[Guest post by Gabriel Debenedetti]
Last night on “The O’Reilly Factor,” pseudo-presidential candidate Newt Gingrich called President Obama’s tenure a “Paul Krugman presidency.” Gingrich confidently explained that Obama “believes that stuff. He believes in left-wing economic ideas.”
It is possible that the nature of Krugman’s worldview is one of the few subjects beyond the reach of Gingrich’s encyclopedic knowledge. A sampling of Krugman’s commentary on the president who has, allegedly, built his presidency on following Krugman:
• “Back when the original 2009 Obama stimulus was enacted, some of us warned that it was both too small and too short-lived. … By the beginning of 2010, it was already obvious that these concerns had been justified.” The Mistake of 2010, June 2
• “Obamacare was very much a second-best plan, conditioned by perceived political realities.” Vouchercare Is Not Medicare, June 5
• “Last December … Mr. Obama agreed to extend the Bush tax cuts—a move that many people, myself included, viewed as in effect a concession to Republican blackmail.” To the Limit, June 30
• “Watching the evolution of economic discussion in Washington over the past couple of years has been a disheartening experience. Month by month, the discourse has gotten more primitive.” Corporate Cash Con, July 3
• “Mr. Obama’s people will no doubt argue that their fellow party members should trust him, that whatever deal emerges was the best he could get. But it’s hard to see why a president who has gone out of his way to echo Republican rhetoric and endorse false conservative views deserves that kind of trust.” What Obama Wants, July 7
• “Ever since the current economic crisis began, it has seemed that five words sum up the central principle of United States financial policy: go easy on the bankers.” Letting Bankers Walk, July 17
• “These are interesting times—and I mean that in the worst way.” The Lesser Depression, July 21
• “At the time of writing, President Obama’s hoped-for “Grand Bargain” with Republicans is apparently dead. And I say good riddance.” Messing With Medicare, July 24
• “The cult of balance has played an important role in bringing us to the edge of disaster.” The Centrist Cop-Out, July 28
And the kicker(s), from Krugman’s latest column, lovingly titled, “The President Surrenders”: “A deal to raise the federal debt ceiling is in the works. If it goes through, many commentators will declare that disaster was avoided. But they will be wrong. … Did the president have any alternative this time around? Yes. … Make no mistake about it, what we’re witnessing here is a catastrophe on multiple levels.”