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Paul Krugman- The BS Cult
April 4, 2012, 9:08 AM
The Bowles-Simpson Cult
A brief shout-out to Stan Collender, the mild-mannered budget analyst who finally says what must be said: the Very Serious People who keep pushing the Bowles-Simpson deficit plan as some kind of talisman of fiscal responsibility are delusional and deeply unserious:
B-S and some of their biggest supporters then made a huge mistake when they expressed surprise and extreme disappointment that the Obama administration didn’t make the co-chairs’ recommendation the basis of its fiscal 2012 budget, that is, the first one it submitted after the commission ended.
That demonstrated a level of political tone deafness that seriously hurt the credibility of what had now become a B-S cult. They were seriously suggesting that the Obama White House unilaterally support the tax increases and spending cuts included in the two co-chairs’ plan even though it was virtually guaranteed that the GOP would never agree to do the same and would punish Democrats for doing so.
That demonstrated a level of political tone deafness that seriously hurt the credibility of what had now become a B-S cult. They were seriously suggesting that the Obama White House unilaterally support the tax increases and spending cuts included in the two co-chairs’ plan even though it was virtually guaranteed that the GOP would never agree to do the same and would punish Democrats for doing so.
http://krugman.blogs.nytimes.com/2012/04/04/the-bowles-simpson-cult/