Paul Krugman: Focus Hocus Pocus

[babylonsister]

http://krugman.blogs.nytimes.com/2010/11/02/focus-hocus-pocus/

Focus Hocus Pocus


If there’s one piece of conventional pundit wisdom that annoys me most, it’s the constant refrain that Obama was wrong to pursue health care, that he should have focused on the economy instead.

For the question people saying this never answer is, what would that focus have consisted of?

Yes, Democrats would be in better shape if the economy were in better shape. Duh.

So when you say Obama should have focused more, what policies are you talking about? A bigger stimulus? As far as I can tell, almost no pundits are saying that. So what other concrete policies do they have in mind? I have never gotten an answer.

The notion seems to be that if Obama had spent the past 20 months going around with furrowed brow, saying, “I’m focused on the economy”, this would have (a) somehow created jobs (b) made people feel better about 9.6 percent unemployment.

Look, it might have been slightly better if Obama had acknowledged the economy’s problems more forthrightly, rather than continuing to insist that the ARRA was doing just fine. But that’s not about focus — and not at all opposed to doing health reform too.

What’s crucial to remember here is that economic policy is about actually doing things, not about saying “Message: I care.” A bigger stimulus — and, importantly, one that wouldn’t fade out just in time for the midterms — would have mattered. “Focus”, not so much.

[muriel_volestrangler]

1. That calls for:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=g4ouPGGLI6Q

[Armstead]

3. Now that was mean -- Making me listen to that 70's musical Bilge Rock

[rfranklin]

2. I only he had doubled the Bush tax cuts....

it would have dribbled down on us by now! :sarcasm:

[Armstead]

4. Krugman hit the nail on the head...Every politician says "I'm running on jobs and the economy"

The question is what are they going to do about it?

The idiot GOP Teabaggers and Corporate Oligarchs and their tools say we need "growth" when we've had their growth policies for 30 years. Arrgh.

[ArnoldLayne]

5. I remember that performance on The Midnight Special with Wolfman Jack