Hillary Clinton
Related: About this forumKrugman: What Has the Wonks Worried
In reference to Sanders' people's response to an open letter from 4 (four!) former Chairs of the Council of Economic Advisers for Presidents Barack Obama and Bill Clinton(posted below), Krugman writes:
Sanders needs to disassociate himself from this kind of fantasy economics right now. If his campaign responds instead by lashing out well, a campaign that treats Alan Krueger, Christy Romer, and Laura Tyson as right-wing enemies is well on its way to making Donald Trump president.
http://krugman.blogs.nytimes.com/2016/02/17/what-has-the-wonks-worried/?module=BlogPost-Title&version=Blog%20Main&contentCollection=Opinion&action=Click&pgtype=Blogs®ion=Body&_r=0
Now, that's the guy with the Nobel prize in his field of expertise talking. What I'm hearing there is the deep oo-ooo-ga of a warning siren. We're watching a bunch of kids and angry people being sold a nebulous CIVICS FREE, romanticized version of a revolution while the experts, the ones who have fostered all and whatever progressive achievements are possible in such a deeply divided pluralistic society, issue warning after warning. That's the establishment talking -our Democratic establishment- and we'd best listen.
Posted on February 17, 2016 by lettertosanders
Dear Senator Sanders and Professor Gerald Friedman,
We are former Chairs of the Council of Economic Advisers for Presidents Barack Obama and Bill Clinton. For many years, we have worked to make the Democratic Party the party of evidence-based economic policy. When Republicans have proposed large tax cuts for the wealthy and asserted that those tax cuts would pay for themselves, for example, we have shown that the economic facts do not support these fantastical claims. We have applied the same rigor to proposals by Democrats, and worked to ensure that forecasts of the effects of proposed economic policies, from investment in infrastructure, to education and training, to health care reforms, are grounded in economic evidence. Largely as a result of efforts like these, the Democratic party has rightfully earned a reputation for responsibly estimating the effects of economic policies.
We are concerned to see the Sanders campaign citing extreme claims by Gerald Friedman about the effect of Senator Sanderss economic planclaims that cannot be supported by the economic evidence. Friedman asserts that your plan will have huge beneficial impacts on growth rates, income and employment that exceed even the most grandiose predictions by Republicans about the impact of their tax cut proposals.
As much as we wish it were so, no credible economic research supports economic impacts of these magnitudes. Making such promises runs against our partys best traditions of evidence-based policy making and undermines our reputation as the party of responsible arithmetic. These claims undermine the credibility of the progressive economic agenda and make it that much more difficult to challenge the unrealistic claims made by Republican candidates.
Sincerely,
Alan Krueger, Princeton University
Chair, Council of Economic Advisers, 2011-2013
Austan Goolsbee, University of Chicago Booth School
Chair, Council of Economic Advisers, 2010-2011
Christina Romer, University of California at Berkeley
Chair, Council of Economic Advisers, 2009-2010
Laura DAndrea Tyson, University of California at Berkeley Haas School of Business
Chair, Council of Economic Advisers, 1993-1995
https://lettertosanders.wordpress.com/2016/02/17/open-letter-to-senator-sanders-and-professor-gerald-friedman-from-past-cea-chairs/
Treant
(1,968 posts)FREE STUFF!
When do we want it?
RIGHT NOW!
What don't we know?
ECONOMICS!
leftofcool
(19,460 posts)stopbush
(24,397 posts)I can imagine the flames it would inspire.
The BSers love their fantasy. If you don't buy into it, you're a ______________ (fill in the blank with your favorite epithet)
Rose Siding
(32,623 posts)over 60 recs.
Cha
(297,799 posts)are those?.. who cares. Just make up stuff as you go along because you know hundreds will agree with you and the end justifies the means, right?
Ha! Too bad there's consequences for making shit up.. it comes back to bite you when you least expect it.
LOL@the flames it would inspire.
stopbush
(24,397 posts)A BSer pointed me to the calculator at Bernie's site: plop in your particulars and it will tell you what your Berniecare yearly tax will be. Here's the results I got based on a household income of $54,000 (the US average):
Family of 4: $559
Family of 6: $383
Single person: $961
Married couple, no kids: $781
Basically, the larger your family, the cheaper your medical insurance under Bernie!! It's magic.
And if you're a single person with no kids (attention, millennials!) your tax is much higher than that of a family with kids.
Other fun facts:
Bernie says he will impose a 2.2% tax on all family incomes to help pay for his health plan. Guess what? That $559 tax for a family of 4 represents a 1% tax on income, not a 2.2% tax, which would be $1188.
If you are an older couple whose kids have moved out and you are no longer claiming your kids as a dependent/deduction on your income taxes, your healthcare tax under Bernie goes UP.
... what was previously an untaxed benefit (insurance via one's employer) suddenly becomes taxable income.
stopbush
(24,397 posts)They pay the entire premium.
If they gave that to me as salary, I'd have another $13,200 a year in taxable income.
oasis
(49,428 posts)UtahLib
(3,179 posts)fleabiscuit
(4,542 posts)kjones
(1,053 posts)"If you were really great and powerful, you'd keep your promises!"
"DO YOU PRESUME TO CRITICIZE THE GREAT BERN! YOU UNGRATEFUL CREATURES"