be disturbed by nuance and juxtaposition (ie., the President's congratulating a fan for assaulting a reporter, while remaining rather unmoved by the probable dismemberment of Jamal Khashoggi for his unpopular views.) Is this where we're going? Be grateful that nobody reads 'A Modest Proposal' these days, where Jonathan Swift detailed how to prevent 'the children of poor people in Ireland, from being a burden on their parents or country, and for making them beneficial to the publick.' It might not be received as satire.
15
Why is it when American Leaders and Politicians lie and act dishonestly, the only negative consequences that arise are borne by the American people (particularly the poor /disadvantaged) who find themselves less secure, paying more and put at risk when previously they weren't?
As for these Politicians that consistently fail in their duty to protect and improve the lives of ALL Americans and instead cater to the desires and perceived needs of only a very small group of influential and wealthy Americans who are allowed to effectively bribe and have them serve and act in their interests as a result of the money provided them.
Where are the checks, balances and punishment for American Politicians who do not serve anybody but their own selfish interests and the money of their Keepers?
America is no longer a Democracy ...it has become a Dollacracy where money speaks loudest and policy is bought cheaply at the people's expense.
17
@Loomy
Hypercapitalism destroys democracy. A cautionary tale for other countries.
1
What Dr. Krugman says in this column can't be repeated enough. And that's exactly what Democratic candidates should do if they want to take the House and the Senate in the 2018 election. Make saving Social Security, Medicare and Medicaid from the Republican axe the priority in their campaigns. Repeat it over and over again in the remaining days of the campaigns. Many Republican campaign ads are going lower than ever in their dishonesty and character assassination. Democratic candidates should answer the unfair charges made against you, but they should emphasize the importance of preserving the social safety net.
29
@RF. This is the type of thinking that has bankrupt the system beyond repair. With $70T in unfunded liabilities, the MEDICARE and Social Security systems are not sustainable no matter what the tax rate is. Putting this problem on our children is immoral and wrong. we need to put in competition, primary. are physicians, and require posted price lists for procedures. When is the last time you bought something and didn't even ask what it costs? No wonder prices are so high.
1
@James So when was the last time you haggled over the price in an emergency room? How many people do you know who could accurately gauge the value of orthoscopic knee surgery at two competing hospitals? How can conservatives continue to tout our great health care system when we pay more for less than any other industrialized nation on earth? The free market in healthcare has already brought us waste, fraud, duplication and wildly inflated prices. There are things (healthcare, education) which are not best served by free market capitalism. The goal is to make the most money. That does not always involve producing the best product. As often as not, there are profits to be made producing an inferior product at a slightly lower price, or even a vastly poorer product at a significantly lower price. The trick is to obfuscate the differences in quality or take advantage of those who simply can't afford more.
@James Social Security is funded by the payroll tax and does NOT receive federal funding. It does not add to the deficit. We can afford Medicare and Medicaid, the most cost effective entities in our healthcare system. If we stopped giving tax cuts to the wealthy (Reagan, W. Bush, and Trump), we could afford a lot of things including a much needed infrastructure program.
Tax the corporations very rich at levels Ike and Kennedy did, when America was still growing richer and expanding the middle class.
Military spending can be reduced to match China's.
Learn how much money we are taxed for the unbelievable number of buildings US gov has overseas and how much it spends for them, their occupants, their occupants' children, flights back home, etc... You can avoid shock by having a stiff drink to hand.
6
Ten years after the financial crisis, many Americans are still suffering its after-effects. We cannot look away. For the past 5 decades, income inequality has sharply grown in America, and we're beginning to understand how this monopoly game has gone down.
The wealthy, non wage earners like the Kushners and the Trumps, self report the taxes they claim to owe. This gives them opportunity to underpay. With their large political donations, their corporate lawyers are free to write legislative templates for politicians to pass into law, favoring their financial gain over others. Government works for the wealthy, and passes the tab onto the wage earning middle class worker whose taxes are automatically reported to the IRS. Wage earners, unlike the wealthy, can't easily cheat on taxes.
1. Don't destroy government...take it back.
2. Use big data capture and analysis to get the wealthy to pay their fair share. Make it hard for them to hide their financial gains.
3. Update and modernize the IRS. Properly fund them. They're the agency that could be helping to narrow the yawning wealth gap.
4. Take back the Senate and write a more fair and balanced tax code that is easy to comply with, but hard to cheat on, especially for the wealthy.
5. Every fraud-proof measure will eventually be hacked. Fund the IRS to identify and counter such measures.
OR...accept our decline toward becoming a corrupt third world country.
38
The Republican party has been clever with its words for the last couple of decades, but eventually people do catch on that calling Social Security and Medicare "entitlements" as if US wage earners have not contributed through taxes for those two insurance programs over their working lives is more than a misleading name, it is an outright lie. And neither program is on the brink of running out of money. A change in the cap on the upper limit of income which is taxed makes both programs solvent for decades.
Social Security and Medicare prevent working people who depended on wages rather than stock options and bonuses for income during their careers from dire poverty after they retire. The failure of companies to pay living wages to workers responsible for the productivity and profits of companies means that nearly half of all US workers don't have enough money for retirement now that defined benefit lifetime pensions have been eliminated as a retirement choice.
Many of the baby boomers who did save for retirement using 401Ks or other programs which enriched Wall Street lost significant percentages of their money in the two recent recessions. The Bush II recession was especially hard on people who were close to retirement as many boomers were. Others found their retirement money diminished by poorly secured plans which were not funded by the states, cities, counties or companies to provide promised benefits.
Save SS and Medicare. Vote for Democratic candidates.
53
@Lynda calling Medicare and Social security entitlements is accurate. People are indeed entitled to those benefits because they paid for them their whole lives. The truly devious thing the Republicans have managed to do is to turn the word entitlements into something that implies a demand for something you are NOT entitled to.
3
@Lynda ... Perfecto! And our military spending relative to all other countries?
Vote. ... But remember that about a third of Americans who will vote do not know which country we fought to gain our independence. You can look it up.
1
@Lynda
Be careful which "Democrats" you vote for. Hillary Clinton was openly advocating for means testing Social Security, which undermines the program's design as an insurance system and plays into the Republican meme that it is an "entitlement" - code for welfare.
Hillary on MSNBC on Social Security
https://youtu.be/ZwnKRchSjL4
Somewhere in Mr. Krugman's analysis I would think that he would note that economic growth is strong and GDP has been growing steadily. The economy is on an upswing -- so says the Federal Reserve -- and the prospects for the future are good. There is indeed a deficit. But when everything else looks good, persistent pessimism is hard to justify.
1
If all is as rosy as you claim, why would McConnell be calling for cuts to Social Security and Medicare? Pessimism is more than justified, it’s warranted.
14
@michjas
Our standard of living is about more than just GDP. The GOP incivility, attack’s on democracy and truth, hatred of the less fortunate has lowered the standard of living for everyone.
3
@michjas
Another "change the subject" Republican.
American democracy is the political self-driving car. Most American voters will not grab the wheel or slam the brakes; they won’t vote, don’t follow the news and don’t read. Whatever information they get is from Facebook or what they heard someone say or a political ad. The other day someone told me the Republicans got him tax cuts. I asked if he was getting a larger paycheck. He admitted he didn’t know, but believed so. It’s easy to sway people with emotional appeals when they don’t care about facts.
40
At first thought, it would seem that 'ol Mitch is out of his mind putting Medicare & Social Security on the chopping block, but the Base sees things through the Republican looking glass.
Medicare will be purged of the senior fakers rushing to the doctor when all they need is a good physic & a multi-vitamin. Social Security will expel all the middle- aged victims of fibrous tissue issues & irritable bowel syndrome & open spaces in trailer parks for the gainfully employed.
For the Base, this is an easy one. Remember, they hate to be taxed just as much as the 1%ers. And they play the lottery!
21
I would hope that talk of cutting our safety net that millions depend on such as Medicare, Social Security and now the other elephant in the room, Obamacare. This turn of events should rally millions of voters to fight this ridiculous tale of cutting government spending because the huge deficits created by the exorbitant giveaway to wealthy individuals and corporations by the GOP in the latest tax laws foisted on an unknowing and now unwilling public.
37
Medicare benefits are funded by both designated premium revenues & by general revenues; only latter part contributes to the annual deficits & cumulative debt.
When U.S. health care costs exceed by 2 times the average health care costs of other developed nations for covering all of their citizens while some 30 million Americans are without health insurance & another 70 million have inadequate health insurance, a major initial focus should be on reducing health care costs for seniors & all others.
There is enormous potential for reducing costs. An Institute of Medicine study, published in 2012, reported finding that waste, inefficiency & the ineffective consumed 30% of U.S. health $s. That's $1 trillion/year, $10 trillion over a decade. There are, accordingly, opportunities for potentially large Medicare savings. These should be vigorously & effectively pursued. In addition, pharma's price gorging of U.S. patients should be ended. One way: Set the maximum price for each drug at the median price in the other developed nations. If pharma does indeed more revenues for research & development, it will then have to make it case for higher prices with the other developed nations, whose governments are less subject to corrupting pharma lobbying. Almost all of the other developed nations now have the economic strength to pay more for drugs, and should, if the higher costs are justified. And U.S. patients will no longer be gouged for drugs.
11
@JimPBI am an expat living in Germany and I co-pay 5 Euros for regular meds and for the exotic ones I pay UP to 11 Euros and in the USA the European pharma firms are making the big bucks!
It’s hard to imagine a more loathed member of the Senate than Mitch McConnell. Late last year, surely the Democrats should have threatened to shut down the government to thwart this massive tax scam and give-away to the rich.
If Democrats could only have peered into the future when they ran such a poor and widely disliked candidate as Hillary Rodham (and foolishly continued to embrace the discredited Clintons, letting them run the Democratic Party while a politically insecure and inexperienced Obama sat in the Oval Office) and when they cheated Bernie Sanders during the primaries.
16
@srwdm Sanders was not nominated because he couldn’t win primaries and for no other reason. Sure he won some caucuses but he couldn’t win actual primary elections. Oh, and Germany didn’t lose WW1 because it was stabbed in the back either.
14
@srwdm As I remember that "widely disliked candidate" got almost 3 million more popular votes than The Con Don. I admit that Hillary is not a good natural politician but remember also that she has endured 20 years of hateful and unending smear by the right wing and FAUX News. She has been under almost continuous investigation for 20 years or more. What has been found? Nothing.
So here's the plan: Remove all regulations against toxic pesticides, radioactivity in water, fracking waste in rivers, protections for wildlife and marine life; cut Social Security and Medicare so all those middle class workers and retirees who fall sick will die without coverage, and rich Republicans will finally get their fair share, that is, everything that's left - before the economy crashes, leaving a huge black hole.
Good one, Republicans who are watching this with pleasure.
42
So here's the plan: Remove all regulations against toxic pesticides, radioactivity in water, fracking waste in rivers, protections for wildlife and marine life; cut Social Security and Medicare so all those middle class workers and retirees who fall sick, will die without coverage, and rich Republicans will finally get their fair share, that is, everything that's left - before the economy crashes, leaving a huge black hole.
Good one, Republicans who are watching this with pleasure.
4
“‘starve the beast’ — cut taxes on the rich, then use the resulting deficits as an excuse to hack away at the safety net — has been G.O.P. strategy for decades.” It's important to raise revenue. Safety-net programs can't be cut.
Not many may have read my argument for raising marginal rate on the richest and for cutting payroll tax for the working poor. I am writing it again:
Have one other top rate of 50% but only on the top 0.05% household incomes from ALL SOURCES, which would bring in hundreds of $billions annually to significantly reduce the deficit & slow the rise in debt.
In mid-late 1940s, the top 0.01% household incomes paid about 60% of their incomes in federal income tax https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/e/e8/US_high-income_effec...
In 1980 incomes over $650K in 2016 dollars paid federal income tax at 70%!
Since the Reagan era the bulk of federal income tax has been procured from the broad middle class. The rich kept most of their incomes for themselves - in 1988, ALL incomes over about $65K in 2016 dollars paid just 28% in federal income tax! Now that is 37% on over about $450K of wage incomes and 23.8% on capital gains.
Payroll tax is quite regressive. It should be cut to say 1% on the first $10K & to 2% on the second $10K. Lift the cap but cut again to 1% on over $150K or so to be tolerable to the rich.
These are very modest changes but very beneficial to the working poor and to the health of the economy.
15
Republicans are not just lying about their own policy positions, they're lying about the Democrats' too. For example, Thomas Edsall pointed out in this paper yesterday that only 40% of Democrats are in favor of an increase in legal immigration levels. Yet, from the president on down, Republicans are trying to paint Democrats' position on immigration as one in favor of "open borders."
Of course, Democrats also paint their opponents' positions in an unfavorable light, and sometimes ascribe cynical motives to beliefs that are sincerely held. But the blatant lying that the GOP has grown to depend on for electoral success, about both their own and their Democratic rivals' policy positions, has reached a level of mendacity that shouldn't be accepted in a democracy.
40
No one says things like 'taxes are the price we pay for civilization' lately. Oliver Wendell Holmes was a person knew something about life and death. I'm sure Dr Krugman has used that in his columns sometime or other, but it wouldn't be a bad time to remind people.
Media for the most part is an entertainment business, a diversion. Republican policy also seems to be a diversion. Power is intoxicating. Not everyone can taste of it, but the smell is free.
15
"...given the reality that the modern G.O.P. lies a lot more than Democrats do."
I was with you, Professor, till you went "over the top" with the above line.
Very few people I know, Republican or Democrat, believe that either party "lies more than the other."
Let's say that when it comes to being two-faced, lying, and listening to "slavish" propaganda outlets, Fox has nothing on MSNBC.
Exhibit A are the recent Judiciary Committee hearings. (I really enjoyed it when Sen. Blumenthal lectured Kavanaugh on "falsus in uno, falsus in omnibus," while lying to his constituents that he served during the Vietnam War).
But I understand that this column itself has a propaganda line to pump out, as part of the "resistance."
In this regard, the more things change, the more they stay the same.
1
@Jubilee133
I suppose that Trump, dubya, Obama, and slick Willie were all liars and there is no difference in degree. Since all politicians are liars, we can never know what they really stand for and it makes no difference who is running things.
So what are the central Democratic lies that match the central Republican ones? Democrats buy votes from the poor and Republicans buy votes from the rich and both serve the rich -- and Bernie is right except he is too nice about it.
4
@Jubilee133
EVERY piece of writing has a propaganda line in it not matter what subject. The most important aspect though is whether the "propaganda" is TRUE. The propaganda we get from HUMP is that 2+2 =5 and we know that to be FALSE.--or at least some of us do.
@Jubilee133
As the liar in chief Trump tells more lies than the rest combined. There are sites that keep track of his lies that number in the thousands. That puts the GOP over the top alone. But add to that constant demonstrable lies of the GOP leadership and you have a cesspool of lies from the GOP that leaves Democrats with sink full of lies in comparison.
The only truth that I can think of said by the GOP is followed by a lie for its cause or source or cure.
Republicans: lying since 1969
1) My deepest gratitude towards Dr. K.
2) Read "True Believer" by Eric Hoffer.
We are at a crossroads.
9
In the book "Why Nations Fail" the premise is that failure results when the "wealth gap" becomes too large. Many historical examples are used as evidence supporting this theory. It strikes me that Mr Krugman's article very clearly shows that current republican strategy, if successfully implemented, will ensure the continued increase in the wealth gap in our country. Logically then, this will continue our journey into decline as a nation, similar to Greece, Rome, etc. Unfortunately we cannot see past the end of the day politically and act accordingly to slow or reverse the trend and ensure a better future.
18
Do deficits and debts really matter any more? I used to think so . However since the size of the national debt increased so much under both Bushes and Obama and there were no consequences , I have quit worrying about it. The USD is still the world's reserve currency and strong as ever. The economy is booming and earnings reports increase every quarter. Interest rates are still below historic norms. Show me some evidence that deficits and debts have any downside and I will change my mind. Until then it looks like we should not make any cuts to spending even if it means increasing the national debt by a trillion or two. What could go wrong?
@ehickey
Indeed they dont. We just go bankrupt and come out of it the way Trump did. A biblical word for this is a jubilee.
5
When you first cut taxes enough, then you "need" to cut spending too.
You need to cut the spending you wanted to cut, not the spending you never wanted to cut. Hence, you need F-35's and $10 billion aircraft carriers, but you don't need to feed children in your own neighborhood.
You need to shoot children in overseas neighborhoods too, with those F-35's.
76
1984, just 34 years later than Orwell predicted. But it's not just the deception...
The RePutinlicans slavish devotion to funnel all lucre to their masters' treasure hordes while taking funds for basics away from those who actually need it, and will spend it, is counterproductive for the overall economy. We have a Demand-Driven economy that is hobbled by every dollar horded per RePutinlicans' strategy rather than spent to meet basic needs per Democrats' strategy.
15
When you can’t dance, blame the drum. Republicans can’t prevail over an economic growth that reduces the deficit. So, blame the entitlements. Cutting the entitlements is like raising the taxes on poor and middle class. For the top 1%, entitlements are just accounting errors. Poor and middle class spend it all for daily necessities contributing to the growth of consumer driven economy. Besides, the entitlements are paid by the recipients. Otherwise, return all the money to the people adjusting to the growth of Wall Street or at the minimum add year by year inflation rate. If they want to reduce the benefits for the future generation, they should accordingly cut the social security taxes also. The so called ‘entitlements’ are not entitlements, the government returning the money to the people they took from the people with a promise of paying back decades later indexed to the inflation. Republicans basically want to withdraw from the contract they made to the people. Trump would call it a bad deal. If so, return the collected money and eliminate all taxes so that we can all go back to Wil Wild West ‘Eeehah’.
9
How Machiavellian of the Republicans. Let's cut expenditures for Social Security, Medicare and Medicaid and then Voila - people will go along with the program and just start dying. Huge cuts in expenditures for these programs allows for further large tax cuts. Maybe it is already working. U.S. life expectancy has decreased the last two years and we now are number 53 in the world on that statistic
19
Social Security is not a contributor to the annual deficits and the soaring debt; its designated source of premium revenue has paid its benefits in full & enabled a cumulative surplus of more than $2.6 trillion. This huge surplus has been invested in special T-bonds, which has helped finance the debt. (Alas, this enormous funding of government debt has come from a regressive tax.)
Now that benefit pay-outs ave begun to exceed premium revenues, Social Security is, as planned, drawing on interest from its trust fund and eventually will also draw on the principal to fully pay benefits.
The government will need to replace this internal borrowing with external borrowing, so while the debt will not increase, the holders of the debt will change from within government to external T-bond holders. Given the demand for safe T-bonds, this should not be a problem.
Once the trust fund is exhausted, Social Security is projected around 2034 to have premium revenues to pay only about 75% of benefits, so it needs increased premium revenues to pay in full the current set of benefits. Those benefits constitute a highly effective anti-poverty program & are vital to the financial base of a plurality of American seniors.
Increase Social Security premium revenues so that its benefits can continue to be paid in full without use of general (no designated use) tax revenues, which would increase the annual deficits and the debt.
22
Yes, some get their news from Fox but there is an even larger segment that gets their news or political analysis from Who's Got Talent or Flip My Pancakes and If they hear the word deficit they are likely to think it is a vaguely naughty word that refers to a cold porcelain chair-like object located in the smallest room.
I have wondered how they could be reached and I think there might be a way but so far I have not seen much opportunity to discuss it with others or more importantly to ask these folks themselves. I think they are out there in big numbers.
10
One of the Republican narratives is that wealthy people pay a disproportionate percentage of federal taxes. Therefore, they deserve a break. We need to emphasize an alternative counter-narrative: the rest of us provide the labor that enables wealthy people to amass more wealth than they already have. Most of the gains in productivity over the last couple of decades have gone disproportionately to those at the top. They do NOT do a disproportionate share of the work in this society. Repeat. Repeat. Repeat.
63
It's hard to say anything that hasn't been said many times before. These people didn't vote themselves into office. They were voted in by citizens who either don't understand what they are voting for, or are morally reprehensible voters. Which one it is probably varies from person to person, and in the end, it doesn't really matter. A clear majority of Americans are in favor of a strong safety net, with affordable health insurance. They want reasonable immigration policy, not Stephen Miller's feverish ultra-conservative cruelty. They want safe roads and bridges, and modern, clean and safe public transportation. What voters so obviously don't want is minority rule by a bloviating demagogue. Three million or so of us were disenfranchised by the Electoral College, an outdated institution that weighs some votes as much more important than others. We did not ask for what is being done to the country, to our environment, and to the rest of the world in our name.
I believe that, after the midterms, the Democrats will have control of the House, but probably not the Senate. A bunch of shoes are going to drop after the midterms. Mueller's indictments against Americans are going to come out. We are going to have some type of constitutional warfare. The way Brett Kavanaugh was appointed to the Supreme Court by a president under investigation for possible treason and obstruction, not to mention financial crimes, is going to weigh heavily on whatever happens next.
53
Here's a point; The Republicans ripped us all off and paid back the wealthy with tax cuts. The gig is known and events will occur to serve justice so they are now feverishly packing the courts with friends to vacate their charges and convictions for what I and anyone else knows who follows the news was massive ongoing bribery.
31
I read an awful lot of whining in these responses. Those in solidly blue states need to donate to tight or vulnerable races in other states. I myself have donated repeatedly to Beto here in Texas and given also to other senatorial candidates in MO, FL, NV, ND, and AZ, so I do not make this plea lightly. And, of course, we must vote and insist that others do so. If we cannot muster the votes we need to defang McConnell, all the whining in the world will be a waste of air.
28
The early voting in Georgia has been triple what it was 4 years ago. Both my 18 and 24 year old daughters have gone and voted straight Democrat. When I was at the early voting place with my 18 year old, the poll workers kept comment so your a new voter, and a new voter. These were late 20 year old and thirty year olds, not just 18 year olds like my daughter. I live in Fulton County and one polling place at a Library was the parking lot was full. My daughter and I then went to lunch and went to a community center at a park which had much more parking.
In Cobb County, which had been staunchly R before Hillary beat Trump by 6,000 votes in 2016 ( Brian Kemp had a dumb struck look on his face), they have only opened on early voting place, people have been standing in line for 3 hrs a day. When blacks are interviewed they say this is historic and they will not be not be denied their right to vote. The news cornered them today and said they will have more early voting locations open next week and the following.
I suspect that their will be very high turn out of black voters. Hispanic voters, LBGTQ voters, and younger voters who have grown up with friends and aren’t Bigots. Healthcare professionals who are appalled that patients who are US citizens and infants parents are being deported because the hospital applied for Medicaid.
44
I have an idea: everyone reading this article or bothering to write a comment, please talk to other people you know about their voting plan for November 6th.
It doesn't help that voting is a gauntlet even for people with free time. Our system is set up to prevent, not facilitate, voting.
Vote straight ticket Democrat this term, make it easy on yourself. And tell everyone you know to do the same, and to check their poll location and make a plan to get there.
We need to get way, way better in our country about talking politics. It is a major reason why people don't bother to register and then vote: because they're not thinking about it! Work, family, health get in the way; taxes, religion, sex, literally anything else other than politics. I'm sure some research can confirm people feel free to go hog wild on social media but have a hard time discussing politics in person, because of the comfort factor.
22
GOP reality is lot like saying "Voldemort." Just speaking the words summons it. Say something often enough and it takes wing, and gets you, even if it started out a fantasy.
So the party which has been at best "not in power" and at worst totally inept, is responsible for the deficit. Because they controlled the House budget committee... oh wait, they did not. Because they passed a tax cut? Oh wait....
If you're like me, are 50-something, get your cup of hemlock ready. Because you employer doesn't want to pay for your health care or retirement benefits anymore and is looking to jettison you like old ballast. Your government is looking to kill the ACA which is your only hope of paying for healthcare until you turn 65 and get Medicare, which guess what? Yep, they wanna kill that too. And all that savings you socked away for a time like this.... the college of your choice already took it.
You know what the Republican plan really looks like? China. They should cut to the chase and pass a law that makes kids financially responsible for their parents.
10
The Republican party has been morally bankrupt at least since the Nixon years, but most of the nonsense at that time consisted of pretzel logic that drew conclusions that were unsupported by the facts.
But this latest assault on our intelligence by McConnell et al is utterly shameless, with "alternative facts" drowning out the truth despite the utterly unbelievable claims about their motives, accomplishments and their effect on the economy.
Thank you, Mr. Krugman, for calling them out--again.
36
The Republicans are robbing us in broad daylight without artifice. They're taking the tax cuts, and leaving the middles class, the sick and poor to fight over scraps in America's streets. Republicans are stepping over the dead to get to their penthouses and mansions.
21
I guess McConnel has forgotten how popular the Kynect healthcare plan has been in Kentucky. His own constituents loved it. Of course, its real name is "Affordable Care Act" and the nickname placed on it by Republicans is "Obamacare." Some Kentuckians commented on Kynect like this: "Thank goodness we have a really good healthcare system instead of that terrible Obamacare."
Now he wants to throw his own voters under the bridge. What a guy!
21
“Can a campaign this dishonest actually win?” I certainly hope not, and that’s coming from an independent who for the most part has voted republican for the last 22 years... who will not vote red again for the foreseeable future... #donewiththegop
13
Paul you've kept me sane through the W. Bush period and the Republican takeover of the House in 2010. But I greatly fear that your trenchancy is no longer enough, and I shall go mad.
8
Does Dr. Krugman really believe that the GOP are "squirting out clouds of ink and hoping voters won’t figure out where they really stand."
No, they are not "hoping". They know, at least their base, will not figure that out. Look, didn't we always say democracy depends on an "educated electorate"? Look what we got and who is sleeping in the White House. So don't blame the GOP for telling lies day in and day out. The market has been good for them.
So who is to blame?
4
Can a campaign so dishonest win? Yes as long as it remains unanswered by Democrats who seem to be preoccupied with DNA tests and reletigating Bill Clinton's 90s piccadilloes. To paraphrase the bard, Republicans wouldn't be wolves if Democrats were not sheep.
10
Economists believe that their policies make all the difference. But the state of the economy generally doesn’t have much to do with what the government is up to. Economist have an exaggerated sense of their own importance.
@michjas
When thee economy improves under Democrats, FDR, Bill Clinton, Obama, Republicans and their economic apologists insist it had nothing to do with presidential policies. When the stock market rises and unemployment drops, Trump and his base insist it's all due to him. Go figure.
9
They voted against Obamacare 54 times. 54 times.
12
Sorry peeps, but it will work. It makes me sick to say that. But let's face it, the vast majority of the populous is vacuous. Anyone who has lived in Nevada for 10 years or more should know Dean Heller is intellectually inept. He might be the dumbest of the club of 100. And yet Nevadans will turn out in droves, mostly from Rubeville in the outer counties and Reno to vote for the brainless ninny. How did we arrive here? The great experiment failed. Stick a fork in it, the turkey is done.
14
I call it, domestic terrorism. Gang GOP should be censured. Lying should not be accepted.
12
Ah well, you get the government you deserve I suppose.
6
@Dr If:... or you get the government that you didn't even bother to get out and vote against, I suppose.
Every vote counts, none more so than the ones that are not cast.
there were reasons why guillotines were used against the ruling classes
10
Well I just don't know why this piece is in the "Opinion" section. Paul states fact. Another example of the media being unwilling to call a lie a lie.
11
A lot of my relatives depend on Social Security , Medicare and Medicaid support Trump and Republicans. Their racism trumps their own practical self interest. In their minds Republican politicians will only cut the benefit of those lazy undeserving people of dark skin pigmentation. To them their whiteness protects them.They cannot imagine that the rich masters of these politicians see them in the same category as dark skin people. Cattle to be used as cheap as possible then discarded. Money spent on Social Security, Medicare and Medicaid in their view is their money and should be in their pocket. Unless check history shows this story ends in bad way for the rich. But as I have said before Joe Martina is just as stupid as Joe Six Pack.
10
@Anthony - Your relatives are going to be in for a big surprise.
1
Democrats are dumb.
Platform
1) current tax code is good for no one except extremely wealthy people
2) tax returns henceforth can be done on a two sided sheet of paper
3) all income has the same tax rate
4) no deductions for anything
5) all taxes are per person
6) no federal income tax at all for anyone on first $30,000 earned, then a 10% on 30-50, 20% on 50-100, 30% on 100-250, 40% on 250-500 and 50% on > 500, and 60^!on >&1M
Let anyone try to convince a middle class person this is not a great idea.
2
Betting on stupidity is always a good bet. And don't bet on the GOP's supporters to wise up. The rich have been using this tactic for a hundred years in the South and it is still effective. The only difference now is that it has spread to the rest of the country.
10
Two analogies come to mind:
(1) A well-known radio personality last year. He was on the air. Pooh-poohing a local hurricane--
--WHILE IT WAS BLOWING AND GUSTING OUTSIDE.
In the middle of his broadcast--
--he was interrupted, bundled away to safety.
(2) A quip from a sometime Washington D.C. columnist who declared that, while he might not be the brightest bulb on the porch--
--he DID know the difference between rain--
--and a dog. . .um. . .. relieving itself on his shoe.
My hope, Mr. Krugman--a slender hope--
--is that Trump supporters all over this fair land--
--will come to FEEL those winds of penury and want gusting outside their front door--
--and perceive those innumerable dogs. . . ..
. ..no no, not dogs. . . .
. .. FAT CATS--
--irrigating their battered, worn-out foot ware.
How can they NOT, Mr. Krugman?
How can people NOT perceive--
--that their social security benefits are being whittled away--
--that their medicare benefits are being ineluctably "downsized"--
--that the so-called "safety net", so laboriously spread out beneath the citizens of this country, especially the poorer citizens--
--won't catch anyone if they fall?
Mr. Krugman, I live in that hope right now. It's the only hope I have--
--that the fraudsters are nailed in their own frauds--
--that by some mighty convulsion--
--the GOP (as constituted right now)--
--simply ceases to exist.
So help me God--
I see no other way.
How about you?
8
Spot on.
4
Looking an awful lot like Paris in 1793... time to dust off the tumbrels
6
The truthful tale you tell would end the G.O.P. if they did not lie. Further, they are strengthening their base on a host of social issues that do not address the poor fiscal performance of Government or the health, education, and stagnant income issues of most Americans.
The tax cut bill was a huge mistake and the increase in the deficit came mainly from an increase of about $70B in Defense and an increase of about $70B in interest payment on the Debt. The anticipated revenues from the very generous tax cut for the very rich did not come through as claimed on passage. Revenues only increased slightly. The result is a significant increase in the deficit and a projection that deficits will continue to increase until a new Congress can put in a fix. It will be tough. I think we can anticipate a costly crisis related to aging, wilding weather, or inflation from trade and tariffs that will swell the deficit and interest rates further.
We have a huge backlog of required investment to join the World in making a shift from fossil energy to alternative non-fossil energy. This is a huge challenge and I doubt the challenge will be met by the market and government will need to carefully intervene to prevent an economic disaster and losing a generation or two of American workers who will be unable to adapt to the new systems and technologies required to mitigate the Global Warming crisis. We can't let people rot in the streets or wallow in opioids.
We need enlightenment not lies.
7
Mitch McConnell—who’s been on the Russian payroll as reported in the book House of Trump House of Putin by Craig Unger—is a traitor.
In his whole despicable career as a public servant, he has never served the public.
The oligarchs, yes.
The Russians, yes.
The perverts like Moore and Kavanaugh and Trump, yes.
Mitch McConnell’s legacy will be one thing and one thing only.
A worshipper of filthy lucre who would gladly prostrate himself for a few pennies more.
43
I’m not sure who’s more gullible, the working poor trying to help Donald Trump make America great again or the educated liberals blaming this misguided behavior on the Russians, Fox News, and the GOP.
Barring massive unemployment, economic issues will always be less important than philosophical ones, which in turn are less important than psychological ones, at least among the lower middle class. Raising the minimum-wage may improve everyone’s standard of living, but if it means that those making just above minimum-wage will now be paid the same as those being paid just less, then the former will be against raising the minimum wage, especially if those now making just less are Black or Hispanic.
The rallying cry for reducing government benefits to poor people is that nobody should get anything without working for it. That’s the philosophy. If some of those recipients are Black, Hispanic, or immigrants then the rallying cry becomes even more shrill. That’s the psychology.
If the Dems refuse to address these issues, which are ultra important to the lower middle-class but which economists refuse to even acknowledge, then they will continue losing elections. They need to understand that anything having to do with numbers in general, and so money in particular, don’t matter to most of the people who vote. Philosophy and psychology rule.
4
If the democrats do win the house I’m afraid trump will blame them for all his failures. You know they are coming. Sometimes I think it would be better to give the republicans another two years just so they have no excuse when the ship hits the fan. If you’re receiving SS or Medicare or Medicaid you’ll know it when they are cut. The right makes it very clear they’ll blame everyone else for those cuts. Truth be damned. What to do.
1
Please, the ignorance of the electorate is legend. Of course the GOP will get away with their lies, hey have been doing it for decades. And when things get really bad, they will blame the Democrats; and guess what, people will believe them
12
"The deficit is not a Republican problem." - Mitch McConnell
6
@rab
"The deficit is entirely a Republican problem." - everyone with intelligence and integrity - something TOTALLY lacking in the RepugliCON party.
@Steve
It was meant to be a sarcastic comment. McConnell is the devil incarnate.
In typical fashion, Krugman distorts a problem with misleading figures, blames Republicans, and offers no solution.
Unlike leftist demogagues, Brian Riedl at the Manhattan Institute offers sensible reforms to Social Security. For example, the retirement age is raised to 69 and spending falls by 1.2 percent of GDP with high income seniors bearing most of the cuts.
Medicare spending is reduced and revamped with seniors given vouchers to purchase insurance.
Medicaid is also redesigned to reign in spending.
These modest reforms could save us a great deal of pain in the future.
The complete report is below.
https://www.manhattan-institute.org/html/report-comprehensive-federal-bu...
1
@Registered Repub They look so modest, those reforms! As far as I can see they come down to this: cut Medicare, Social Security, and Medicaid!
11
@Registered Repub As the the head of the non-aprtisan Stu Pidasso Institute, I offer the following sensible reforms to Social Security: (1) remove the cap on taxable income; (2) Enact a means test (ie no one whose gross income exceeds, let's say $500,000, needs a monthly check for a couple of thousand dollars; and, (3) reduce the annual military budget by $200 billion, with $50 billion of that reapportioned to veterans' benefits; and, finally, (4) restore the taxes rates for high income individuals to what they were before 2017.
15
@Registered Repub
Raise the ceiling on Social Security taxes and the fund will be stabilized indefinitely. But God forbid we actually tax the rich! That would be so...Nixon/Eisenhower Republican!
9
Of course the Trump base thinks that cutting Medicare, Social Security and Medicaid will only hurt the imaginary ignorant, lazy and immoral people who look like Barack and Michelle Obama. But the reality is that there are far more white people in those classes. While the proportion of blacks is higher, there are 5x as many whites.
Instead of secession the white supremacist Confederates led by the sons of Alabama aka Addison Mitchell McConnell, Jr. and Jefferson Beauregard Sessions III are trying to reverse the outcomes of the Civil War and Civil Rights era by staying put in the District of Columbia.
6
The Two Santa Clause Theory lives on.
Thank you, Paul.
The level of double speak is nauseating.
Whatever it takes to stay in power.
Give us more tax cuts, they will say
so we can be wealth producers
that will trickle down to you,
but never mind the money,
it is merely an earthly possession.
What truly matters is your devotion
and you will be rewarded in heaven.
Oh pious person,
fear not,
when you grow old and feeble
- and your medicare and social security
fall short -
reach out to us,
and we will be there for you.
Do not worry yourself, please
there is no need,
just remember
when the time comes
get on your knees,
and we will not forget thee.
5
Wow, very cool as you write truth about lies.
The wealthy have always supported Republicans, from the war industry, to the finance industry, banks and individuals because they pay back their wealthy campaign funders to stay in power decade after decade. The wealthy pay for
the Republicans campaigns, the money goes mostly to Television who fear losing the money and ignore the lies as you wrote, the Republicans get elected and the Lobbyists occupy the leaders time telling them what their bosses, the wealthy, want. The tax cuts was the mother of all paybacks from Republicans to assure the corruption continues keeping them in political power where they can legislate their ideology and benefactors wants like deregulation that enriches them further. It's outright, right out there to be seen bribery that just moves a little slower than the cash stash passed under the table.
It was all right out there.
Now they are after entitlement programs, not to take away all but to "Privatize" them. And what does that mean? The rich get richer, they tell their lobbyists to "Talk about what they need" and they further enrich themselves.
Yes indeedee.............To me the GOP wrote the book titled, "It Takes a Pillage".
The Republican party has been robbing the nation and stashing their wealth and businesses outside the country. The Republican leaders are enabling that. I wonder how many of them have second homes outside the country? Are they expecting an inevitable uprising, or causing one?
12
You say, 'Any political analyst who didn't see this coming...'. But that's not the real story. The real story is 'Any citizen who didn't see this coming...' Democracy is We the People; we must be informed, engaged, worthy. No, not the analysts; it is US.
We're so lost, so unsure. The concentration of wealth, income, property and power accelerates. We know not what to do.
Well, get a backbone, and fight for compassion and equality and humanity. We can do this without hate; unnecessary. Trump and his Republican support are wild-eyed money-mad. The President's involvement in 'not' moving FBI headquarters should shock, dismay and 'fire-up' us all. He's a con-man making money off of being President ('Genius', as Guliani might say).
Our bad; our sad, undemocratic electoral college elected this goon. We're bad citizens. We watch Gore and Hillary get more votes but; so what. We are really worthy of 'democracy'.
The rich keep getting richer. The poor and struggling enable this. The photo-op of Trump praying is such a joke. Really? Trump the Christian? More like the money-changer, the liar, cheat, bully, selfish con-man. Our very worst instincts.
Move on. Show us something real and positive and for the common good, the more perfect union. Forget Trump. Fight Trump. But, more importantly, do something for the country, the world. Serve. Give. Believe in equality and fellowship and the compassionate love. We can do this. Not easy. No. But, yes, change can happen.
3
The ideological zombies populating the Republican party have been doing this for years. It's the most consistently accurate way to find out what's going on ever! Here's how it works: Just listen to what they say the other side is doing, and you know that's what they themselves are doing. The greater their outrage, the harder they're doing it. And you don't need to listen to anyone to know who they are doing it to, that's self evident: US. The only reason I need a subscription to the New York Times is for all the other news that has nothing to do with that miserable excuse for a political party.
3
ENTITLEMENTS? Why is Trump 'entitled' to pay little or no income taxes? And all the other real estate moguls too. And why was Nixon and now Romney and Gary Cohn and lord knows how many others entitled to avoid/and or delay taxes on money earned in the US by using Caribbean instruments/vehicles? And why have the moderate/establishment Democrats let the Republicans hijack the concept of entitlements as applicable only to Social Security, Medicare, and Medicaid?
10
Paul Krugman has an unhappily perfect way of clarifying and focusing the picture of our fraying democracy.
The only conclusion possible is that Republicans are the party of sociopathic criminals.
Mitch McConnell and the rest of the Republicans clearly have no conscience, as evidenced by an easy avoidance of integrity to do whatever is necessary to win. They engage in outrageous violations of Senate rules, telling absurd lies, and knowingly allowing or encouraging laws that directly endanger all Americans. Their motivations are obviously based on the need to please donors and the desire to fill their own pockets.
11
The Republicans continue their looting and pillaging.
And, apparently, all the American populace can do in response is cry, “more! More!”
Our species will be dead soon.
The rich won’t escape, and eating them - besides the bad taste - won’t solve the problem, even though they are the primary source of the problem.
Is there a way, then? What?
To be scammed, you have to be a willing participant.
1
GOP in charge run up deficits and then the democrats have to come in and clean up the mess. Forever crying for tax cuts for the rich when in power they go wild and of course come after entitlements like social security and medicare those freeloaders the rich republicans love to hate. Trump and Jared paid no federal taxes thru loopholes and of course they are for more loopholes and using their role in government to enrich themselves or get loans from Saudis or Russians as needed. The swamp is now a bottomless cesspool with agency heads looting away at will like the boss kleptomaniac. Perhaps Trump can investigate himself and his cronies so they can continue their looting while blaming the democrats with Hannity leading the charge.
11
"...they’re squirting out clouds of ink and hoping voters won’t figure out where they really stand."
While Republicans have been doing this for years, the Ryan- McConnell machine has turned it into a scam of epic proportions. The method they use is to take every considered argument that Democrats use in critiquing Republicans and then use that very argument against Democrats - at times verbatim - but without bothering to provide the slightest proof.
It's as though PeeWee Herman's chant of "I know you are but what am I?" represents the sum total of their political strategy. And it actually seems to be working!
3
"Can a campaign this dishonest actually win? We’ll find out in less than three weeks." I'd like to think that the answer to your question is no but based upon what I've seen and heard over the last 20 months (since the Trumpster started to occupy the White House) I'm not sure it's not yes, it will win.
It seems that in America no one wants to understand how tax cuts hurt the economy, force cutbacks in "entitlement programs" that help 99% of us while the politicians keep the government welfare spigot well primed for their rich donors. This tax overhaul was especially obvious in who was getting the breaks and it wasn't anyone who works for a living.
We have become a small minded and petty nation because of who we've elected to serve us at the federal level, the state levels, and the local levels of government. We are losing ground in the world when it comes to being a desirable place to live. This country is eating its young. It started when we elected "Saint Ronnie" in 1980. Trickle down economics doesn't work but plenty of Americans continue to believe in it. We'd be better off believing in the tooth fairy.
I fear for my country, its citizens, and where it's going. Trump is not making America great again for Americans unless they are part of the uber rich. And if we don't want to fund the government we're going to get what we deserve: lousy government at every level. Is this how patriotism works: I've got mine and I don't care about you. It does here.
42
@hen3ry
A job is the most effective welfare program. The Trump economy has created millions of jobs; and the employment markets are tight as a drum. Wages at the bottom of the ladder are increasing rapidly. The so called "deplorables" are receiving substantial raises, at last, rather than government checks to sit home drinking beer. What's not to like? They want to work fot decent wages; now they are able to do so.
@Stew R really? You must be living in a different America where age doesn't matter, where all the jobs pay decent wages, and where everyone who wants a job can get one.
I'll let you know in 3 months if the temporary job it took me 14 months to find lasts longer. I lost the job I had because of Trump. And every time the jobs report comes out and came out under Obama and Bush I asked myself the same questions: were the jobs permanent, with benefits, paying decent wages, and were Americans getting them. For the most part the answers were no.
1
@hen3ry
Thank you for expressing, so perfectly what’s been in my heart and mind for a very long time. Campaigning for Beto here in TX has given our rural community a connection to hope and one another.
10
The deficit is being fueled not only by tax cuts but by a military spending that dwarfs the military budgets of Russia, China and the next five or six other nations. Since the end of World War II, our elected representatives, Republican and Democrat, have set this country on a path of increased militariy spending that now consumes well over half the discretionary budget. We seem to be willing to squander billions to destroy life and the environment but begrudge life enhancing basics to the poor and, increasingly, to the middle class.
38
@Ghanda Di Figlia
Thank you for the good news, on a day--like any day since November 2016--when we sure could use some.
Do you think the Donors care if Medicare, Social Security and Medicare are cut? The Republicans were finally successful in pleasing their Donors. Fortunately for us they were not successful in repealing the Affordable Care Act.
The minions had to give the store away or else. Who are these people that just want More, More, More & More?
18
"at this point Republicans are proclaiming that war is peace, freedom is slavery, ignorance is strength"
We have our perpetual war - the war on terror. Trump added the war on the border. Though, we are not drinking Victory Gin or smoking Victory Cigarettes yet. But, the US is looking for a new war.
We have slavery - most of the working population are in wager slavery. Especially with wage disparity at record levels. Not to mention the continuing "dumbing" of America. In "1984", most of the population were uneducated. In this way, only a small segment of the population were seen as a threat, so they were monitored, accused of thought crime, etc.
Ignorance - See Fox News and whatever comes out of Trump's and the GOP's collective mouths. They have their own Ministry of Truth which has declared any opposing view as "the enemy of the people". We even have history being rewritten.
George Orwell thought the UK would be INGSOC, no one ever dreamed the US will begin to morph into it. We now have monthly presidential alerts one very communication device. How soon will all those cameras, in people's homes, and cars, become telescreen.
You tell the same lie enough times, it becomes the truth.
I worked my whole life for Medicare and Social Security; I earned it. Just like public sector workers earned their pensions and platinum medical care. Get rid of the tax salary cap on FICA, and Medicare. See how quickly they become solvent. Then, repeal irresponsible tax cuts.
97
What I fear the most is another tainted election. Not from illegal votes which are a myth anyway, but from voter suppression.
Seems people have mostly forgotten that W. Bush’s first term was illegitimate. The Supremes said so, just 2 years later. But they also said it could not be undone by then. Note that in 2000, just like 2016, the winning Republican candidate lost the popular vote by well over a million.
I plead with election officials to not put up roadblocks to voting. Ballots can be verified and nullified after the fact.
Elections, like the Supremes discovered after 2000, cannot be redone. This is a weak spot in our democratic process. If people start to believe that the process cannot be trusted, our society will unravel.
It isn’t a coincidence that knowingly casting a single illegal vote is a felony. You could lose your right to vote again forever. Literally all non-citizens know this. Who takes that chance to cast one ballot? No one.
Who really thinks illegal voting is happening despite all evidence to the contrary? Republicans. Setting up roadblocks to select voters, well that’s just business as usual for them and it worked in the past.
We are playing with fire here. Even people disinclined to publicly protest like myself, will take to the streets over this.
Votes matter! And they should be considered valid until proven otherwise. Presuming someone is doing something illegal without due process is un-American!
15
@Nick Benton
Showing an ID to vote is reasonable. If there are at least 11 million "undocumented" (illegal) immigrants in our nation, as most experts opine, why should they be allowed to vote? To elect Democrats? Hmmmm.
@Stew R:
That's not what it's about; it's about having to pay a fee to vote.
And guess what, undocumented workers stay away from the polls.
Undocumented workers don't vote. That is just one more Republican lie.
Why are the Republicans willing to kill our country for wealth? There is a point when a person has enough in monetary assets. But people want more. Money and stuff will not prevent death. And wealth cannot hide the reality. We all die. Greed cannot fix that. Instead, build a healthy nation for all of us. It is at least something worth living for.
18
"Can a campaign this dishonest actually win?"
Isn't it clear the answer is yes? The Republicans were able to motivate voters and stoke a whole Tea Party movement over phony claims about Obamacare. Now, facing a true destruction of the benefits for millions that depend on Medicare and Social Security have the Democrats got the message out to voters? In part because so many get their news from Fox and don't believe anything unless Trump says it, no. But its deeper than that. The Democrats have shown they are unable to drive the national conversation even when they have facts on their side and voters that would agree with them if they learned said facts!
14
Mitch already took my lunch money and now he wants the nutrition bar in my back pocket. It's fairly clear to me if I expect to retain something, I'll had to start hiding it in my shoes. Oh no! He filched my Cons when I wasn't looking. What is a poor boy to do?
Vote 'em out.
53
Let's try to clear the air with facts, an impossible task I realize. I'm included in that awful greedy inhumane 1% who have worked 50 years in industry to achieve financial success. I stayed in cheap motels most of my life and carefully managed my money at most times. I always lived below my means, even when I was poor in my teens and twenties. I'm not bragging; I'm just citing facts.
Under the new Trump tax bill, my federal income taxes are going up, not down. The loss of state and local tax deductions more than offsets the 2.6% reduction in my marginal federal tax rate. I do not benefit; in fact I lose. The middle class wins which is good in my opinion. It's high time that the middle class wins something.
President Obama often talked about the middle class, disingenuous to say the least, code words for the poor. The actual middle class have paid and paid, and will continue to do so. Democrats love the poor, whether worthy of help or not. Fact: there are not enough people like me to rape and pillage; our progressive friends have to overtax the middle class to implement their agendas.
1
@Stew R
Stew of course you won't benefit. Sounds like you actually work for a living as opposed to lie around cashing passive income checks while not lifting a finger, and even worse, if you are in real estate, taking part in legal tax dodges which leaves you with phony losses, government tax refunds, and no income taxes on millions of dollars of profit each year.
But plenty of persons living on passive flow through income will make out like bandits.
And if you are part of the 1%, you probably would still do very well under Eisenhower marginal tax rates.
Maybe Republicans have been so successful because they have an agenda, and they stay focused on achieving it - by the way, it benefits them, not you. If you are reading these words you are not likely benefitted by the Republican agenda: low taxes for the Rich, weak or no regulation or supervision of Big Business, suppression of the vote, and appointment of Republican judges at all levels.
Only the Uber-Wealthy benefit ultimately from a crippled tax structure, lax regulation, etc., but they and their puppets in Congress have successfully sold a lot of low-information rube voters on the belief that they will someday become rich and beautiful if they go along with the Republican program.
It won't happen. The suckers may see a little money, the pig may wear lipstick for a day or two, maybe a pep rally on TV or in person with you-know-who, but then it's back to the same old grind - low pay, hard work, and lots of bills. That's how the game is played.
Democrats need to push for a positive program of change that will benefit the people. How about a nice 5% bump in Social Security payments, and Medicare for All, to start. Then low cost public transportation and a nice new infrastructure system, like free internet, good roads, high-speed rail, and reliable power, water and sewer service.
Socialism? Too Expensive? HaHa. Tell me another. If they can find the money to run a losing fifteen year war on the other side of the world, they can find the money for anything.
22
'' Republicans are proclaiming that war is peace, freedom is slavery, ignorance is strength and the party that keeps trying to kill Medicare is actually the program’s greatest defender.''
You forgot Donald Trump is a brilliant, honest, moral man who drained the swamp, built the wall, gave ever one better cheaper healthcare, and locked her up..
10
Ah yes...how surprised can one/we really be??? The only
question when the scam was passed with unanimous,
enthusiastic glee by all those deficit chicken hawks who
couldn't stand the idea of deficit spending by a democrat
but just couldn't get enough of it thereafter (talking about you flake, hasse, graham, etc etc.) ..was whether the
deficit concerns were going to become important electoral
issues or whether the market upshoot was going to
dominate all news prior to November 6....
And are there any voters actually paying attention/actively worried about this or not? Aye
there's the rub....since paying attention is so hard to do these
days.
My sense is that only a distinct minority of voters is going to vote based upon the deficit response plans by those responsible for creating it. And that will be a wash since as
many will be horrified as gleeful about what gets trimmed.
Most are going to vote while not knowing much at all about the plans to address it (at their expense) come
no flip in either chamber, and others just will vote based upon the illusory pick up in the economy, i.e. the markets, that the original scam instigated.
The pain that is forthcoming will therefore be a big
surprise to many who are now apparently indifferent. Welcome to the world created by the low info voter. You get
what you deserve.
I can hardly wait for the anguished responses to the looming cuts in medicare and social security...so so necessary
what with our big deficit.
11
Here's the deal: the Republicans missed the chance of a lifetime to drastically alter the economic picture of America when they failed to win the presidency in 2008. Had they won, any Republican would have put the country into a deep depression, simultaneously blaming everything on overspending by Democrats.
So now they are trying to achieve something like the same thing, which, in the end game, is the partial bankruptcy of America. Why could they possibly want that? Well, their merchant and ownership classes would get a lot of benefits. Cheap labor. Low prices when buying big assets. And, most of all, a scared to death voting public that would be primed and ready to believe almost anything. "It's all the fault of the Democrats."
The Republicans (read: the rich) believe that having hard times is good for everyone but themselves. It keeps people in line, they don't ask for much more than survival and, for those who go nuts and start robbing 7-11s, the increase prison population means...more profits for Republicans running prisons. A win-win, baby.
The Republicans want the federal enterprise, and to some degree the economy, to fail so they can succeed. I never would have believed this years ago, but now the evidence is piling up sky high.
This, too: there is no better country to be rich in than a nation that is generally poor. Look to Mexico. The rich there live like kings while a huge portion of the population is desperate. One way or another, that's the Republican goal.
15
Why do they think they can get away with this? Because they can. They got away with these tactics in 2016.
Can a campaign this dishonest actually win? - You bet. Given the sort of disarray Democrats are in, it is a surprise Republicans are even campaigning!
7
We knew this was step two. It was too obvious. So all my years of working and paying INTO the system are now just funds for the government. I was paying them while I worked? It wasn't supposed to come back to me. It was just another kind of tax, collected later. I don't get to see it because... the government wants to pay rich people?? I will die on the street, hopefully in front of the white house, 45, and Mc.
12
When Congress returns for its closing session of the year it can repeal the 2017 tax cut. Most people opposed it anyhow. The deficit will fall like magic and Republicans can claim credit for a hard-nosed decision reducing the deficit (no need to mention they caused it to soar). Restoring federal deductions for state and local taxes will capture the hearts and minds of Republicans in places like upstate New York or suburban Pennsylvania rankled by the the way they were sold out by their brethren in the South. Mitch McConnell can lay the blame for hasty action on Paul Ryan and Donald Trump. Ryan is leaving Congress and President Trump is widely-understood to be impetuous on things he does not understand. In blunt terms it is far more important for Republicans to keep faith with seniors who are members of the Republican Party (full disclosure: I am one) than a small number of financiers who have already made their money via stock appreciation and repatriation of profits. The Mercers might write bigger checks to the Republican Party than I can but millions like me can and will retaliate at the ballot box for cutting Social Security instead of repealing the Trump-Ryan tax cut.
12
Dear Mr. McConnell,
As part of your drive to cut benefits, why not begin with your exceedingly generous health care benefits and other income draining congressional benefits. And while your at it, how about turning over your control of your own salary increases and turn that over to the taxpayer, consistent with the Conservative argument for less centralized government. How about hiding these thefts from public view by changing their Congressional approval from the midnight hour to a time when more taxpayers are awake. Hypocricy thy name is Republican
30
@Richard
"As part of your drive to cut benefits, why not begin with your exceedingly generous health care benefits and other income draining congressional benefits.."
The drive is to cut benefits from UNDESERVING people, people who "chose" to be poor by not taking advantage of the wonderful opportunities that a democratic meritocracy "apparently" gives to all.
"Can a campaign this dishonest actually win?"
Republicans steal money from voters and constantly lie to them. They seek to eviscerate the social safety net that people rely on: Social Security, Medicare, Medicaid, and the ACA. One would think that the reality obfuscated by their deception should catch up with them eventually. But they seem confident, in fact overly so.
Is it because the economy, jobs, and the stock market are all going strong, and these serve as their smokescreen for now, before the crash, that is?
Is it because they know something about the electronic voting machines and Putin's plans for the midterms?
Who knows?
But we surely will find out in a few weeks. If Democrats can't pull it off, we may find ourselves under one-party rule for a long time. And this is one party that will not have a happy ending.
20
Can it be true that the USA leads the developed world in electing bald faced liars, crooks, and sociopaths. This about describes the republican party. But wait a second. That would describe Mitch McConnell pretty well.
30
Totally agree. I am very tired of the republicans behavior.
I do want to point out that I have not seen the democrats be honest about the deficit issue either.
And please remember when Bill Clinton says he balanced the budget, somehow the national debt increased 40% while he was president.
No wonder no one seems to trust politicians, many of which seem to become multi-millionaires due to their jobs......
1
Paul,
I wish that you had noted that when taxes are slashed companies repatriate large sums of assets that had been staged in havens off shore. Thi massive influx is taxed and generates a one time spike in tax revenues.
Next year, after the mid terms we will see the true extent of the damage Republicans have done to our budget. The forecasts are already showing that with the increase debt and interest rate we will see the cost of serving the interest on the national debt become the largest item in the federal budget. In just a few years it will exceed even defense spending.
If the Republicans want to reduce a part of the unsustainable debt, that would be a good starting point.
6
During the Presidential Campaign, Mr. Krugman, on OP-ED pages of the NY Times declared
TRUMP IS RIGHT ON ECONOMICS
yes, he had reservations otherwise, but in politics what counts, in the word of the Clinton campaign "It is the economy, stupid" No other economist of rank endorsed the economic program of Trump
But I digress
Let's see how the foreign Press sees it
"Politiquement incorrectes, les réformes de Trump sont un succès pour l'économie américaine"
http://www.lefigaro.fr/vox/monde/2018/01/09/31002-20180109ARTFIG00269-po...
"Les États-Unis deviennent le pays le plus compétitif au monde"
http://www.lefigaro.fr/conjoncture/2018/10/17/20002-20181017ARTFIG00141-...
Not claiming that LeFigaro is correct, but is interesting that the less invested in Partisanship foreign press sees it differently
1
@WoofExactly what does the competitiveness of the US economy have to do with tax cuts increasing the deficit?
Post hoc ergo propter hoc arguments are particularly dubious in economics.
2
@Woof: The "Trump is Right on Economics" claim was back when Trump was arguing for health care for all and increased taxes on the rich. Of course neither of those positions lasted.
3
Where do they get off defining Social Security as an "entitlement"?
Social Security is my pension fund, that I paid into from the time I turned 16 and got my first part-time job. It's not an "entitlement", I earned it. Erasing that fund would be highly unjust, and unlike private pension funds that can go bankrupt because of bad investments, Social Security is entirely at the mercy of Congress.
If Congress has misused that money, then they should be punished, not I.
38
@Linda
And you know Congressmen and elected officials and judges will not lose their pensions, not one cent just as they won't lose their health care when they deep six ACA, Medicare and Medicaid!
1
It won’t be pretty when 60,000,000 Social Security and Medicare beneficiaries take to the streets, when the benefits that they are entitled to since they paid for them via payroll taxes are cut. Could be a revolution
23
@Ev
I'm so glad you used the word "entitled" in its proper sense. We most certainly are entitled to our benefits because we earned them. Entitlement has been turned on its head to mean its own opposite, something we are not entitled to, and even liberals have lapsed into accepting that meaning. Democrats, take the word back and throw it in the face of Sen. McConnell who said it with a sneer.
6
Here’s an exercise.
1. Take Social Security out of the budget, both expenditures and contributions. If that doesn’t balance the budget then,
2. Take Medicare out of the budget, both expenditures and contributions. If that doesn’t balance the budget then,
Stop blaming entitlements!
3. Balance the remaining budget however congress sees fit.
4. Address funding Social Security. It’s not that hard. Numerous solutions have been proposed since the 1980s. Choose one or a combination of several.
5. Address Medicare, Medicaid, and healthcare in general. What do we want to do as a civilized country?
6. Leave Social Security out of the budget permanently so that we don’t have the same problem with blame in the future.
7. It might be a good idea to do the same with Medicare, Medicaid, and the revised healthcare solution.
8. Repeat: What do we want to do concerning healthcare as a civilized country?
18
Medicaid is funded from both and state and federal general funds and while only 60% of Medicare is supported by payroll deductions and the monthly Part B premiums.
3
@From Where I Sit
Be that as it may, the exercise would still show where the problem is and where the blame should lie.
We need to come to grips with what we want do do a a civilized country.
@From Where I Sit
If what you say is true, then blame MedicareAdvantage, for it costs the Medicare system 17% more than regular Medicare does.
Yes, the real reason for the GOP tax cuts is to scare people with the debt & deficit so they can cut beneficial government programs such as Medicare and Social Security, but what makes their argument fly is the kitchen table ideas most folks have about the federal debt & deficit.
Here are some questions you can think about:
When will the USA run out of money?
The day after the NFL runs out of points. The only thing that limits our printing of money is inflation which is caused by not being able to produce enough stuff to soak up the new money, for example, shortages like of oil.
When did too much federal debt EVER have a negative effect on the US economy?
Beats me.
What has happened ALL 6 times we have significantly (10% or more) paid down the debt?
We have suffered a depression. In fact, ALL of our 6 depressions followed paying down the debt.
When did we pay off or even pay down the huge WWII debt?
What happened was we actually increased the debt 75% from 1946 to 1973 & enjoyed great prosperity. As the economy grew, the debt simply became insignificant.
How is needed money is added to a growing economy?
1. Banks can create a certain amount by making loans, but we have just seen what happens when they create too much.
2. We can repatriate money sent abroad. We haven't been able to do that for a long time, & it seems unlikely we ever will.
3. It comes from the government via deficit spending. Too small a deficit => not enough money for us to buy & sell stuff.
3
A little before Krugman predicted that Republicans would use the deficits caused by the then soon to be enacted tax cuts, I was emailed by a friend who had been a great Marine. He wrote how wonderful it was that we would get a tax cut that, as some Republicans (including Trump) were saying, would turn a big profit. I replied that they knew their claims were false, and that they would soon proclaim that because of the deficits they caused they had to cut Social Security, Medicare, and Medicaid. He, not a close observer of Republicans, wrote back "Americans don't do that sort of thing."
Like Krugman I would never have guessed how many Republicans would claim that their position on health care was the exact opposite of what it really was. I still underestimate the evil of many Republicans.
71
What Krugman is describing is a revolution from the inside, in which foundational institutions of democracy are subverted to install a government of, for and by the entitled. The mainstream news media, unable to distinguish the revolution's lies and misrepresentations from the normal stretching of truth in political discourse, continue to assume the good faith of those driven by a deepening greed and an ever more brazen quest for power. Are we not seeing a similar subversion of the planet's climate, in which climate change for many years or even decades remains disguised within the natural variation of the weather, until all that we thought lasting is overthrown?
10
Dishonest can win because we use the wrong words every single day when talking about blatant lies. "Dishonest" does not have the same ring to it as "lying". "Falsehood" does not have the same ring to it as "Lie." Take it from the master who called Ted Cruz "Lyin' Ted." Not only was he right, he also framed the issue in straightforward language that everyone can understand. "Crooked Hillary" was framed as a corrupt candidate from the start. These labels stick as much as you want to argue against them (see George Lakoff's analysis). Therefore, the so-called mainstream media are tiptoeing around a fundamental issue: They do not call out lies, and they implicitly accept the moving of goalposts in the debate about what may or may not be true. Krugman is right, but we need to pay more attention to how we use words. Call a spade a spade: McConnell is a lying creep, so is Ryan. They all worship at the altar of the master, i.e. Lying, creepy criminal Donald J. Trump.
80
Considering how busy and determined the GOP have been in attempting to manipulate the vote in their favor I have to think that they're not confident with the argument their attempting to make. If you're pretty sure that voter suppression is your only hope then the gig is up.
The question is how far will they go?
16
Typical, as the debt skyrockets because of Republican tax cut recklessness, we need to elect Democrats to save the US economy again.
Emperor trump has no brains and is indeed the king of debt. It will be the middle class and the poor that will pay for the mess again, increasing the wealth divide even further.
The pro-Russian anti-American Republicans seem to be want to destroy America and are using the tax system to do it. America is to be privatized and is for sale for cheap to the most dishonest bidder with the highest tax cuts and tax dodges.
Only Republicans can increase the debt astronomically while having the best economy ever. Granted, the good economy is fake as it is being temporarily propped up with $1.5 trillion in unpaid taxes to the billionaires and scamsters like our POTUS.
Tragically Mr. Kashoggi's final article echos the lies and clamp down on truthful-information in this country by the trump-Republican-state just as authoritarian Arab nations keep doing.
19
Dr. Krugman, you diagnosed the progression of this Republican disease years ago. Keep shouting about this outrage, please. And let's all hope more people start to see through the greed and arrogance. Thanks you.
24
McConnell blamed the deficit on the supposedly "third rail" of American politics you must not touch -- Social Security/Medicare -- in an interview on Bloomberg TV. He probably figured no one would notice because few people watch Bloomberg (and most of them are Republicans). He didn't anticipate that all the news outlets would pick up his incautious remarks.
27
Wealthy capitalists have decided, apparently, that the planet would be much more pleasant with fewer people. And more pleasant still if the people remaining were sprouted mostly from their own gene pools. So why should their assets be used to ease our lives and suffering?
They would rather that we "die and decrease the surplus population."
10
Rather than change Social Security and Medicare, I think what we need to do is change McConnell and the rest of the Republicans in Congress. Ryan is ducking responsibility anyway by 'retiring', no doubt to shortly afterwards get a lucrative job at a lobbying firm or conservative "think tank" (aside - why do they call them 'conservative think tanks' when they never come up with any new ideas?). Ryan is cashing in on the Trump "Tax Reform" and will multiply his Congressional salary several times. Let's hope McConnell gets forcibly retired soon, to the same opportunity. We have the Best Government Money Can Buy. Get out and Vote! to change it.
10
Great article. Are enough people taking notice?
16
Paul observes: “Republicans are proclaiming that war is peace, freedom is slavery, ignorance is strength and the party that keeps trying to kill Medicare is actually the program’s greatest defender.” “Republicans have concluded that they can’t win an argument on the issues, but rather than changing their policies, they’re squirting out clouds of ink and hoping voters won’t figure out where they really stand.” All from the totalitarian playbook of the centuries.
Paul is on the money here. However, he has yet to point out that the GOP Congress and the Trump White House are made possible only by a ubiquitous iniquitous brainwashing machine that defines reality for 40% of voters. The cure for this problem is dismantling of this machine and restoration of communication and reason and fact.
16
Bait and switch or lie and lie seems to have been working ever since the ratings can assure better bottom lines on TV. It is that disconnect which bothers me the most and it does not need to be the new normal for our Country. Then it was lying about Mr. Obama's birth certificate with the non-critical and incomplete coverage. Maybe now the media can expose the lies and replace them with honest facts. The media needs to go after the lying by calling out the lies by the Republicans and to feature the media's same intensity to give us access to Mr.Trump's tax returns. The depth of lying now seems to have no bottom limit of depravity. Without corrective action by us all, this fact dooms our Democracy it seems.
5
You are right: this was completely predictable.
It is stunning that some people still buy the Republican deceptions and listen to what Republican politicians say in the last few weeks before the election. They have lost all their credibility and there is only once action that makes sense: vote against any person that has aligned with these con artists.
11
So, what's new? McConnell and Trump, et al, are just being smart. As the columnist states, Republicans have always been scheming and dishonest, especially in regard to economics. They must keep their wealthy backers happy. The problem is that Democrats have been too honest for their own good. If cheating and lying are perfectly OK for the GOP, then Democrats should do the same the next time they take power.
2
Republicans attacking the social safety net? You said it: "Any political analyst who didn’t see this coming should find a different profession." That is simply part of the long game that Republican's have been playing since FDR. (And blaming others.) Be afraid, because Mitch McConnell is the one coming after your Medicare, Social Security, and your health care. Just like he promised. And where is the fourth estate? Chasing the latest Trump scandal while the fox steals it all?
11
Since the Democratic leadership has said nothing about this, even though there's an election approaching, is all the proof anyone needs that they are Republicans.
The Democratic Leadership have been hardcore Republicans for decades.
It's no coincidence that libraries saw a big uptick in readership of Nineteen Eighty Four once Trump was elected. Life imitated art all too well.
10
The mainstream news media have shaped the narrative by not calling out the lies. The ugly success of propaganda was in our recent history, yet we let the Fairness Doctrine lead us down the slippery slope to a post-fact world.
By definition the Faithful have proven they can be led to believe things that can’t be backed up by science and facts. The powerful have done a masterful job of harnessing that ignorance.
The media helped.
The Great Disenlightenment is almost upon us.
11
Another good reason for the Democrats to take control of the House. The Republicans keep on playing tax cuts for the rich that they want paid for by the non-wealthy by shredding the social safety net of Medicaid, Medicare and Social Security. The voters see the scam and are ready to cut Republicans and keep these programs. We've just recovered the republican caused great recession of 2008 and "there they go again." Now it's time to forget about bailing them out, but instead throwing them out before they bankrupt us again. It's time to raise taxes on the rich, have true immigration reform instead of concentration camps for children, and finally provide quality health care for all.
12
'Republicans believe that they can neutralize the deep unpopularity of their actual policies by misrepresenting their positions, and win by playing to racism and fear', now i wouldn't have thought i would have to point out the patently obvious here but, it worked for the president so why wouldnt they use this tactic again? Of all the people i know this is the main reason why they think that, how should i say this? That Americans are a little dimwitted, slow or just plain stupid, sorry to all those that dont fall into this category but you have to admit i have a point.
19
@Bob Tonnor
Don't we just know it, to our infinite regret.
@Bob Tonnor you do have a point.
In Illinois, the Democrats have controlled the State Legislature, and people like Mike Madigan kept spending money to improve pensions and keep his real estate tax lawyer buddies happy, but the Democrats did not provide a source of revenue to pay for all the bills. As a consequence, Illinois is now in deep financial trouble, and the taxes are already sky high. You have to admit that the Republican tax cut has kept unemployment low, and the economy must be doing well because the Fed is raising interest rates. As bad as the Republicans seem to be, there are also corrupt Democrats, and while we desperately need honest and trustworthy politicians, the words "honesty" and "politician" seems to be oxymorons for both parties. Since both parties are so corrupt, it is understandable why so many people are apathetic and do not vote.
2
Gosh, this comes as such a surprise!
I thought for sure that slashing taxes on corporations and the rich would increase tax revenues, and along with a massive military budget increase, this would reduce the federal budget deficit, and allow us to fund that massive infrastructure renewal project Trumpolini promised during his campaign.
I also had no doubt that Fearless Leader would reveal a miraculous, handy dandy health care plan... you know, the one he promised to replace ‘failing Obamacare,’ that we’d all love to pieces, that would ‘cover everybody’ — that one?
But then again, I was on powerful mind altering drugs at the time all of this transpired, along with 50 or 60 million members of the Cult of Trump - an IV drip of Fox News.
6
Americans have no idea how really, really wealthy the richest Americans are. Or how easily they game the tax code, and get away with it because the IRS is woefully underfunded.
Meanwhile, these average Joes and Janes ante up their fair share, expecting Medicare and Social Security to be there for them when they finally limp out of the workforce.
By the time they realize they were scammed, it will be too late. And it will be decades, and another cycle of rebellion like we had in the 1920s and 30s, to right the ship.
Assuming climate change doesn't do us in first.
63
The republicans are on a winner and the Democrats just don’t understand it. What motivates most people is feeling special in the moment- not knowing you will be cared for when you get sick in 20 years time.
That’s why the opportunity to put a hand on the chest while your ‘special’ song plays is more important than the idea of keeping the young out of unnecessary wars and the unfortunate out of the gutter.
Those who don’t actively proclaim their patriotism (despite the fact that they are actively more patriotic) must be destroyed. Hence the constant stream of primitive abuse from their leader.
Democrats, it is time to start learning human behaviour 101.
16
I believe that the GOP knows it’s in for a potential mauling in in the midterms. This explains why it was so rabid to see Kavanaugh elevated to the Supreme Court: even if it loses the mandate to govern, Republicans still have a potent hand in steering the country until they can rise again and do something else to cement power. The false accusations that the party level at the Democrats is part of this evil pragmatism. Individuals like Mitch McConnell and Jeff Sessions practically exude guilt on their faces: is there a photograph anywhere in existence that doesn’t depict either as a terrified hamster?
5
The entire purpose of democracy is legitimacy: government with the authority stipulated by the Constitution and granted by the majority of those governed.
But the Republicans govern with neither mandate nor majority but with the corrupt gaming of ideals and principles to seize and perpetuate an iron grip on all levers of power to serve their greed and their kind.
Reagan's Shining City on a Hill, a beacon to the world, is now the Trump Tower of Babel amidst fractious mobs that no longer comprehend each other beyond the curses that poison all prospect of shared purpose and prosperity.
More scab than scam, they blithely squander taxes on first class flights, $30,000 dining tables, secure phone booths in cabinet offices, weekly jaunts to branded golf resorts, $50,000 window curtains, globe-trotting in-laws courting private deals at public expense...and the emperor's great wall of We Reserve the Right to Refuse Humanity.
A tax scam is a heart attack. A political scam is a cancer fully metastasized -- the rampage of cells proliferating so rapidly the body fails to recognize its malevolence and nurtures it until it seizes hegemony and subvert normal cellular function in blind self-destruction.
"...a tall, proud city...teeming with people of all kinds living in harmony and peace...with free ports that hummed with commerce and creativity...open to anyone with the will and the heart to get here."
They are Reagan's children but even he wouldn't recognize them now.
15
I need to respond as Montreal Moe.
Thank you, Thank you a thousand times thank you.
I finally see a spark of optimism. I see a response of the feigned outrage and the hate, and misinformation that has been spewed on those that have made the USA the richest most powerful nation the world has known.
The antidote to the GOP poison is real outrage and the truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth.
6
We do not have a spending problem in regards to "entitlements." We have a revenue problem!
We do not have a spending problem in regards to infrastructure. We have a revenue problem.
We do not have a spending problem in regards to education. We have a revenue problem.
We do not have a spending problem with our national parks, research/development, arts and sciences, etc, etc. We have a revenue problem.
We have a problem with military spending. It is eating way too much of our revenue!
We do have a spending problem with corporate and rich individual subsidies. They are starving us of revenue.
29
Dr K. wonders whether the Republicans' politcal narrative will work or not. Guess what: that's largely up to the Democrats.
The day that McConnell announced his intentions about "entitlements" (a word that has been flipped to mean something we are not entitled to), the DNC should have pounced. It should be flooding the airwaves and the internet with a clip of him spilling the beans, followed by a voice-over like this: "He wants to steal YOUR benefits to pay for THEIR tax cuts."
But I'm still waiting.
13
Even Democrats got this when the tax plan was offered, and screamed bloody murder. Extreme conservatives among Republicans, of course, hoped that it would take a while before the truth penetrated the dense nimbus of Kumbaya that surrounds most liberals, and that they WOULDN’T get it until it was too late. Regular Republicans, like me, didn’t refer to it a lot because the extremos threatened to pound us when they got us alone behind the baseball diamond. But Phase I – Phase II turned out to be pretty obvious to just about everyone pretty early.
We’ve been distracted lately with vastly entertaining issues, such as #MeToo generally and exactly how many women eventually will be allowed to be present at the public emasculation of Harvey Weinstein, Trump’s taxes, Putin’s antics, Kim Jong-un’s antics, Gorsuch’s and Kavanaugh’s confirmations, Trump’s taxes, Stormy, kibitzing on Brexit, alleged Russian cahooting, trade issues, Trump’s mouth generally (and his taxes) and, most recently, as Roger Cohen puts it, “body parts on the Bosporus”. But liberals like Krugman are getting pretty desperate at the weakening prospects of a “blue wave” in a few weeks, so the healthcare funding argument is receiving renewed attention in their quest to subject Republicans to an act of electoral genocide.
Objectively, it’s a legitimate issue for consideration by Independents and soft-Republicans – certainly, hard-and-fast Democrats and Republicans already have charted out positions on it.
…
1
…
If Democrats flip the House on 6 November (they won’t be flipping the Senate), then expect attempts at excessive and concentrated Phase II legislation in the lame-duck session before early January, when newly-elected House members are seated – and the support to pass the legislation from hyper-conservative Republicans who lost their seats will be intense. If Dems don’t flip the House, then I don’t believe that we’ll see attempts by Republicans to impose Phase II before they make their arguments to the electorate and sell enough of them – could take the entire two years of the new Congress, may never happen. In any event, Dems would have two years to make counter-arguments directly to the people. A newly Democratic House in the New Year could do nothing to reverse such lame-duck legislation, because they won’t have the power to make policy – only to freeze subsequent legislative policy-making by Republicans, as our politics were frozen similarly for six years of Obama’s eight-year term by Republicans.
And that new legislation could put us on a road of strangling healthcare funding that the subsequent continuing resolutions compelled by the House’s flipping can’t reverse, because the CRs now would be based on a REPUBLICAN budget baseline.
Pay Republicans now or pay them later (maybe). If it’s now, expect the payment to be steep with a 30-day due-date. If it’s later … it may never happen. Most of you are adults: you choose.
1
@Richard Luettgen
think about it, Richard:
Wealthy Republicans are not party donors; they are owners.
8
@Richard Luettgen
I keep hearing about the weakening prospects of a “blue wave”. Well I have checked out 538 the past month and this is absolutely not true. A few weeks ago the stats for chance of winning the House for the Democrats was in the LOW SEVENTIES. Since that time the percentage for the Dems has been going up and GOP going down, For example today the Dems are at 84.5 % and GOP at 15.5
https://projects.fivethirtyeight.com/2018-midterm-election-forecast/hous...
So are there other indicators that I am missing? I am aware that the chances for winning the Senate for Dems are not good but the same cannot be said for both the House and governors races. Odds Are, Your Next Governor Will Be A Democrat by Nate Silver. https://fivethirtyeight.com/features/odds-are-your-next-governor-will-be...
3
Last sentence, we'll find out in 3 weeks?
"When the conservatives realize they can't win democratically, they won't abandon conservatism, they'll abandon democracy." (from David Frum, GWB's speechwriter)
Hence the gerrymandering and the blatant attempts to throw people off the voter rolls. Nonsensical ID requirements, far fewer voting machines in areas that trend blue compared to red. Roadblocks to voting by mail or absentee ballots. Hollering about mostly non-existent voter fraud while the Republicans are the ones guilty of such, if anything.
And as frequent commenter RLS always likes to remind us, the electronic voting machines are owned by partisan GOPers. The machines are easily hacked to alter the results in a few carefully selected precincts. Many suspect this is exactly what transpired in 2016 in Wisconsin, Michigan, and Pennsylvania. Yeah Hillary didn't campaign in those states enough, but those 70 thousand votes which gave Trump the Electoral College victory were not in agreement with the exit polls.
We may have a coup in the midterms, very possible the official results will be very different than the actual voting record. Oh and the GOP refuses to have paper ballots or a mechanism to recount those contested electronic voting machine results for that very reason.
It's happening here, folks.
138
@drdeanster
"Yeah Hillary didn't campaign in those states enough, but those 70 thousand votes which gave Trump the Electoral College victory were not in agreement with the exit polls.” Even in 2016, after voting, it’s entirely likely people were ashamed they voted for Trump.
I remember when George W. Bush and the GOP said they had to cut taxes because there would be chaos in the financial markets if there were no US Government bonds. Another gem from the GOP think tanks. Iraq War saved the markets.
8
Grover Norquist and his crowd should be tried for sedition. As to corporate taxes, maybe the book rate is higher than in most other countries but the proliferation of loopholes ensures that the actual rate paid is much lower, often zero.
43
Within days of the massive tax cuts to benefit primarily wealthy individuals and corporations, Paul Ryan said that the next thing on the Republican agenda was paring 'entitlements', like Medicaid, Medicare, Food Stamps and Social Security. These people have no shame and see no irony in awarding themselves and their allies so handsomely, while taking away dearly needed money and care for so many in our society.
With this picture of Mitch McConnell, I wonder if others have the same sense of the man, an evil and dark hearted Mister Magoo.
110
@Tim B
Tim you fail to recognize that the wealthy have earned their money, some corruptly, some not. As my parents always knew, Republicans first love is the color green.
The Trump effect may be in play in an odd way. People no longer expect him tell the truth. By extension the GOP falls victim to the same problem. Health care, taxes and immigration simple illustrations of multiple contradictory statements of policy provisions or effects. If lying is cooked into this cake, the GOP may profit by making clear their policies instead of running away from them.
2
Senator McConnell goes the distance for working Kentuckians, pleading for the end of affordable health insurance and the cutting of anything that will enable a stable, dignified retirement after a lifetime of labor. As if that is not enough, he silently enables incoherent trade policy that slams Bluegrass State farmers and distillers and ignores his state's infrastructure needs and the well paying jobs that could be generated. An amazing legacy.
70
@Eric Carey
McConnell's crowning glory will be his stomping all over the US Constitution in denying Merrick Garland a hearing in the Senate. Republicans think this is just fine; they only love the Constitution when it suits their ends.
2
We'll see what happens in the midterm elections. I don't think anyone expects Republicans to maintain control of both the Senate and the House, but if by some miracle (disaster?) they do, then I'd expect Obamacare to be first on the chopping block. Next up will be a systematic takedown of Medicaid and Medicare by limiting its funding and making it harder to apply. Next, if their luck holds, they'll move to cut back Social Security benefits. They may even try to pass further tax cuts, although more likely they'll increase funding to the military-industrial complex instead.
Think I'm crazy? Take a look at the Republican leadership. Since the 80s they've fought tooth and nail to reduce, defund, and repeal any programs that aren't directly related to law enforcement and the military. That is their stated goal; why don't people realize it's what they will do if given the chance?
115
How about we all get back the amount we and are employers contributed to these programs and nothing more.
Most people are taken taking far more than they contributed.
2
That’s not how insurance works. It’s not a savings account, it’s insurance - you pay in a certain amount, and then you are protected if you have an emergency.
If you’d like to trade in your car and health insurance for a savings account, be my guest, just don’t have anything really bad happen to you.
44
@Driven because that's not social insurance. Social Security was intended to reduce elderly poverty, which it has succeeded in doing spectacularly. If we have poor people putting in small amounts and getting only those small amounts, elderly poverty will skyrocket. With today's life expectancy growing (except for whites in recent years), we'll see elderly on the streets. And as far as Medicare, you cannot expect anyone with a middle income to cover their medical expenses in old age. It's just not possible. Not even the Ayn Rand dystopia of the USA believes that's feasible, which is why we have a government program for elderly health care. It's not perfect, and covers only people age 65 and over, but the rest of the civilized world has government medical care in some form, and they are healthier than we are at a lower cost. Look at Canada for a prime example of the success of government health care.
25
My husband paid in for 40 years, but he passed away after 1 year of collecting social security. The money he contributed is still the social security system. What you are contributing is like paying an insurance premium.
6
I have to hand it to the Republicans. Their goal for decades has been to roll back the New Deal and Great Society, and they have ruthlessly executed a coordinated plan to do just that by stocking the judiciary with conservatives, convincing middle America that tax cuts for the rich are in their best interest, and painting liberals as anti-American on every hot-button social issue, all the while using government to enrich their wealthy friends. They control not only the entire federal government but most state governorships and legislatures, while we Dems have been reduced to complaining they don’t fight fair and posting memes about how much we miss Obama. It’s been a breathtaking ideological defeat. If we don’t retake the House, the Mueller investigation goes away and, as Krugman points out, Medicare and Social Security will be eviscerated. A Dem defeat in November will validate everything this corrupt administration and party have done the past ten years. We better do all we can between now and Nov. 6 to make sure it doesn’t happen.
211
Perfectly stated. Unfortunately we have to put our hopes on the Democrats and they have not shown that they can win elections.
1
@AlNewman
The Republican plot has been at work for more than the
"past ten years"--try 40. Remember their "contract on America" (yes, that preposition is intended) conceived by their bullying con-man in arms named Gingrich?
Even the mafia couldn't outdo that one.
"Why do they think they can get away with this? The main answer is obviously contempt for their own supporters, many of whom get their news from Fox and other propaganda outlets that slavishly follow the party line. "
As I have said many times I usually agree with Dr.K but he is not taking into account the constant and persuasive GOP propaganda campaign, and who it has been targeted at. Dishonest Donald is not the only habitual Republican liar, he is only a symptom of the whole party, and now they have to defend him and create more lies. Their whole economic program has been a fanciful fairy tale of deception, greed, and malevolence toward the voters. They have cultivated a cult of believers who have convinced themselves that the GOP program is good for them.
This is not a new tactic, it has been used and practiced by authoritarian governments for centuries, that is how so many of them came to power, they understood human nature to believe what they want to believe, and to ignore the facts.
Cutting taxes has always been presented as a way to increase income for the masses. It uses the concept of jealousy by getting them to believe their "Hard earned money," is going for things they do not support. The idea of sharing costs is beyond their imagination, conservatives call it Socialism, yet very few can explain what that means, it is just another bad word, all inclusive.
These movements are not static, they cannot continue as they do, there is always a reckoning.
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1 trillion dollars so far spent on the F35 Albatross with the entire fleet now grounded after a recent crash. Seventeen F22s left at Tyndall Air Force base and now damaged because they weren’t flight worthy and couldn’t be moved ahead of Hurricane Michael. Each costing $330 million if you factor in the R&D. A rational procurement system for DoD would go a long way to closing the deficit.
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@Harvey. The DOD budget is never on the table. It, too, is an entitlement program, but the most sacred one apparently.
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And how much medical treatment, how many bridges, how many schools, how many scholarships could this have paid for?
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generals, military in general, get FULL PENSIONS after their service. They are generally fit, and always work in the 6 figure and up category in the private sector, fo the next 20 yrs, retiring in their 40's from the military. They don't need full pensions, when they are in their 40's, while a cop or a teacher? Pensioners at GE? what do they get?
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@4Average Joe This isn't a lot of money in the military budget. According to this - https://www.cbo.gov/publication/43574 - accrual costs for pensions is $16 billion annually. How about cutting defense spending and auditing defense contractors. That will save considerably more money.
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@4Average Joe
All public sector workers, including military, should not receive pensions.
Public safety employees do not have the most dangerous jobs in the US. We ask those who do have those jobs to save for their own retirement, so should police and fire.
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@Driven
Once upon a time, private sector workers had pensions. Then the corporate raiders came along and plundered the pension funds making themselves extremely wealthy in the process. I will never understand people who want strip pensions from public sector workers when they should be fighting to get their pensions back.
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The most popular , politically safe cuts would be to federal pensions . I’m surprised that these pensions have not been put on the chopping block or at least severely reduced . The pensions private companies gave their employees are history ; it’s just a matter of time for government pensions also .
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@Perry Neeum No! We can cut pensions for new federal hires. However, we've made a deal with federal employees. We have to fulfill it.
It might be politically safe but it is morally wrong.
Instead, I argue that we should try to recreate an economic environment where 401Ks would be rare and pensions would be common again.
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Most current Feds are under the FERS system which consists largely of a 401K type investment plan and an extremely minimal “pension”. The CSRS pensioners who receive the full ride are largely retired now and it would not be the right thing to do to change their system now.
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@Mike: "However, we've made a deal with federal employees."
Unless they are contractually obligate there is no "deal".
" I argue that we should try to recreate an economic environment where 401Ks would be rare and pensions would be common again. "
Do you understand how defined benefit pensions are paid by corporations?
You can talk about overfunding pension funds all you want. When there are shortcomings the pensions are paid from the income the company generates. No one except some government employers can support that.
What sort of "economic environment" led to those nice defined benefit pensions? The manufacturing based economy. Assembling in the US over 95% the of the automobiles sold in the US with a robust supplier base in the US. Likewise for other durable goods.
So when you look for the villains in all this the majority of blame lies with our consumer choices. The US consumer has the right to chose imports over domestic. And yes, I know automation hurts the semi-skilled labor market but that doesn't lessen the impact of our consumer choices on the employment picture.
Outsourcing, off-shoring, imports and H 1B visas, who's have thought they'd be the central planks in the Democratic Platform of unbridled globalism.
What a world, what a world.
The Republicans never have any problem with pouring more and more and ALWAYS MORE benefits into the laps of the millionaire class, and they'll willingly accept huge deficits to do that...all the while denying that their pampering of the very wealthy is in fact a major reason for the deficits. But when it comes to programs that actually direct vital benefits to tens of millions of Americans who aren't millionaires (i.e. Social Security and Medicare) they suddenly become alarmed over deficits and want to take an axe to them.
Their hypocrisy is breathtaking, on this as well as on many other issues. My fervent hope is that enough people have caught on to it and it makes them angry enough to trigger a blue wave that will swamp the GOP in November. I, for one, have already submitted my absentee ballot.
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McConnell and Trump should be easy targets. Democrats must simplify and dramatize their message and, accepting that theirs is a center/left coalition, focus on national candidates who are broadly appealing on a personal level. Ideology is for the development of ideas, not for winning elections. In the long view, relentlessly go after Republicans in every state and at every governmental level, and reduce the GOP to a size than can be drowned in a bathtub.
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I almost get the feeling that aside from PK, most in the news media want Trump and his party of deplorables to win the mid-terms and the 2020 Presidential race simply because they are more fun to cover.
No reporter or editor wants boredom, so I really think that the Times’s coverage today (Stauber in Minnesota, Edsall on Democrats turning hard left, Hillary Clinton getting in everyone's way) suggests an underlying hope that Trump and his courtiers will stay in power because it will keep them breathlessly employed through another election cycle. The small fact that this extremist Party and its bonkers President is destroying our country seems to be beside the point.
Only PK appears to understand how truly evil and bankrupt the Trump regime is.
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@PaulB67
I am not an American and I have followed our media and John Ralston Saul who was elected head of PEN International the International organization of writers and journalists dedicated to press freedom headed at times by HG Wells and Arthur Miller for a long while.
We have been at war with the Saudis for three months though logistically no shots were fired the difference in our values and ethics make our hostilities as real as those in your civil war and WW1 and WW2.
Chrystia Freeland our Minister of Foreign Affairs was an international journalist and has appeared in discussions with Paul Krugman and Larry Summers. She took issue with the Saudis about their arrest torture and murder of journalists in August. The Saudis used the Kavanaugh defense and expelled our ambassador and repatriated the Saudi nationals living in Canada.
Chrystia Freeland is no stranger to much of the American media with appearances with Bill Maher and a keynote speech at Aspen Ideas.
We have our own media but Chrystia Freeland was our chief NAFTA negotiator and better known to US than Canadian media.
You have stated what I believe to be all too true.
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@PaulB67
Read Blow. I don't know what you are talking about. I am a big fan of PK, and agree he adds much value, but the idea that all the people you note are pulling for Trump is absurd. Yes, some may not be helpful -- I happily voted for Clinton, thought she was far and away the best qualified, and misjudged how much Hillary hate was still extant -- I realized this in 2008, which is one of the many reasons I so strongly supported Obama -- but thought her work as SoS and favorable reviews earlier had put that to rest and was I ever wrong, so I agree that I was unhappy that she and Bill are jumping in at this point and do not think this is at all useful at this point even if I agree with Hillary that it is all out war until we get the country somewhat straightened out. Haven't read the Edsall column but I too am getting sick and tired of the ridiculous meme that every Dem running except maybe Conor Lamb is a Bernie clone. Not at all true in PA 5th, with endorsement of Ed Rendell from the beginning of the primary season, as establishment Dem as it gets in PA.
But there has been huge coverage of the voter suppression in N Dakota and Georgia, Trump tax fraud and Kushner paying 0 taxes -- news only the deplorables can stomach without nausea, Trump's despicable reaction to the Saudi murder in their embassy!!! of a WaPo journalist, etc. etc. How does this make Trump more viable?
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We have been corrupted. Our government is corrupt.
Tea Party/Freedom Caucus members said their movement started because of Obama's fiscal irresponsibility and not his race. Of course, when your country is heading for a Depression, you have to spend money or you are incompetent, they forgot to mention that. Now, massive deficits are A-Okay!
Evangelical Republicans didn't like Obama (an intelligent and caring family man) for some reason they couldn't quite explain, but now they love a walking version of Satan with a Narcissistic Personality Disorder.
Lies and hypocrisy have dominated for 5 decades and we are on the verge of losing our country. What are we going to do about it?
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@Gustav - Revolt!
@Gustav
For the history of nastiness and the Tea Party -- it had NOTHING to do with Obama -- see this month's The Atlantic Monthly article about wonderful Newt Gingrich and his success in creating the current uncivil system.
The Tea Party emerges in 2009/2010 -- pre Obama.
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Why aren't the Times and other established media outlets doing what the Washington Post is doing calling a lie a lie with the Pinocchio test. There needs to be a movement to take back the truth.
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The Republicans will get away with it because the Democrats are dopes.
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As an independent who leans right, truer words have never been said.
Just for the record, I wouldn’t vote this time for a republican if they were running for dog catcher.
The democratic’s will miss no opportunity to blow this election.
Why? Because they are dopes.
Robbing grandma to pay for Trump's thirteenth house. Lovely. Vote Blue.
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@Tony Cochran
The Republicans never met robber-barons they didn't like!
Let's stop being surprised.... Untruths are their strategy, as sure as is the racism and misogyny in their hearts.
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What a devious and underhanded strategy. Let's give it a name. "Starve the Beast!"
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