Krugmam: "Hank Paulson told a whopper:"

[RedEarth]

September 23, 2008, 3:07 pm
Good ideas and lies

Daniel Davies, in one of the great blog posts of this era, laid down a key principle:
Good ideas do not need lots of lies told about them in order to gain public acceptance.
He was talking about the selling of the Iraq war, but it applies more generally.

So, this morning Hank Paulson told a whopper:
We gave you a simple, three-page legislative outline and I thought it would have been presumptuous for us on that outline to come up with an oversight mechanism. That’s the role of Congress, that’s something we’re going to work on together. So if any of you felt that I didn’t believe that we needed oversight: I believe we need oversight. We need oversight.

What the proposal actually did, of course, was explicitly rule out any oversight, plus grant immunity from future review:
Sec. 8. Review.
Decisions by the Secretary pursuant to the authority of this Act are non-reviewable and committed to agency discretion, and may not be reviewed by any court of law or any administrative agency.

I’m not playing gotcha here. This is telling: if Paulson can’t be honest about what he himself sent to Congress — if he not only made an incredible power grab, but is now engaged in black-is-white claims that he didn’t — there is no reason to trust him on anything related to his bailout plan.

http://krugman.blogs.nytimes.com/2008/09/23/good-ideas-and-lies/

[gateley]

1. i've said it before and I'll say it again -- I wish Krugman had Obama's ear. nt

[Barack_America]

3. He could've.

But that was more Krugman's decision, rather than Barack's, IMO.

[Bake]

4. Just because he supported HRC during the PRIMARIES?

I thought the primaries were over.

Bake

[mrreowwr_kittty]

21. He trashed Obama during the primaries and pretended to support Edwards

Krugman regularly made scathing statements about Obama due to one health care plan feature (mandates) over which he disagreed with him. Health care was supposedly so important to Krugman, yet he only managed to write one column about McCain's disaster of a plan during the primaries, compared to the many he wrote criticizing Obama.

[aquart]

12. Are you ABSOLUTELY SURE you wish to imply

That Barack Obama is a petty-minded grudge holder? Remember, he isn't you.

[mrreowwr_kittty]

22. I dunno about Obama but I can safely imply it about some DUers

Hint hint.

[sniffa]

30. ...

:rofl:

[Bjorn Against]

24. I think he does likely have Obama's ear...

I am sure Obama wasn't too happy with everything Krugman has written about him, but I am also sure that Obama knows that Krugman is a very intelligent man with some very good ideas. Obama knows that primary season brings out opposition from those who would normally be your allies, and I think both Krugman and Obama realize it is time to move past that now. To be honest I wouldn't be totally surprised if Krugman is appointed to a position in an Obama administration, he would make a great secretary of the treasury.

[slipslidingaway]

2. Great point K&R n/t

[indepat]

5. Paulson tells so many whoppers, he should be known as the whopper man

:P

[ReadTomPaine]

28. Or the Burgher King.

[Hugin]

6. I'm glad Krugman is keeping up with this...

I know these events (oddly enough) have very little to do with real economics. But, I'm glad there's someone
who is familiar with economics monitoring what is being said and done.

[MadrasT]

7. And that, is precisely why I'm not buying a word of

what he's selling. No way, no how.

[mhatrw]

8. Krugman's entire blog is a Godsend on this issue.

[bertman]

9. I loved the part where Paulson said "we're doing this for the American people." Bullshit!!

This is for the same greedy bastards who pushed deregulation and engineered these financial shenanigans to get RICHER.

I know the FBI probe is just another red herring, but I'd love to see them put a boxcar load of these geniuses in jail. And have the courts award their ill-gotten gains to the folks they fleeced and the American taxpayers.

Well, I can dream, can't I?

Rec.

[Frisbee]

The last republican who did something...

for the American people was Abe Lincoln.

[awoke_in_2003]

16. Teddy Roosevelt

might have a thing or two to say about that- he busted up around 40 monopolies in his day.

[Frisbee]

17. Very good point....

sadly, still a long way back.

[awoke_in_2003]

18. It is sad...

we could really use another one of him- somebody willing to go after the big guys and cut them down to a more proper size.

[tclambert]

19. You forgot the trust-buster, Teddy Roosevelt

I'm a big fan of ol' Teethodore. He filed 128 anti-trust suits in his administration; warned that the way corporate execs treated their workers, especially in the coal-mining industry, was a formula for causing revolution; and he supported minimum wage laws, something like 30 years before another Roosevelt got them passed. Many Republicans regarded him as a traitor to his class. And he warned us way back when about the dangers of "malefactors of great wealth."

There was a time (in 2000) when I hoped McCain was that kind of progressive Republican. But then I read McCain's policies, and realized he had drunk the Bush-Cheney kool-aid.

And I listened to Obama's convention speech, and I said to myself, "This is the guy I've been waiting for, for decades."

[nachoproblem]

The Bull Moose Party

was a symbol for standing firm in the face of Republican corruption and government-corporate ties resembling feudalism. This is exactly what we need. Although it disappeared after 1912, its other name was the Progressive Party, and it is often considered the origin of the term "progressive" in politics.

My high school civics teacher ran in a local election as a "Bull Moose." I would love to see it revived on a bigger scale. It would make a great symbol for the opposite of Sarah Palin.

[Beregond2]

23. I'm not even so sure about that.

I sometimes think this country would have been much better off without the South dragging it down. They would have eventually been forced to give up slavery in any case, without the sacrifice of thousands of lives, and the generations of bitterness that followed.

[bjobotts]

10. DUH!

[orleans]

11. exactly. yesterday several shows played his voice clip and then

contrasted it with that section 8. i kept thinking: WHAT THE FUCK? HOW STUPID DO THEY THINK WE ARE????

i know it comes back to congress--so the real question: how stupid is congress that they are not calling him out on this?

[Forrest Greene]

20. How Stupid

...is Congress paid (off) to be?

[redqueen]

13. Well at least ONE journalist noticed.

I could hardly believe my eyes when I saw him try that crap. Presumptuous my rear end. And no one on the panel called him on it!

WHY?!

:grr:

[Javaman]

14. In other words, paulson says, "pass the bill fuckers and then maybe MAYBE we will throw you a bone

for oversight, until then fuck you, we own you and pass it".

It appears as if his arrogance just out paced his intelligence.

[Overseas]

15. Clips on Countdown or Maddow showed Paulson's deception too.

I forget which of the two also showed Paulson saying Golly Gee I didn't want to be presumptuous to include oversight in my outline...

and right after that clip, they showed the text of the now infamous Section 8, dictating zero oversight.

[cui bono]

25. SPOT ON!!!

[conscious evolution]

26. Can we have him impeached now? nt

[BrklynLiberal]

27. I fully expect everyone in the BushCO conglomerate to lie their heads off.

To them, telling the truth is a sin.
Paul Krugman is such a smart man. I hope that he has some input to Obama.

[DrDan]

29. "A" Whopper? - a single one?

He began today saying he was not on the search for power.

Well - controlling the purse-strings with $700 Billion Dollars is HUGE power.

Who is he trying to kid?

[elehhhhna]

31. Now our Dems can say "But they lied!" AFTER they sign the goddammned thing.

Watch for it. Won't be the first time.

Plausible deniability.