NYT's Paul Krugman: Pay For Entitlements With Death Panels

[Dante]

Inflating Your Way To Prosperity

One thing I often see in comments is people attributing to me, or to others, the notion that you can inflate your way to prosperity — which is presented as self-evidently absurd.

Well, if you think that it’s self-evidently absurd, you’ve been listening to the wrong people.

Nobody thinks that an economy operating somewhere near full employment can inflate its way to higher output. But under depression conditions — which is what we have now — inflation is very much a positive thing.

Here’s a quick example from Eichengreen and Sachs showing changes in the gold value of currencies 1929-35 versus changes in industrial production; the devaluation of currencies against gold was closely related to the changes in their overall price level:

Slow Learners

The WSJ has an article today pointing out that the euro crisis isn’t really about fiscal irresponsibility:

So if public debt is your yardstick, then the Spaniards were paragons of virtue. They borrowed lightly despite the fact that their euro-zone membership gave them an all-you-can-eat buffet of financing at bargain-basement rates.

As Europe scrambles to find a solution to a debt crisis that’s threatening the world economy, it’s crucial to understand what actually happened in countries like Spain. Otherwise, policymakers will end up prescribing the wrong medicine, with disastrous results.

That’s all true, and I’m glad to see it in the WSJ. But it’s presented as a startling insight, one that runs contrary to what everyone thinks. And that’s amazing and depressing.

I mean, this was obvious from the very beginning. Here’s what I wrote in February 2010:

The biggest trouble spot isn’t Greece, it’s Spain — which was running budget surpluses just a few years ago. True, Spain is running big deficits now — but that’s because of its economic collapse. And underlying that collapse is the real problem with the euro: one-size-fits-all monetary policy, which offers no relief to countries that suffer adverse shocks.

There are two things that are frustrating about the fiscalization of our discourse. First, it’s taking place even though many, probably most good economists have been arguing strenuously for a more sophisticated view. Second, many of the people insisting that deficits are the big issue probably don’t even realize that they’re taking a questionable position — it’s just part of what everyone thinks they know.

Against conventional wisdom, the gods themselves …

Sometimes (actually, often) it feels like I’m in one of those nightmares where you’re shouting, but nobody can hear you. And you wouldn’t really expect that to happen when you’re doing your shouting from a pretty prominent platform.

Slow Learners - NYTimes.com

Inflating Your Way To Prosperity - NYTimes.com


http://www.nytimes.com/2012/10/26/opinion/krugman-pointing-toward-prosperity.html?_r=0

Well, as I’ve said before, Mr. Romney’s “plan” is a sham. It’s a list of things he claims will happen, with no description of the policies he would follow to make those things happen. “We will cut the deficit and put America on track to a balanced budget,” he declares, but he refuses to specify which tax loopholes he would close to offset his $5 trillion in tax cuts.

Actually, if describing what you want to see happen without providing any specific policies to get us there constitutes a “plan,” I can easily come up with a one-point plan that trumps Mr. Romney any day. Here it is: Every American will have a good job with good wages. Also, a blissfully happy marriage. And a pony.

So Mr. Romney is faking it. His real plan seems to be to foster economic recovery through magic, inspiring business confidence through his personal awesomeness. But what about the man he wants to kick out of the White House?

...

in his own words....

 

[francoHFW]

The jobs will come from the great American economy when Pubs stop obstructing and fear mongering with the stupid debt ceiling crisis/fiscal cliff/sequestration and learn how to compromise, idiot dupe. Change the channel- hoping for your recovery, chump of the idiot greedy rich.

 

[Stephanie]

The jobs will come from the great American economy when Pubs stop obstructing and fear mongering with the stupid debt ceiling crisis/fiscal cliff/sequestration and learn how to compromise, idiot dupe. Change the channel- hoping for your recovery, chump of the idiot greedy rich.

yeah, sure they will with talk of raising TAXES AGAIN...

 

[francoHFW]

Cutting loopholes on the bloated rich is all, dupe.

 

[Dante]

The jobs will come from the great American economy when Pubs stop obstructing and fear mongering with the stupid debt ceiling crisis/fiscal cliff/sequestration and learn how to compromise, idiot dupe. Change the channel- hoping for your recovery, chump of the idiot greedy rich.

yeah, sure they will with talk of raising TAXES AGAIN...

The GOP voted to raise taxes. History shows the GOP raises taxes even when they run against Democrats raising taxes. Conservative hero Reagan raised taxes.

 

[Stephanie]

Cutting loopholes on the bloated rich is all, dupe.

Maybe you Democrats should stop VOTING for all them bloated rich..lol
but them rich people are all the good guys I guess...LOL
cracks me up, they raise taxes on everybody but THEMSELVES and keep all their cash in the banks..or the Caymans...

 

[kwc57]

Krugman is an idiot savant.......minus the savant part.

go away. you're not even good at trolling

Sorry, but I don't "dante". I was quite serious.

 

[Stephanie]

So how about that, not only does this administration feels it can kill American citizens without due process, but now they are going to have DEATH PANELS for you too

Man that ObamaNation is some UTOPIA
lets all cheer They were re-elected to lay all this on us

 

[francoHFW]

Cutting loopholes on the bloated rich is all, dupe.

Maybe you Democrats should stop VOTING for all them bloated rich..lol
but them rich people are all the good guys I guess...LOL
cracks me up, they raise taxes on everybody but THEMSELVES and keep all their cash in the banks..or the Caymans...

Dems vote for the rich who want the best for the country, you dupes vote for the greedy idiot rich who want the best for themselves... who wants to raise taxes on themselves? Whose money was in the Caymans? Duh.

Jeebus the convolutions you go through LOL. WTF are you talking about, dupe? Hoping for your recovery.

 

[Stephanie]

Cutting loopholes on the bloated rich is all, dupe.

Maybe you Democrats should stop VOTING for all them bloated rich..lol
but them rich people are all the good guys I guess...LOL
cracks me up, they raise taxes on everybody but THEMSELVES and keep all their cash in the banks..or the Caymans...

Dems vote for the rich who want the best for the country, you dupes vote for the greedy idiot rich who want the best for themselves... who wants to raise taxes on themselves? Who's money was in the Caymans? Duh.

Jeebus the convolutions you go through LOL. WTF are you talking about, dupe? Hoping for your recovery.

lol, what's BEST for the country buy USING you little working peons who vote for them MONIES...Now they are talking about RAISING TAXES ON THE MIDDLE CLASS.

but come on people, THAT HAS to be what's best FOR YOU......yeehaaa

 

[francoHFW]

Bullshytte, fool LOL. Change the channel. LOOPHOLES! Over 450k income. Reaganism and voodoo have killed the nonrich and the country, dupe. Now turning it around.

 

[P@triot]

There are no Death Panels. Didn't Liberals already debunk this nonsense?

I know a liberal is severely retarded (even by normal retarded liberal levels) when they make the claim that "there will be no death panels"

It's simply impossible for government-run healthcare to not have them. You have unlimited problems and limited resources to address those problems. And that means DECISIONS. And making DECISIONS means RATIONING. And RATIONING is just the "nicer" way of saying DEATH PANELS.

They've already started it and were all to happy to say it - yet the retarded liberal is completely unaware of that fact. Dr. Donald Berwick (the #1 guy Obama turns to for healthcare related policy) - is on record as stating how wonderful "rationing" of health care is - and that (get this) he would intentionally create a shortage of healthcare.


Obama Returns to End-of-Life Plan That Caused Stir

WASHINGTON — When a proposal to encourage end-of-life planning touched off a political storm over “death panels,” Democrats dropped it from legislation to overhaul the health care system. But the Obama administration will achieve the same goal by regulation, starting Jan. 1.

What does this new rule say and do, exactly?

It inserts the federal government in end-of-life planning, precisely as Palin said was Obama’s intention. Not, as was true of its original legislative formulation, every five years. But annually. No one of any sense objects to an individual and doctor having end-of-life discussions about living wills and such whenever they wish. Only the Obama administration and its obsession for control wants the government to incentivize the issue so that doctors must raise it annually, a system that on its face pressures the most deeply vulnerable of Americans in the most Orwellian of terms to end their lives.

Control and pressure. Pressure and control. This is the only two-step philosophical/political dance liberals know. It is, as it were, primal. And the Berwick Medicare rule, constructed in secret and released on Christmas Day when it no one is looking, is a perfect example — if hardly the only example — of how the Obama Administration views its role. Control and pressure. Pressure… and control.

Versus the conservative concept (shorthand version) of liberty and freedom.

Says the Times of the Obama Administration’s justification for its secretive move to mandate death panels by regulatory fiat:

In this case, the administration said research had shown the value of end-of-life planning.

Research? What research could possibly justify a government-sponsored annual attempt to pressure a poor, disabled, or elderly American into believing that they would be better off dead because they’re costing society too much money?

British research. Says the Times:

“Advance care planning improves end-of-life care and patient and family satisfaction and reduces stress, anxiety and depression in surviving relatives,” the administration said in the preamble to the Medicare regulation, quoting research published this year in the British Medical Journal.”

You read that right.

British research is being cited in the preamble of this Medicare death panel rule as a justification for the new rule — a stunning turn of events that will surely launch a firestorm over trying to remodel the American health care system after the hotly criticized British health care system. A system that makes no pretense of politically rationed health care.

The American Spectator : Berwick Sets Up Death Panels By Fiat

 

[francoHFW]

Would you rather have an insurance bureaucrat or you and your doctors decide, dupe? Death Panel my butt...The usual BS from dupes of Big Health and the greedy rich and AMA (our ridiculouly expensive and cruel Pub health system).

 

[Stephanie]

Would you rather have an insurance bureaucrat or you and your doctors decide, dupe? Death Panel my butt...The usual BS from dupes of Big Health and the greedy rich and AMA (our ridiculouly expensive and cruel Pub health system).

No, I'd rather have Obama and his comrades in arms administration bureaucrats making it for me
they are already talking about restricting pain medication...this is JUST THE BEGINNING PEOPLE
you should talk about dupes, you AND many like you are one

 

[francoHFW]

Funny how Masscare proves none of these dupe horrors actually happen...LOL- stupidest voters in the modern world, change the channel...

 

[P@triot]

Would you rather have an insurance bureaucrat or you and your doctors decide, dupe? Death Panel my butt...The usual BS from dupes of Big Health and the greedy rich and AMA (our ridiculouly expensive and cruel Pub health system).

Would you rather have the government bureaucrat or you and your doctors decide, dupe?

And the story is there for you to read and cannot be denied (if only you could read, uh communist?).

 

[P@triot]

Bullshytte, fool LOL. Change the channel. LOOPHOLES! Over 450k income. Reaganism and voodoo have killed the nonrich and the country, dupe. Now turning it around.

Oh please, your communist bullshit is tired and played out.

Reagan took over the WORST economy in US history (sans the Great Depression of course) from Jimmy Carter and created an economic tidal wave that we rode for nearly 20+ years until the Bill Clinton socialism policies crashed it all.

The fact is, you're just a communist parasite pissed off with his own lot in life and far too ****'n lazy to do anything to change it. Poor people have never created a single job in world history - and that is just a fact. Pandering to them, as you want us to - being the parasite that you are - only creates more collapse and failure (something you liberals have been doing around the world for over 100 years now).

 

[P@triot]

The jobs will come from the great American economy when Pubs stop obstructing and fear mongering with the stupid debt ceiling crisis/fiscal cliff/sequestration and learn how to compromise, idiot dupe. Change the channel- hoping for your recovery, chump of the idiot greedy rich.

The frustrating thing about pro-communist parasites like you is that you know damn well that your policies create poverty and failure, but you don't care. You just lie and pretend, because you want to get your greedy hands on other people's money.

Case in point - here is Detroit. A city run and ruled by radical left-wing liberal policy for over 60 years. A booming auto industry which was collapsed by radical liberal unions, liberal taxes which caused poverty, liberal policy on crime caused rampant crime. Here it is, and cannot be denied (though that won't stop your greedy ass from trying):

http://www.glennbeck.com/2012/12/10/photos-a-crumbling-detroit/

 

[Greenbeard]

Meanwhile,

CBO: Medicare spending slowing faster than expected - The Hill's Healthwatch

The Congressional Budget Office (CBO) lowered spending projections for Medicare on Tuesday, noting that the program's bills have been "significantly lower" than predicted for three years straight.

The non-partisan budget office revised down its 10-year spending projection for Medicare by $137 billion, or two percent, in its latest long-term economic forecast.

Report authors said spending in Medicare Parts A and B has risen by an average of 2.9 percent per year since 2009, or markedly less than the 8.4 percent annual growth seen between 2002 and 2009.

The Budget and Economic Outlook: Fiscal Years 2013 to 2023

Medicaid and Medicare. In recent years, health care spending has grown much more slowly both nationally and for federal programs than historical rates would have indicated. (For example, in 2012, federal spending for Medicare and Medicaid was about 5 percent below the amount that CBO had projected in March 2010.) In response to that slowdown, over the past several years, CBO has made a series of downward technical adjustments to its projections of spending for Medicaid and Medicare. From the March 2010 baseline to the current baseline, such technical revisions have lowered estimates of federal spending for the two programs in 2020 by about $200 billion—by $126 billion for Medicare and by $78 billion for Medicaid, or by roughly 15 percent for each program.

 

[francoHFW]

The jobs will come from the great American economy when Pubs stop obstructing and fear mongering with the stupid debt ceiling crisis/fiscal cliff/sequestration and learn how to compromise, idiot dupe. Change the channel- hoping for your recovery, chump of the idiot greedy rich.

The frustrating thing about pro-communist parasites like you is that you know damn well that your policies create poverty and failure, but you don't care. You just lie and pretend, because you want to get your greedy hands on other people's money.

Case in point - here is Detroit. A city run and ruled by radical left-wing liberal policy for over 60 years. A booming auto industry which was collapsed by radical liberal unions, liberal taxes which caused poverty, liberal policy on crime caused rampant crime. Here it is, and cannot be denied (though that won't stop your greedy ass from trying):

PHOTOS: A crumbling Detroit? ? Glenn Beck

You're a gd brainwashed ignorant Beckbot fool/chicken little. You're so far off the charts you think pragmatic centrists are commies, and old cokehead DJ Beck is a genius and Nobel Prize winner Krugman is an idiot. STFU and read something. 90% chance racist.

Detroit's problem was shytty management and design. NOW FIXED by Obama's braintrust, SHYTTEHEAD. lol