Krugman: Flim Flammed

[ProSense]

Flim Flammed

Last year, when I described Paul Ryan as a flim flam man, many Beltway types were deeply annoyed. They had decided that he was serious and sincere — worthy of receiving fiscal responsibility awards — and did not want to hear any negatives.

And even after the cracks in the House budget proposal became apparent, much of the commentariat clung to the view that whatever you might think of Ryan’s priorities, he really is serious and sincere.

But he isn’t.

Jon Cohn points out that the real question about the Ryan plan isn’t whether it reduces the deficit in the right way; it’s whether it reduces the deficit at all. And Cohn doesn’t even take on the giant magic asterisk on the tax part of the plan: Ryan claims that he will keep revenue at 19 percent of GDP despite large tax cuts, by closing loopholes — but has said nothing at all about which loopholes would be closed. The truth is that this is almost surely a deficit-increasing plan, not a deficit-reducing plan.

Meanwhile, Jon Chait looks at Ryan being interviewed about his plan and sees “a stream of misleading and outright false claims”. Notably, his denial of the plain fact that his plan hurts the poor while benefiting the rich — and the evasive language used to obscure what it really going on — is exactly the kind of thing we got accustomed to during the Bush years.

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[yurbud]

1. you are ''serious'' and ''tough'' when you do as you're told by the rich

and frivolous and soft when you try to take care of anyone else.

[rfranklin]

3. It's called tough love...the less than uber wealthy need it...

otherwise they would be wealthy too. You do see the logic don't you?

[Doctor_J]

2. Good column, but Dr. Krugman pulls his punches at the end

I don’t know when if ever the Beltway crowd will admit it, but they were, indeed, flim flammed;

I must disagree. they were in on the con, not taken in by it.

[Vinnie From Indy]

4. +1

That is the way you get ahead these days in the world of mass mainstream media.

[Name removed]

5. Deleted message

Message removed by moderator. Click here to review the message board rules.

[Kolesar]

6. com·men·tar·i·at

noun /ˌkämənˈte(ə)rēət/ 
commentariats, plural

Members of the news media considered as a class

[tanyev]

7. Razzle Dazzle 'em

Give 'em the old double whammy
Daze and dizzy 'em
Back since the days of old Methuselah
Everyone loves the big bambooz-a-ler

Give 'em the old three ring circus
Stun and stagger 'em
When you're in trouble, go into your dance

Though you are stiffer than a girder
They'll let you get away with murder
Razzle dazzle 'em
And you've got a romance

[Arkana]

8. Why is it when I hear the phrase "flim flam man" I hear Bill Cosby's voice?