Scrivener.net

Paul Krugman, looking for reasons why Obamacare seems to be going nowhere in spite of Democrats having 60% majorities in both Senate and House, finds that it's because, for some bad reason, the American people are biased against big government [emphasis in original]....

The debate over the "public option" in health care has been dismaying in many ways. Perhaps the most depressing aspect for progressives, however, has been the extent to which opponents of greater choice in health care have gained traction ... simply by repeating, over and over again, that the public option would be, horrors, a government program.

Now recall that for a full eight-straight years Krugman lectured the American people relentlessly that the US government and its leaders were stupid, venal, dishonest, and corrupt. Today he's shocked to find ... they believe it!

In his columns, Krugman used the word "liar" about the government and the people in it so often that NY Times editor Howell Raines ordered him to stop.

Then, for health care...

"Above all, we need to put aside our anti-government prejudices."

Cognitive dissonance?

The Krugman Konundrum of course is closely related to DeLong's Dilemma:

The Key Problem of Modern Liberalism

How can one support the idea of an activist government when half the time that government will be run by malevolent or incompetent Republicans?

The fact that people who believe in small government take Krugman's and DeLong's complaints about lying, malevolent, incompetent government much more seriously than Krugman and DeLong do is an irony that Krugman and DeLong will never appreciate.