KRUGMAN: The Zombie That Ate Rand Paul’s Brain

[kpete]

Flabbergasted Rand Paul Learns Public Employment Decreased Under Obama
http://thinkprogress.org/economy/2012/09/09/816761/flabbergasted-rand-paul-learns-public-employment-decreased-under-obama/

&feature=player_embedded

PAUL: The thing I don’t understand is that you're arguing that the government sector is struggling. Are you arguing that there are fewer government employees under Obama than there were under Bush?
KRUGMAN: Of course. That’s a fact. That’s a tremendous fact.
PAUL: No, the size of growth of government is enormous under president Obama.
KRUGMAN: If government employment had grown as fast under Obama as it did under Bush, we’d have a million and a half more people employed right now — directly.
PAUL: Are there less people employed or more people employed now by government?

The Zombie That Ate Rand Paul’s Brain

Aha. It seems that I was giving Rand Paul more credit than he deserved.
.......... and it’s clear that Paul was completely shocked at the notion that government employment had fallen under Obama, rather than soaring.



How did that happen? Almost surely it’s a case of a zombie lie that has gone unchallenged in the hermetic world of movement conservatism, so that people like Paul know, just know, something that ain’t so. I wrote about this way back: the usual suspects seized on the Census bulge in employment as evidence of a big-government surge; and because nobody in that business ever admits having been wrong, this became a “fact” that people like Rand Paul believe. He wouldn’t have made this mistake if he ever read or listened to an analysis from nonpartisan sources, but he evidently doesn’t.

http://krugman.blogs.nytimes.com/2012/09/09/the-zombie-that-ate-rand-pauls-brain/?smid=tw-NytimesKrugman&seid=auto

[gkhouston]

1. How could he not know that government employment has fallen under Obama?

I thought that was widely known.

[ananda]

16. Most of that fall is due to state budget mismanagement..

.. much of it deliberate on the part of Reeps in order to
destroy the public commons and privatize it.

[Major Nikon]

19. He gets his information from talk radio and Faux

What do you expect?

[immoderate]

2. Right wing deniers never admit they are wrong.

There are a couple I joust with regularly. They can't admit there's global warming, voter suppression, etc...

--imm

[jsr]

3. Rand is just a grifter like his papa

mooching off taxpayers without doing any constructive work.

[Kurovski]

9. Now wait a minute...

doesn't he sell sunglasses?

[fusilier0770]

15. And so it continues...

The only good thing about this election cycle was I wouldn't have to hear quivering voice fanboys and girls blubber over Ron Paul anymore and he can go back to that noble private sector that he has been avoiding for some 20 years. Now, unless the good citizens of the Commonwealth of Kentucky decide to return Rand back to his beloved private sector job of being a self-certified eye doctor, I'll get 20 more years of blubbering Paulites worshipping a know-nothing crank just like his father. Of course, since I don't get the Paul fever, I must fear liberty and freedom, and am a sheep. I didn't know we all got together and decided liberty is defined by the Pauls.

[WCGreen]

4. I think there should be a time limit as to how long you get to be a pundit

Really, isn't it about time for Cookie and George and all the rest just vacate the land.

These people get so mired in their own importance that they feel they can say anything and that no matter if it is true or not.

Krugman has a noble prize, he is a professor and yet Cookie thinks she knows so much that she can just talk right over Dr. Krugman.

[high density]

5. I saw this today

It was a jaw-dropping thing to watch. Rand Paul just had no clue what he was talking about.

[Cha]

6. LOL.. I read that as The Zombie

that ate Paul Ryan's brain! Am I wrong?

[Nay]

7. So, did someone else jump in and confirm to Ryan that Krugman was correct, or did they let

Krugman just swing in the wind?

[Ghost of Tom Joad]

8. Why does Cokie continually interrupt?

can't she just shut the fuck up.

[Berlum]

18. Cokie is a graduate of the Republican-corporate school of punditry

and so know that interruption and bloviation are effective strategeries.

[rhett o rick]

10. Rand was told public employees decreased under Obama, he didnt learn it.

Tell a Republican facts doesnt mean they learn them.

[aint_no_life_nowhere]

11. Exactly - tomorrow he'll unlearn those facts and pretend like nothing happened

[rhett o rick]

13. I blog on a blog that includes Republicans (I call them the gullibles). They will say that Pres

Barack Obama is going crazy spending. Someone show them evidence that Bush outspent Pres Obama over 5 to 1. Next day they are back with the same talking points.

[Coexist]

12. Rand Paul, Cokie Roberts, George Will... and Krugman??? Was it conservative day

or is that really what he think makes a good panel?

[Gregorian]

14. Repealing the Fairness Doctrine really fucked this country up.

[porphyrian]

17. "Send...more...paramedics..." n/t

[Ikonoklast]

20. Do not piss Pau...I mean, "Bob" off.