Paul Krugman: Nervous Liar

Within the dank and dreary pages of the New York Times, would-be socialist and failed economist Paul Krugman has decided to respond to the Republican drive to – finally – begin drilling for oil on the domestic territory on and just off the North American continent. Krugman counters the proposal not with a constructive suggestion for another means to address the need for price relief and reliable supply of arguably the most strategic resources for our economy, but by calling the Republican Party the “party of stupid”. Krugman alleges, in a statement which seems to me as ironic as it is pathetically ignorant, that Republicans want to be known as the party of “real men don’t think things through”. What makes that ironic, is that Krugman demonstrates in his article the sort of knee-jerk smear and insult tactics that have typified Democrats throughout the last decade, yet Krugman is smugly unaware that he, like his friends on the Left, has yet to offer a single functional long-term solution worth considering. The Republicans’ plan, however much Krugman derides it, is historically proven, and the mere suggestion by President Bush that it should be undertaken caused such a change in expected behavior on the markets that the price of oil immediately plunged. Krugman sneers at the idea of drilling where we know oil is waiting, where we have complete control of the working conditions, where logistics are far simpler than freighting the stuff in by overseas tanker, and where the U.S. companies’ environmental practices – proven superior to any other oil-producing nation on the planet – would protect wildlife and nature better than any practical alternative. Krugman, after all, has heard from “experts” who insist that increasing supply will not lower prices. One wonders where such “experts” learned their macro-economics, but never mind. Krugman has decided the plan won’t work, so much so that not once in his article does Mr. Krugman actually address the proposal in substance. In fact, Krugman presents more than a few lies along the way. Stupid, absurd lies, but blatant and insulting falsehoods.

Krugman claims, for example, that the Republican plans are all about “simple, brute-force, instant-gratification answers to every problem”. Far from it, actually, but Krugman would much rather portray the Republicans as neanderthals than people who have taken the time to consider the underlying causes of the crisis. Krugman implies that the Republicans care only about oil, when the Republicans in Congress have made it clear that they support research and development into alternative energy, especially in the long-term, but the Republicans, unlike Krugman and the Democrats, are dealing with the reality that for the foreseeable future there is a great need for oil, for a secure and reliable supply of it, and Americans are beginning to understand that we have a lot of oil right here at home, and the overall condition – the long-term condition – will be improved for businesses and citizens alike by depending on American companies to drill for oil on American territory.

But there is also a real and valid present effect to the debate. Krugman sneers when John Shadegg observed, “The market is responding to the fact that we are here talking”. Krugman would have you ignore the fact that ever since the Republicans began the debate on homeland drilling, the price of oil has been dropping, along with pump prices. Pelosi and her crowd made excuses to avoid eth debate and literally ran away, but the Republicans stayed on the topic, and like it or not, Mr. Krugman, prices have come down. You are lying to pretend otherwise. The reason there is a connection is something the Democrats themselves originally recognized; there are people speculating on oil futures, but the Democrats lied and tried to claim it was Big Oil doing that, rather than crowds of individual investors and investment firms who were actually behind the pressure. When it became obvious that the Republicans were pushing for a major shift in policy, one which would significantly alter the long-term supply curve for oil to Americans, confidence on the future price for oil plummeted and present prices dropped. Simple economics, Mr. Krugman, you really should go back and take a refresher course.

No one is saying, however, that merely talking will keep prices dropping. If the Democrats refuse to do the right thing by the American people, and they manage to keep control of the Congress in November’s elections, then obviously the Krugman-style polices will go back into force and we may expect futures to shoot back up, taking present prices with them just as they did before. The need is to give American companies the long-term resources they need, and drilling on North American land is the smart way to do that. To pretend otherwise is just another Krugman lie.

Those who read through Krugman’s little spit piece will no doubt notice that Krugman himself gives up on his claims just six paragraphs into his article. After that, he dredges up the Left’s fave sock puppet, the ‘Bush Lied to get War’ falsehood. The fact that neither Bush nor the Republicans said what he claims, is no more surprising than the fact that Krugman pulls the Iraq War out of nowhere to try to scare Americans into rejecting the Energy plan. Krugman truly goes off the deep end of his short pier when he tries to claim there was a “cult of personality” about President Bush, as if the Left has not been assassinating the President’s character and hoping for something more personally catastrophic to strike him, since before Bush even took office. Krugman blames Bush for Katrina, never mind Mayor Nagin’s lack of planning, Governor Blanco’s decision to delay asking for the National Guard’s assistance, or the peculiar actions of C. Bennett Landreneau in all of that. No, Krugman is determined to blame Bush, never mind the facts, and never mind that he never bothers to explain how hurricanes are part of a national energy plan.

That’s what struck me about Krugman’s smears the most. I mean, from Krugman we know to expect a small mind and a bitter spirit, but the lies are so obvious, so poorly defended and so clearly delusional, that one is compelled to wonder why Krugman thought the articles worth printing? It would appear that Mr. Krugman has been made very nervous by this issue, that despite his claim that the Democrats will definitely make great gains in Congress this fall, that the man has become aware that this issue is one where Americans will not accept the trite and condescending behavior of the Democrats, that while the Republican Party damaged the trust and respect of the American people, the Democrats have managed to go one worse and cast themselves as the clear enemy of regular Americans. It is the Democrats, after all, who want to deny constitutional rights to homeowners while creating special protections and help for people here illegally. It is the Democrats, without question, who think that it is a good thing for taxes and prices to go up, and that Americans should get used to making do with less. And it is the Democrats who, when faced with a debate on energy policy and a clear, effective plan to protect jobs and savings, instead went on a five-week vacation and ordered the lights and cameras in the House of Representatives shut off in hopes of keeping the public from finding out about it. The Democrats used to be the party which stood up for the average guy and the well-being of all Americans. Now the Democrats are clearly the enemies of the family and the small business. The problem for the Democrats, is that folks are starting to figure that out for themselves, and paid hacks like Krugman are becoming more and more desperate to find lies which will hide the truth until after the election.