Snow Job on Jobs

New Krugman:

But back to the Romney jobs plan. As many people have noted, the plan has five points but contains no specifics. Loosely speaking, however, it calls for a return to Bushonomics: tax cuts for the wealthy plus weaker environmental protection. And Mr. Romney says that the plan would create 12 million jobs over the next four years.

And

So when the campaign says that these three studies support its claims about jobs, it is, to use the technical term, lying — just as it is when it says that six independent studies support its claims about taxes (they don’t).

What do Mr. Romney’s economic advisers actually believe? As best as I can tell, they’re placing their faith in the confidence fairy, in the belief that their candidate’s victory would inspire an employment boom without the need for any real change in policy. In fact, in his infamous Boca Raton “47 percent” remarks, Mr. Romney himself asserted that he would give a big boost to the economy simply by being elected, “without actually doing anything.” And what about the overwhelming evidence that our weak economy isn’t about confidence, it’s about the hangover from a terrible financial crisis? Never mind.

More here.

Yeah, Romney's got, as they say, nothin'.

Indeed, the entire Republican Party's got nothin'.  They've been running, for thirty fucking years, on the whole neoliberal thing.  That is, cutting taxes for the rich coupled with deregulating business as a way to grow the economy, which translates into prosperity for all.  Thing is, and we know this because we've been doing it for thirty years, it just doesn't work that way.  Indeed, economists have studied what the rich do with their tax cut savings, and it's pretty clear that they don't tend to reinvest it in their businesses.  Meanwhile, it's also pretty clear that businesses have learned how to game the system such that productivity gains and economic growth do not translate into better wages and benefits--these three decades of neoliberal America have done nothing but make the rich richer and everybody else poorer.

What's amazing is that they continue to run on what is now obvious bullshit, and people continue to buy it.

Actually, what's most troubling is that so many Republicans appear to fully believe their own bullshit.  I mean, Romney really does believe that his being elected to the Oval Office will so comfort businessmen that they'll expand the economy.  Simply because a Republican is President.  If that's not delusional, I don't know what is.

But that's what's on the line in this election.  I mean, to some extent.  The Democrats have been affected by this neoliberal mythology over the years, too--just look at their willingness to go after the deficit in ways that shred the social safety net.  Obama is, in fact, a Kool-Aid drinker.  But the Dems haven't embraced the dark side quite so much as the Republicans.  That is, they enable corporate forces, too, but in a kinder, gentler way.

On the whole, I'd prefer somebody like Nader.  But we're not going to get that.  So I'm opting for the guy who doesn't have his head up his ass.  At least that's something.

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