Paul Krugman-The Blackmail Caucus, a.k.a. the Republican Party

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John Boehner was a terrible, very bad, no good speaker of the House. Under his leadership, Republicans pursued an unprecedented strategy of scorched-earth obstructionism, which did immense damage to the economy and undermined America’s credibility around the world.

Still, things could have been worse. And under his successor they almost surely will be worse. Bad as Mr. Boehner was, he was just a symptom of the underlying malady, the madness that has consumed his party.

For me, Mr. Boehner’s defining moment remains what he said and did as House minority leader in early 2009, when a newly inaugurated President Obama was trying to cope with the disastrous recession that began under his predecessor.

There was and is a strong consensus among economists that a temporary period of deficit spending can help mitigate an economic slump. In 2008 a stimulus plan passed Congress with bipartisan support, and the case for a further stimulus in 2009 was overwhelming. But with a Democrat in the White House, Mr. Boehner demanded that policy go in the opposite direction, declaring that “American families are tightening their belts. But they don’t see government tightening its belt.” And he called for government to “go on a diet.”

This was know-nothing economics, and incredibly irresponsible at a time of crisis; not long ago it would have been hard to imagine a major political figure making such a statement. Did Mr. Boehner actually believe what he was saying? Was he just against anything Mr. Obama was for? Or was he engaged in deliberate sabotage, trying to block measures that would help the economy because a bad economy would be good for Republican electoral prospects?

We’ll probably never know for sure, but those remarks set the tone for everything that followed. The Boehner era has been one in which Republicans have accepted no responsibility for helping to govern the country, in which they have opposed anything and everything the president proposes.

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http://www.nytimes.com/2015/09/28/opinion/paul-krugman-the-blackmail-caucus-aka-the-republican-party.html

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1. K&R n/t

[pampango]

2. In other words, despite all Mr. Boehner’s efforts to bring him down, Mr. Obama is looking more and

In other words, despite all Mr. Boehner’s efforts to bring him down, Mr. Obama is looking more and more like a highly successful president. For the base, which has never considered Mr. Obama legitimate — polling suggests that many Republicans believe that he wasn’t even born here — this is a nightmare. And all too many ambitious Republican politicians are willing to tell the base that it’s Mr. Boehner’s fault, that he just didn’t try blackmail hard enough.

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3. K&R....

[Jim Lane]

4. Krugman is too sanguine about the pre-Boehner era

After summarizing Boehner's public statements, Krugman writes, "This was know-nothing economics, and incredibly irresponsible at a time of crisis; not long ago it would have been hard to imagine a major political figure making such a statement."

I disagree. I've been hearing major political figures (mostly Republicans but, alas, some Democrats) make such statements as long as I've been following politics. If I cared to do the research, I think I could find examples from Barry Goldwater on.

What's changed, IMO, is that Republicans used to content themselves with paying lip service to various economic follies. Having established their low-taxes-limited-government bona fides, they would then go on to cut some sort of deal. Now the dealmaking is much harder.

[rladdi]

5. I keep saying Obama would have been the greatest President had it been not for the extreme

Republicans. They have made it tough for him to be a good leader. The Republicans prefer to destroy our nation rather than to support Obama. The voters understand that now. The Republicans are the real threat to our nation and people. If they win in 2016, this nation will be destroyed. We will then know who the real ISIS is.

[Enthusiast]

6. Simple: A black man was elected to the presidency and Republicans lost their fucking minds.

Madness has consumed the party ever since.

Why didn't we listen when the Republicans tried to save us by telling us that Obama was a secret Muslin, a non-American and socialist? The Republicans could have saved us. But, noooo, we wouldn't listen.

Why wasn't Obama a one term president, you know, since he is a socialist?