Sunday, May 08, 2005
Paul Krugman inadvertently puts his finger on "The Key Problem of Modern Liberalism".
Paul Krugman has written his 500th column for the Times, a noted achievement. (Remember how he started?)
Then came # 501, slamming Congress's "scandalous", special-interest-driven maladministration of Medicare and health programs in general -- as part of his continuing campaign arguing for national health care!
Hello? Who does he think would control and design national health care?
Which brought to mind how Krugman's good friend Professor Brad DeLong posted on his blog some time back...
The Key Problem of Modern LiberalismProf. DeLong didn't mention in his post that the other half of the time the government will be run by niave, bungling, incompetent Democrats -- although elsewhere he himself documented the Democrats' calamitous meltdown from ineptitude on national health care itself when they were at their height of their power for a generation, with control of the Presidency, House and Senate, and no malevolent Republicans anywhere in the power loop to blame.
How can one support the idea of an activist government when half the time that government will be run by malevolent or incompetent Republicans?...
So if you are a DeLong/Krugman/liberal "expand the government" type here's your admitted "key problem" : Fully 100% of the time the government is run by special-interest-driven, malevolent, incompetent Republicans and/or special-interest-driven, bungling, even-more-incompetent (if less malevolent) Democrats.
Your solution to this "key problem": None. (Prof. DeLong sure didn't offer any.)
Your policy prescription: Ignore the problem, expand the government, and believe having special-interest-driven, incompetent, often malevolent politicians direct huge-dollar social programs will have happy results because... ??
Congnitive dissonance? Religious belief?
