Way back in January, Paul Krugman posted a
self-described "wonkish" column on his back-of-the-envelope calculations on the upcoming stimulus. He ends with this somewhat gloomy paragraph:
I see the following scenario: a weak stimulus plan, perhaps even weaker than what we’re talking about now, is crafted to win those extra GOP votes. The plan limits the rise in unemployment, but things are still pretty bad, with the rate peaking at something like 9 percent and coming down only slowly. And then Mitch McConnell says “See, government spending doesn’t work.”
As it turns out, Krugman's guess on the unemployment numbers was a bit low (the result of him intentionally choosing optimistic parameters for his inputs), but he certainly knows his Republicans. Check out what Mitch McConnell
had to say on Tuesday:
"Down home, we used to say there's no education in the second kick of a mule," the Kentucky Republican said. "Now, why in the world there would be any conclusion reached after looking at the results of the first stimulus that the way to deal with that is to pass yet another one is mind-boggling.
"I think a second stimulus is an even worse idea than the first stimulus, which has been demonstrably proven to have failed.
What Krugman missed (and should have seen coming even in January) was Harry Reid bobbling along behind McConnell, nodding his head at every word.
Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid agreed -- sort of. He says there is no need for one, at least right now.
"As far as I'm concerned, there's no showing to me that another stimulus is needed," Reid said.
Maybe we should just declare war on ourselves. Congress would give us as much money as we needed -- and it's not like we have any troops left to do the actual fighting...
