KRUGMAN: "It’s not nice to say this (but the truth is rarely nice)"

[kpete]

April 16, 2011, 9:08 AM
Civility is the Last Refuge of Scoundrels

At the beginning of last week, the commentariat was in raptures over the Serious, Courageous, Game-Changing Ryan plan. But now that the plan has been exposed as the cruel nonsense it is, what we’re hearing a lot about is the need for more civility in the discourse. President Obama did a bad thing by calling cruel nonsense cruel nonsense; he hurt Republican feelings, and how can we have a deal when the GOP is feeling insulted? What we need is personal outreach; let’s do lunch!

The easy, and perfectly fair, shot is to talk about the hypocrisy here; where were all the demands for civility when Republicans were denouncing Obama as a socialist, accusing him of creating death panels, etc..? Why is it OK for Republicans to accuse Obama of stealing from Medicare, but not OK for Obama to declare, with complete truthfulness, that those same Republicans are trying to dismantle the whole program?

Beyond that, are we dealing with children here? Is one of our two major political parties run by people so immature that they will refuse to do what the country needs because the president hasn’t been nice to them?

..............

It’s not nice to say this (but the truth is rarely nice): whatever they may say, Republicans are not concerned, above all, about the deficit. In fact, it’s not clear that they care about the deficit at all; they’re trying to use deficit concerns to push through their goal of dismantling the Great Society and if possible the New Deal; they have stated explicitly that they want to reduce taxes on high incomes to pre-New-Deal levels. And it’s an article of faith on their part that low taxes have magical effects on the economy.

.....................

the rest:
http://krugman.blogs.nytimes.com/2011/04/16/civility-is-the-last-refuge-of-scoundrels/?smid=tw-NytimesKrugman&seid=auto

[xchrom]

1. Recommend

[OHdem10]

2. How many Democrats on the Hill are ready to put up a fight

through out the country and sustain it until
the election???

[Enrique]

4. Alan Grayson might be running

for Congress. I wrote his campaign and asked him to challenge Bill Nelson for the senate, but I haven't heard anything about him considering that.

[90-percent]

7. alan Grayson

You can't have him.

I want him to move to my state of Connecticut and run for Lieberman's Senate seat in a year or two.

I'll even rent him our one bedroom in-law apartment until he finds a good home for his whole family.

-90% Jimmy

[nashville_brook]

30. :)

he's just wonderful. i hope he shows up and runs for something soon.

[bobbolink]

32. OK,, then, here's the deal... you can have Grayson, if we can have Weiner in Colorado.

Deal?

:rofl:

[JustAnotherGen]

53. No way

It's easier for him to cross the bridge to NJ and kick out my Republican Tool in the 7th district! You call Wasserman-Schultz - I'm getting Weiner! :rofl:

[Larkspur]

51. CT-Sen race for Lieberman's seat already has 2 Dem candidates vying for it

Former Sec. of State Susan Bysiewicz and Rep. Chris Murphy. There may be 1 or 2 others on the Dem side, but they are minor candidates.

[90-percent]

54. I'll try the Obama School of hard nosed negotiations

You all can have anybody you want in return for getting Jim Inhofe to run for Senate in Connecticut!

-90% Jimmy

:sarcasm:

[Cattledog]

27. None!

[awoke_in_2003]

44. none-

one party that goes by two different names.

[freshwest]

46. MIne always do, but they are outnumbered. Too many people listened to MSM and stayed home.

[Enrique]

3. that's what I was trying to say in this other thread

They have to be clear. Cantor is an idiot, and Ryan is a sadist.

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=439x893224

[glinda]

35. They are all sadists and animal environment killers. These peeps are sick.

[malaise]

5. Must read - rec n/t

[Name removed]

6. Deleted message

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

[Hotler]

9. You first. n/t

[katsy]

10. Are you saying that at least ryan put something out there?

And Krugman hasn't?

Really?

Are you saying we should give ryan an A+ for effort and not hurt his wittle-bitty feelings because his plan sucks?

Fail.:thumbsdown:

[TheKentuckian]

11. We enact tariffs and withdraw our military protection around the globe for those that don't play

ball. We certainly can prohibit access to our markets and make international transactions ever more dangerous and expensive.

Without Pax Americana there is no trade, let the pirates have their goods and for those that evade such influence, a few cruise missiles can be a great influence.

We can disrupt trade on a global basis.

Treat the capitalist like communist are treated, it'll slice into profits. I propose we grind global commerce to a stop if we don't get a better deal.

[FredStembottom]

18. Park the Container Ships.

..is how I like to say it.

Put up tariffs and begin again to manufacture American stuff for Americans. Chinese for Chinese (they have billions and billions of potential customers if we kick them off the crystal meth of dumping here.)

etc.
etc.

[KingOfLostSouls]

13. freeper

nice try though.

go back to the toilet with the rest of the pieces of shit over at freeperland.

[anneboleyn]

42. They are out in force today. There was another one earlier saying that corporations pay high taxes

instead of the reality -- they pay no taxes at all while they make billions in profits.

[spooky3]

16. And your Nobel Prize winning empirical evidence to back your claims is...

published where, again?

[spanone]

8. k&r...

[whathehell]

12. Krugman is correct, as usual. n/t

[DCBob]

14. Its also nice to have Krugman bashing the bad guys for a change.

:thumbsup:

[flamingdem]

15. Say it more clearly: they are greedy sociopaths nt

[MedleyMisty]

25. And they are terrorists who are holding America hostage

They've hijacked our government and are flying it into the building blocks of our society. We see stories all the time of people jumping to their deaths, sometimes taking their families with them.

It's time to wrest control from them. We saw in Wisconsin that the police and firefighters still have our backs. Let's roll.

:)

[pacalo]

17. Paul Ryan's proposal should be hammered as often as possible; it's an effective tool for the

Democrats! Great job, Mr. Krugman!

Michael Steele got unnerved last night on "Real Time" when he got laughed at by the audience when he defended the $16,000 voucher proposed by Paul Ryan. Bill & Ed Schultz kept asking him what will seniors do for medical expenses when that money runs out for the year, but he continued to dodge the question by talking over them. Finally he gave his answer: "We don't know yet." The audience roared with laughter & Steele, clearly embarrassed, lost his composure & began jeering the audience! It was something to see.

[Gabi Hayes]

20. check this

http://www.mediaite.com/tv/bill-maher-ed-schultz-michael-steele-shoutfest/

[pacalo]

38. Thanks, Gabi!

I went to a baby shower today & didn't see your post until now. Wasn't that video fun to watch? :hi:

[elias49]

50. I saw that. It was a wonderful moment.

"We don't know yet"
Well fuck you Steele. Maybe you should go talk to your Mama about it.
Jesus! Cold-hearted bastards.

[csziggy]

52. We know WHY Medicare was started in the first place

Older Americans could not get health care and some of them DIED because of that. The famed "free market" was not interested in serving that portion of our society and people DIED.

So FUCK YOU, Michael Steele. Anyone that knows history knows what will happen - people WILL DIE.

[GeorgeGist]

19. Paul Ryan shits rainbows.

[cognoscere]

21. No, he shits shit, and just as much comes out of his mouth as his ass. N/T

[Mnemosyne]

22. K&R for truth. n/t

[Pakid]

23. The truth

One thing about conservatives republican they have no time for the truth or facts. Lets face it they live in la la land. Whats bad is they think that we to should have to live in there very sick version of America. No Thanks. Their America would be a land of great suffering for most of the people and that includes most of them since they are not rich. I wonder what lunatic asylum they escaped from. Or are they just mean and very hateful people?

[Zookeeper]

24. There actually were wing-nuts on a political phone app...

I frequent, who posted outraged laments concerning Obama's cruelty in inviting Ryan to his address and then daring to criticize Ryan's plan.

As usual, the Right can dish it out, but are incapable of accepting criticism.

[Jakes Progress]

26. K&R Krugman for president.

It would be nice to have a Democratic president who talked and acted and presided as a Democrat.

[PonyJon]

28. Dump Rethuglicons

http://dumprepublicans.blogspot.com/

[Enthusiast]

29. K&R!

It's about time someone pointed this out.

[indimuse]

31. KNR! n/t

[Metta]

33. Truth to power. Kudos, Paul.

:toast:

[gateley]

34. Geithner out, Krugman in! nt

[the_chinuk]

36. Amen, brother. Keep saying it.

America will begin to heal and work for everyone as a nation when "conservative" working people begin to realize that the Republicans aren't serious about them. The Democrats have their own problems about saying one thing and doing another, but right now they pale in comparison to the real whirlpool, which is a combination of Republicans striving to return America to the Gilded Age and a tradmed which is much more interested in fomenting sexy fights among the powerful and glorifying the wealthy than actually informing the mass of proles what's actually going on.

The phrase once used to characterise the papes, "Comforting the afflicted and afflicting the comfortable", has been essentially reversed. Because it's skookum good for their business, you know.

[Swampguana]

37. Funny thing

Republicans want things to be more like how they were in the 50's but they are trying to make things completely different. Taxes were higher in the 50's and there were more unions

[earcandle]

39. Lately, I am having a problem giving this party credibility and actually would like them to lose

congressional entry once and for all.  They are treasonous and
are destroying our life style as a politic.  This is stupid. 
Don't we have rules to throw out treasonous congress members
rather then let them destroy our values, our privileges, our
constitutional rights? 

[Name removed]

40. Deleted message

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

[bertman]

41. Slapping those lying bastards around WITH THE TRUTH is the only thing that works.

Krugman is great on this.

REC.

[somone]

43. Recommended

[freshwest]

45. How very true.

[I Drink Water]

47. I like Krugman, but lets face the facts

He thought Hillary would be fundamentally different than Obama, and then he acted like a child and threw a fit over it when she wasn't elected.

I really like this guy and know that he is a bleeding heart liberal, but Hillary? Really, Paul?

[DCBob]

49. Krugman a "bleeding heart liberal".. is that supposed to be an insult??

[myrna minx]

48. K&R n/t