Paul Krugman Gets A Taste of What President Obama Deals With Every Single Day

By: Jason EasleyMar. 5th, 2013more from Jason Easley

Paul Krugman got a taste of what President Obama deals with every single day during his debate with Joe Scarborough on Charlie Rose.

Joe Scarborough had two arguments. He argued that the debt is a generational crisis, and that we must reform entitlements. Scarborough demonstrated how devoid of facts he was by quoting something Krugman wrote fifteen years ago. For the most part, Scarborough’s position echoed the same tired alarms that Republicans always sound when a Democrat is president. While he was in Congress, Joe Scarborough supported the complete destruction of the Clinton surplus by voting for the Bush tax cuts that added $1.6 trillion to the deficit. Thus, Scarborough’s concern about the debt is a fairly new phenomenon.

Clip of Scarborough playing gotcha:

Visit NBCNews.com for breaking news, world news, and news about the economy

Krugman argued that household debt has been paid down, the private sector is recovering, all that is standing in the way of larger economic growth is the Republican obsession with austerity. Krugman argued the Keynesian approach, while Scarborough called the debt a “generational crisis,” and inaccurately linked it to Social Security. Scarborough was so full unfounded Republican ideological BS, that Krugman uttered a stunned wow. Krugnan closed the debate by telling Scarborough that he was mushing together two different issues.

Here is a clip:

Paul Krugman, who has at times been hard on Obama, got a taste of what the president deals with every single day. They can be no serious policy discussion, because Republicans like Scarborough argue everything with ideology. Krugman had the facts on his side, but that didn’t matter to Scarborough. The Morning Joe host ignored facts and reality. Scarborough pulled a straight out of the 1990s GOP move at the end of the debate by arguing that this gridlocked government could both grow the economy and reduce the debt by privatizing Medicare and Social Security. Joe Scarborough definitely trotted all of the talking points.

Krugman wrote that he thought he did poorly, “Well, we’ll see how it comes out after editing, but I feel that I just had my Denver debate moment: I was tired, cranky, and unready for the blizzard of misleading factoids and diversionary stuff (In 1997 you said that the aging population was a big problem! When Social Security was founded life expectancy was only 62!) Oh, and I wasn’t prepared for Joe Scarborough’s slipperiness about what he actually advocates (he’s for more spending in the near term? Who knew?)”

I thought Krugman did fairly well given what he was dealing with. He thought he was going to have a policy debate, but Joe Scarborough brought a political debate. The fact that Krugman was unprepared for the misleading factoids and diversions should give him a bit of insight into what President Obama has gone through from the moment that he came into office.

It is easy to sit on sidelines and criticize Obama as the some on the left do for fun, sport, and profit. (For his part, Krugman has been fair to Obama. He criticizes when it is called for, and praises when deserved.) The lesson here is that until one walks a mile in his shoes, it is difficult to understand what Obama is dealing with.

Take Paul Krugman’s experience and multiply it by a thousand, and you are living in Obama’s world.

Given this political environment, it is amazing that President Obama gets anything accomplished at all.

Paul Krugman Gets A Taste of What President Obama Deals With Every Single Day was written by Jason Easley for PoliticusUSA.

Scott Prouty Gives Voice To The Real Silent Majority: The American Worker
Finding out the identity of the 47% videographer was nice, but Scott Prouty's real contribution is that ...
Obama Rejects The War on Terror by Trying Boston Bombing Suspect in Civilian Court
The Obama White House rebuked the war on terror by confirming that Boston bombing suspect Dzhokhar A. Ts ...
President Obama Tells House Republicans to Clean Up Their Own Sequester Mess
President Obama told House Republicans that they need to compromise and he will not be cleaning up their ...
On MSNBC 10th Grader Amy Myers Turns Up The Heat On Michele Bachmann
Amy Myers was on MSNBC’s The Last Word where she showed the world why Rep. Michele Bachmann is afraid ...
Hubris: Rachel Maddow Shocks America Into Remembering Bush's War Crimes
The MSNBC documentary Hubris: The Selling of the Iraq War tells the story of how an American presidentia ...

By Blogsdna

21 Responses to Paul Krugman Gets A Taste of What President Obama Deals With Every Single Day

Darrell

Mar. 5th, 2013 at 11:38 am

Not only Paul Krugman should be getting a taste what President Obama deal with eveyday maybe these hate people should deal with it too
It will be a blessing.
What do you think? 1 0
Charles Almon

Mar. 5th, 2013 at 12:57 pm

Joe is WAY over his head.
The issue NOW is jobs and getting the economy growing.
Joe wants a solution?
Cut corporate welfare.
Close tax loopholes for the rich.
Cut the defense budget by even 10%

With Republicans is ALWAYS the social programs.
What do you think? 0 0
Joy

Mar. 5th, 2013 at 12:58 pm

Great point Jason. Sometimes I wonder how President Obama even gets out of the bed everyday to deal with the huge evil forces against him. Everyone harshly criticized President Obama’s first debate with Romney. I felt he could not believe the lies that were coming out of Romney’s mouth. He actually thought he was going to have a real debate. To this day, I don’t fault the POTUS for what happened in that 1st debate. When you’re bombarded with lies and they don’t get challenged by any real journalistic moderation, do you just sink to their level and argue? You have to regroup and properly prepare for your actual opponent and not for what should be on your level. We need to give him the support he needs. We need to challenge Washington’s House of Representatives. These people are controlling the outcomes of millions of US lives and it’s devastating! We should bombard the guilty parties with protests and phone calls and emails. We should boycott the sponsors of Rush Limbaugh, Hannity, the Koch Bros’ products and even the sponsors of Morning Joe. They have to be hit in their pocket books where it counts. Otherwise, we will become a nation of slave labor with no benefits. The rich will just get richer and poverty will engulf this nation.
What do you think? 1 0
- bluerose
  
  Mar. 5th, 2013 at 1:07 pm
  
  to answer your question Joy, the reason why President Obama gets out of bed everyday is because he loves the country so much and he wants it to get back to where it belongs despite the constant roadblocks from the GOP, they (GOP) are hell bound to destroy Obama and whoever’s in there way no matter what.
  What do you think? 0 0
  - neil
    
    Mar. 5th, 2013 at 2:41 pm
    
    As opposed to Newt Gingrich who loves his country so much it made him cheat on his wife.{wives}
    What do you think? 0 0
j

Mar. 5th, 2013 at 2:36 pm

So when did Scarboro get his degree in economics?
What do you think? 0 0
- Bill
  
  Mar. 5th, 2013 at 2:41 pm
  
  He went to the University of Alabama so even an economics degree would mean little.
  What do you think? 0 0
Cue Miller

Mar. 5th, 2013 at 3:02 pm

Scarborough doesn’t “argue everything with ideology,” he argues with Republican propaganda. As you say, it’s not based on reality, but instead on tweaking fear, prejudice, tribalism, and any number of psy-war triggers. Ideology, even false ideology, at least has some internal coherence and structure. Propaganda plays on emotion. It may even be real emotion, but usually is lies.
What do you think? 0 0
Jack

Mar. 5th, 2013 at 3:13 pm

I’m not sure of the increase to the defense a few months ago. If this is true the “good cop / bad cop game” is in play. This said, it will end with the sequestration having no effect on defense because the budget was increased to offset a cut with the net decrease to the budget being zero. So, the game will play out and the President will play his negotiation part and throw the safety net and SS, Med and Medicaid etc under the bus for cuts.

I read this part on line: They all are Lying( incl’ding our Pres. and Dem’s ), some more than others… The sequestration was a total win for the Gop…… They pushed thru a Defense increase a few months ago ( did everyone incl the President forget that ?) So the ” New ” Cuts … aren’t really cuts for some parts of the Gov’t … All the attention has been drawn to ” Hurting ” our Defense…. That’s a Lie …. We are all being fooled by this … even our President says a lot of this…. The Real Cuts are on the domestic side… Our President has failed on this… ( he also signed the Defense increase) The Republicans are not Conservative… They aren’t for reducing the size of Gov’t … just for shifting it to benefit their Bosses…The Ultra Rich and the Military Industrial Complex….Lindsey Graham had the audacity to say( I heard Him ) Sunday that the Defense Budget was only 29% of our budget and we were cutting it 7%… How can we allow such Lying to be allowed … This currrent Falsehood incl’ds both Parties and the President…Part of this is they are afraid of Us ,,, we react to the Fear of ” Protecting our Country ” The Republicans have used this so successfully in the Past.. The ” Democrats are so soft on Defense” …. They only care for the ” Welfare ” State… We care about our ” Security ” and Our Country … Goes the line and too many people fall for that ….
What do you think? 0 0
Evermore Jones

Mar. 5th, 2013 at 5:34 pm

Yep its all about propaganda. My favorite example of this is in the republican’t vocabulary if they want a government payout these gov’t payouts are called “subsidies” if anybody else wants a gov’t payout then the republicant’s call them ” entitlements”. It’s an exercise in the power of selective language usage. For example which sounds better “Lets go to church and pray.” or “Lets go to the special house we built for our imaginary friend and talk to the air.”?
What do you think? 0 0
djchefron(Moderator)

Mar. 5th, 2013 at 7:20 pm

Morning joke explaining economics?Maybe he should try explaining that dead intern in his congressional office

A Death in the Congressman’s Office
Does Anybody in the Press Care About Lori Klausutis?
www.americanpolitics.com/...

We dont know what happened that night?We can only guess, unless you prove you had nothing to do with it.
Ted Cruz
What do you think? 0 0
- PSzymeczek
  
  Mar. 6th, 2013 at 11:40 am
  
  I’ve been saying that very thing for years.
  What do you think? 0 0
Michael DeWald

Mar. 5th, 2013 at 10:19 pm

Scarborough engages in these kinds of debates every morning on Morning Joe. He sets up straw men, digs out quotes from decades ago about entirely different circumstances, and bullies incessantly, because it’s his show and if you don’t like it, he just won’t invite you back on again. How Mika Brzezinski works with this blowhard every day is beyond me. He only argues when he has things already set up his way and can lie and mislead without challenge. He usually uses the tactic of the unexpected to keep his “guests” unprepared for his petulant ideological attacks.
What do you think? 0 0
- Shiva(Moderator)
  
  Mar. 5th, 2013 at 10:47 pm
  
  They have some excellent discussions when Joe is gone and Barnacle is running the show
  What do you think? 0 0
  - djchefron(Moderator)
    
    Mar. 5th, 2013 at 10:51 pm
    
    I used to watch but its Mike and Mike in the morning for me now.Its sad to say but you get more truth from a sports talk show than any poitical show.
    What do you think? 0 0
- Jeff R
  
  Mar. 6th, 2013 at 1:31 am
  
  So your saying that Scarborough is Limbaugh and O’Reilly with a less unpleasant paint job.
  What do you think? 0 0
- PSzymeczek
  
  Mar. 6th, 2013 at 11:42 am
  
  Even if they did get MSNBC where we are staying, Morning Joke comes on way too early. Besides I watch the local news in the morning.
  What do you think? 0 0
Pancheetah

Mar. 6th, 2013 at 10:33 am

In this column you say, “Paul Krugman, who at times has been hard on Obama…” Paul Krugman fueled and sustained the whiny cranky left leading up to the disastrous 2010 election. His negativity kept voters from the polls who either wanted to ‘teach Obama a lesson’ or who were confused by a Dem message which sounded like the GOP’s negative message.
For those of us out in the neighborhoods actually talking to voters I can tell you I did not appreciate what seemed rarely fair and balanced. Go back and read Krugman’s columns and tell me if you can find examples where he gave Obama credit – credit that was surely due.
What do you think? 0 0
Sherlock

Mar. 6th, 2013 at 10:37 am

Morning Joe talks like Evening Bud- The Republicans are not delusional- they are not sick- they are EVIl and care nothing about this country. Its the POWER.
What do you think? 0 0
Robert

Mar. 7th, 2013 at 9:45 pm

There’s a big difference between President Obama dealing with the Scarboroughs of the world, and Paul Krugman. The President has a staff, speechwriters, a huge political party — not to mention the institution of the Presidency itself behind him, yet he regularly fails to use this apparatus to make the fundamental points or take the basic stands that Paul Krugman does every day.

I’ll just have to go with those lefty critics, who whilst having all that “fun” and making all that “profit” — oy vey — understand this President just isn’t very liberal. I voted for the guy and I put his sticker on my car, and I sent him checks twice, but I refuse to drink the Kool-Aid. Hey, if you want to, go right ahead. Me, I prefer reality, harsh as it is.
What do you think? 0 0
- djchefron(Moderator)
  
  Mar. 7th, 2013 at 10:12 pm
  
  The only people who think President Obama is a “liberal”are republicans who couldn’t even define what a liberal is.What the President is about is pragmatism.You want liberal policies elect liberal democrats to congress
  What do you think? 0 0