Paul Krugman: “Art Laffer (why is he, of all people, on my TV?) asks what it will be like when the government runs Medicare and Medicaid.”
Really, he said that. Here’s the video.
And the dippy CNN moderator let it slide. Another genius.
In WaPo, John Bolton published a op ed titled “Clinton’s Unwise Trip to North Korea.”
Shortly after, we learned that Big Bill obtained the release of the two American journalists held by North Korea.
Laffer… the guy who was ridiculed out of his economics job by his co-workers for asininely simple econ modeling. Who’s backing this guy’s career?
I think I know what economist’s say when one of their own proposes something stupid, or says something truly idiotic. “That’s a Laffer!”
As for the moderator missing it, that’s what happens when news networks hire empty-headed kewpie dolls for TV. Uncle Walter would have jumped on Laffer’s laugher like a wolf on a lamb chop.
Regarding Bolton, it’s one of the universes biggest ironies that ‘the great walrus mustache of wisdom’ somehow ended up on a Village Idiot. And a nasty Village Idiot at that.
Laffer must be in line taking that corporate winger welfare.
Art Laffer isn’t another Sacha Baron Cohen character, by any chance?
“…and the dippy CNN moderator let it slide.” A while back, Huffington commented on the practice common across the media of presenting opposing views never challenging the factual accuracy of either, and, which often results in the audience/reader splitting the difference between the two opposing sides mistakenly believing that therein lies the truth. Wrong-headed, the practice not only breaks the efficacy of proper discourse, it fools the reader/listener into thinking that it is proper discourse.
People who complain about the Post Office don’t use it. The Post Office is the best bargain in town. I have used snail mail all my life (I still have friends who don’t have computers). However, I use it to mail packages all the time. I think only two times in 60 years has my package not arrived where it was supposed. On one of those occasions, the PO returned my money, found the package, and got it to the addressee. Unfortunately, the Post Office is on hard times and its future is not looking good.
The only thing I have encountered at the DMV is understaffing resulting in long lines.
Bonnie – Thanx for your comment about the USPS. To ease the hard times the USPS is in, Congress is reversing a silly requirement about prefunding retirement benefits, which will save 2 or 3 billion dollars per year, and the unions backed the move. Last week it turns out the legislation is a trojan horse intended to cripple the unions. An amendment snuck in at the 11th hour requires that the financial condition of the USPS be considered in bargaining. Translation: The USPS intends to balance the budget on the backs of the employees.
Consider that after the last contract negotiations (when the carriers got nothing) the Postmaster General got a 40% raise, and bonuses every year despite gross mismanagement. Example: When managers transfer to a different part of the country, the USPS buys the home and resels it to facilitate the tranfer. But in the last couple of years it became a method for VERY senior people to stiff the USPS with the huge real-estate losses on million dollar homes.
Not meaning to bore you, the big picture shows unions under seige, from the UAW to government unions.
“The only thing I have encountered at the DMV is understaffing resulting in long lines.”
Oh, I’ve been shuffled from line to line, even between floors, a time or two. Nothing that would make me prefer paying $1,200 a month for the privilege of occasionally driving my car.
Regarding DMVs, I would like to point out that DMVs are run by state governments, not the federal government. One of the few “ideas” about health care reform coming from Republicans is that states should take care of their own reform because state governments are less evil, or something.
About Bolton-he is cold-hearted enough to want to leave Euna Lee and Laura Ling in a North Korean prison so that he can say he was right and score his cheap political point. He has no ability to put himself in their position or to understand what their families were going through.
In regards to Josh Bolton: this is a man who had nothing but disdain for the UN or any other organization that did not behave as a sycophant for U.S. Business interests around the globe. The fact George Bush put him in the UN boggles my brain every day. Is it too early to drink?
Crazy About UP,
It’s NEVER too early. Have one on me…
@Doug Hughes:
No,no. Not boring. These things need to be said and heard.