Mitt Romney A 'Closet Keynesian': Paul Krugman

The New York Times:

Speaking in Michigan, Mr. Romney was asked about deficit reduction, and he absent-mindedly said something completely reasonable: "If you just cut, if all you're thinking about doing is cutting spending, as you cut spending you'll slow down the economy." A-ha. So he believes that cutting government spending hurts growth, other things equal.

Read the whole story: The New York Times

 

 

Comments

[andyou]

06:14 PM on 02/24/2012

This criticism won't hurt Romney because most Republicans don't know what "Keynesian" means. Krugman should have just called him a doodoo head.

[dourdinlives]

05:54 PM on 02/24/2012

there has never been anything but a keynesian economic model in these united states. pragmatism, common sense, and the survival of this nation dictated that it be so.shifts and curves, supply and demand without the before or after machinations of an alan greenspan or like individual would have made any form of capitalism impossible and unworkable.either the tax laws have favored corporations of the people. there is a lot to be said about the true mark of a true, risk taking capitalist... that they are the ones that should bear the burden, rather than the poor and middle class, and that even the rich and powerful and the corporations benifit more than they normally would when there is a large prosperous middle class in existence that is able to purchase the widgets, they invision, invent, manufacture and sell.

[CabCurious]

05:49 PM on 02/24/2012

Anybody reading this NYTimes article already understood the point.

Unfortunately, the vast majority of voters don't understand the issues.

[OneLiberalLady]

05:07 PM on 02/24/2012

"I like the trees, the cars, the lakes.....they're just the right size!"

[OneLiberalLady]

05:06 PM on 02/24/2012

RMoney let the truth slip out - that's the problem with dishonesty - hard to keep it up "resolutely."

[scottishboy]

04:23 PM on 02/24/2012

This may not be alarming to all you Media Matters fans but . . .

America’s per capital government debt worse than Greece.

US: $44,215
Ireland: $43,887
Italy: $40,475
Greece: $38,937
France: $33,491
Portugal: $19,989
Spain: $18,395

[choudoufu]

04:29 PM on 02/24/2012

BHO, the second smartest president (I've been told), now only trails FDR (the smartest) for longest and highest unemployment. However, I'm sure that BHO will do what he can to overtake.

Barackthe Overachiever

[scottishboy]

04:45 PM on 02/24/2012

I'm a historian, intelligence has very little or no relationship to how a president will govern or lead. Leadership is not taught, you either have it or you don’t.

Woodrow Wilson is acknowledged as the most intelligent president in history (Dean Princeton). He was a racist (hated blacks, threw them out of government), got us into WW1, formed the council on foreign relations, passed the 17th amendment, prohibition, imprisoned 15,000 German american citizens because of their heritage and was so hated at the end of his second term, progressives had to change their name to Liberals.

FDR kept us in the Great Depression with is regulations, tax policies . . . eight years of average 15% unemployment. He threw 100,000 American citizens into a concentration camp simply because of their ethnic background.

[jcdf2]

06:24 PM on 02/24/2012

Imagine that 2 Democratic presidents that have come into office at a time of financial collapse, preceded by 2 republican presidents whose watch it was when the economy collapsed. And for the record the month Obama took office we were LOSING around 700,000 jobs a month and any plans that Obama was to pass were months away from taking effect. The Great Depression was already 4 years old when FDR took over.

[boscobear]

03:59 PM on 02/24/2012

Is a closeted Keynesian the same as a closeted Candadian?

[Crispus-Attucks]

06:17 PM on 02/24/2012

Canada's economy turned around in the late 90s because they did the opposite of Krugman's keynesian suggestions. We should follow their lead.

[StopThePlanet]

03:53 PM on 02/24/2012

For the cynicism and lack of moral courage that have been so evident in the campaign wouldn’t suddenly vanish once Mr. Romney entered the Oval Office. If he doesn’t dare disagree with economic nonsense now, why imagine that he would become willing to challenge that nonsense later? And bear in mind that if elected, he would be watched like a hawk for signs of apostasy by the very people he’s trying so desperately to appease right now.

The truth is that Mr. Romney is so deeply committed to insincerity that neither side can trust him to do what it considers to be the right thing.

I love Paul Krugman.  He tells it like it is no matter what.  That is why so many despise him.  Like the saying goes, if there are people who don't like you that is good because you have stood for something at some point.

[choudoufu]

03:48 PM on 02/24/2012

CBO report says the BHO's unemployment now only exceeded by the Great Depression.

[oneeasyrider]

04:25 PM on 02/24/2012

The President walked in the door with the economy shedding 700,000 jobs/month in addition to GOP wall to wall obstruction for the past three years...so, let's give credit where due: GOP caused this economic disaster, via deregulation...squandered the budget surplus...and are entirely responsible for the 15 trillion deficit...but, you already know all of this...don't you (even though you'll never admit it.

[Mamadea]

04:42 PM on 02/24/2012

Sorry to burst your conservabot bubble but this is GWB's unemployment mess.

[goodog]

03:46 PM on 02/24/2012

"The truth is that Mr. Romney is so deeply committed to insincerity that neither side can trust him to do what it considers to be the right thing."

That makes a lot of sense if you take the latest druthers of the base at face value, but you need only look at recent history and remember, when it was all falling apart: Iraq a quagmire; the Ownership Society in shambles; our 401ks raided; and a raft of signed, budget-busting legislation in the rear view mirror... 24% of America still stood behind their man.

The administration hit rock bottom, but the base still hung on as the rest of America said, no, nuh-uh.

You have to remember that all this talk of deficit hawkery started when the Democrat got in office. It's a ruse. They don't really care about these thing, as we have seen since 2010, when the TeaOP ran against a) the bailout and b) jobs, Jobs, JOBS... now they can't stop talking about contraception and same-sex marriage.  

They don't know squat about Keynesian-this or Austrian-that. You really think they're all suddenly historical scholars on Saul Alinsky? They want war with Iran, Defense of Marriage Amendments, and the ladies to know their place: which ain't at the table discussing their own reproductive rights, mind you. That's for dudes.

The TeaOP was AstroTurf, not the grassroot deficit hawks they only pretend to be when they're not in the White House.

Open your ears and here the dog whistles. Insincerity's their thing.

[RomeoMD25]

03:19 PM on 02/24/2012

If you've ever wondered why The Federal Reserve is a PRIVATE Bank and why EVERY Dollar that we have in our economy is owed back to the Federal Reserve, with INTEREST. Did you know that the United States is currently on its 4th Privately-Owned Central Bank since the colonies? Or that our Founding Fathers and some Presidents like President Andrew Jackson devoted their entire terms and risked their lives to stop the monstrosity that becomes of Private Central Banks.

[scottocca]

03:26 PM on 02/24/2012

Actually, many of our Founding Fathers supported the very first National Bank, including George Washington. Anyone who generalizes about the Founders, as you just did, needs to read some more history. The rea story is far more nuanced than you'd like to believe. We've been having this strong central government/strong state's rights debate since the very beginning, and the Founders didn't all fall neatly onto one side of that debate.

[loanshark]

03:16 PM on 02/24/2012

Oromney is a not so closet Liberal Democrat. He's for Obomacare, gun control, big government spending and just like Oboma, he's eye ball deep in Wall Street bailouts.

We won't vote for him if he is the nominee. Like George Soros says, .."there isn't much difference between Oboma, and Romney.."

[EdinFL]

03:15 PM on 02/24/2012

It doesn't take an economic authority like Krugman to show us that Romney is not what he claims to be.

[oneeasyrider]

04:26 PM on 02/24/2012

What exactly is Romney...does anyone one know???

[flossophy]

04:30 PM on 02/24/2012

It depends on who he's trying to appeal to.

[EdinFL]

04:37 PM on 02/24/2012

What day of the week is today, and what month of the year?

[Bunny Tickle Britches]

03:14 PM on 02/24/2012

That's not fair calling Romney a Keynesian.

He was born in Hawaii, and has released his long form birth certificate.

//wink :-)

[Tikiman]

03:10 PM on 02/24/2012

Is Keynesia a planet near Vulcan or Klingon? Because that would explain the GOP at this point.