Moment of Truthiness
By PAUL KRUGMAN
Published: August 15, 2013
....Republicans made a lot of political hay over a supposedly runaway deficit early in the Obama administration, and they have maintained the same rhetoric even as the deficit has plunged. Thus Eric Cantor, the second-ranking Republican in the House, declared on Fox News that we have a “growing deficit,” while Senator Rand Paul told Bloomberg Businessweek that we’re running “a trillion-dollar deficit every year.”
Do people like Mr. Cantor or Mr. Paul know that what they’re saying isn’t true? Do they care? Probably not. In Stephen Colbert’s famous formulation, claims about runaway deficits may not be true, but they have truthiness, and that’s all that matters.
How this man is not laughed off the pages of the NYT is beyond comprehension.....
He is very Clintonesque in cherry picking the year. He is correct that the deficit is decreasing, but he is completely disingenuous to say that the debt is decreasing to any level that is approaching historical levels.
And, of course, there is the cumulative effects of decades of deficit spending and the due to government accounting no reporting of the future "unfunded liabilities" due to exploding entitlement spending (i.e., government sanctioned Ponzi Schemes like Social Security).
Oh, and of course debt is financed, so there is the interest on the above debt:
I said that Paul Krugman is being disingenuous, but that is a socially accepted way of saying he is lying. I don't believe Mr. Krugman believes he is lying. He believes what he says, which technically makes him only ignorant.
The question is, is his ignorance purposeful or does he fall into the category of Reagan's famous quote:
"Well, the trouble with our liberal friends is not that they're ignorant; it's just that they know so much that isn't so."
Either way, Mr. Krugman is still wrong...
....Republicans made a lot of political hay over a supposedly runaway deficit early in the Obama administration, and they have maintained the same rhetoric even as the deficit has plunged. Thus Eric Cantor, the second-ranking Republican in the House, declared on Fox News that we have a “growing deficit,” while Senator Rand Paul told Bloomberg Businessweek that we’re running “a trillion-dollar deficit every year.”
Do people like Mr. Cantor or Mr. Paul know that what they’re saying isn’t true? Do they care? Probably not. In Stephen Colbert’s famous formulation, claims about runaway deficits may not be true, but they have truthiness, and that’s all that matters.
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