Krugman schools Noonan: Don’t negotiate with Republicans who want to ‘blow up the world’

[Playinghardball]

Nobel prize-winning economist Paul Krugman on Sunday explained to Wall Street Journal columnist Peggy Noonan that she was wrong to slam President Barack Obama for not compromising with Republicans on the debt ceiling because you don’t negotiate with “hostage takers” who are trying to “blow up the world economy.”

“The White House position, which is right, is that there should be no bargaining over this,” Krugman told a panel on ABC’s This Week. “If the Republican majority in the House wants to cut spending, let them propose legislation that cuts spending and pass it, not hold America hostage.”

Bloomberg columnist Al Hunt agreed that the way Republicans were refusing to raise the debt ceiling until the president agreed to drastic spending cuts was a “total and complete fraud.”

“In the end, the Republicans are not going to want to say, ‘We’re going to put the full faith and credit of the Unite States at risk so we can cut Medicare,’” Hunt predicted. “That just won’t happen.”

“We should not allow this to become or be thought of as a legitimate budget strategy,” Krugman warned. “This is hostage taking, this is walking into a room and saying, ‘I’ve got a bomb, give me what I want or I’ll blow up this room.’ This has never happened before and should not be allowed to happen.”

“This is much scarier that the fiscal cliff because we don’t know what it does,” he continued. “What we do know is that U.S. government debt is the global safe asset. It is what every financial transaction relies on as the ultimate, this is what value consists of — and better than gold, better than anything. U.S. Treasury bills are the thing. If they are called into question, nobody knows what happens.”

Raw Story (http://s.tt/1ynE4)

[Publiuus]

1. Better than gold?

Gold has been the reserve currency for all of recorded human history.

[JaneyVee]

3. Yes, better than gold.

[Fumesucker]

5. Except on Yap

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rai_stones

[Ikonoklast]

7. No, it hasn't.

Not even close.

[CTyankee]

2. was she drunk?

[AlbertCat]

9. Never forget!

Peggy "loon" Noonan chided Clinton for not recognizing that god himself had sent dolphins to protect Elias Gonzalez so he could get to America.

She's a moron.

[calimary]

22. She was reagan's Monica. Dear God she worshipped him. She'd sigh and swoon! It was embarrassing!

You'd think she was trying out for Presidential Love Sonnet Poet. She spoke in near-hushed tones about him, reverentially to the point where you'd think he was the second coming with a submarine-size dick. It was utterly embarrassing to witness this shameless display whenever she was on camera. She did everything BUT crawl under his desk. She IS a loon. A shameless loon. TOTAL. Of the FIRST ORDER. She's worthless. He's GONE, peggy dear. He's DEAD. He's been DEAD for YEARS now. And so are his ideas!!!! They're even deader than he is! ANd he won't rise from the grave anytime soon, even though you saw divine powers and grace in him all the time. Give it up. He's OVER. SOOOOOO OVER!!! And to that I get down on MY knees and thank Dear God!!!

peggy, sweetheart: Take off your damn Vestal Virgins' garb and get with current times, please. That's where most of America is these days, dear. With the exception of all your little friends in the "Take America Backwards" club. And get some eyedrops - your vision seriously needs clearing.

Utterly worthless, simpering, fawning, pearl-clutching reagan groupie. She probably has the smelling-salts market cornered. Or at least her behavior would warrant as much. She's embarrassing.

[PearliePoo2]

28. this is good!

outstanding even...nice piece of writing with GREAT visuals!

[1StrongBlackMan]

11. I don't know whether she was drunk ...

but her insistent whine that President Obama should just work harder to get along with the gop in their hostage-taking, made me want to have my 1st drink of the new year.

As she was talking I kept hearing her advice to a battered wife: "If you would just tried harder to be a good wife, he'll stop beating you."

[Ikonoklast]

12. When isn't she? Noonan knows the sun is over the yardarm somewhere in the world.

Even is it is 0700 in Washington D.C., cocktails are definitely on the agenda.

[doc03]

4. That's why I don't understand Obama letting the Republicans have

nearly everything they wanted with taxes on the fiscal cliff deal. Now they have him up against the wall on the debt ceiling, I don't see any good coming out of this.

[lark]

8. Obama's #1 and all consuming goal is .......

BIPARTISANSHIP.

He's also stated many times that SSI should be amended by revising the CPI and has also put Medicare retirement age on the table as well. God save us from our friends.

[1StrongBlackMan]

14. While it is true ...

President Obama seeks bipartisanship, that is what most folks call GOVERNING in a democratic republic where there is a divided government.

As to the rest of your post, your characterization is incomplete.

[pnwmom]

10. You misunderstand the situation on the fiscal cliff. Obama was the winner on that one. n/t

[doc03]

24. What exactly did he get other than a tax increase on

people making over $400,000. Anything on the capitol gains? Inheritance tax? Dividends?

[pnwmom]

25. Dividends and long term capital gains taxes increased to 20% from 15 for the top bracket,

and there was a new 3.8% Medicare surcharge for those above $250K.

Short term capital gains continue to be taxed at regular tax rates, which have been raised at the top end.

[doc03]

26. Thanks I haven't heard about those. Something I think they should do is

put a tax of like $5 or $10 for instance on stock and commodity trades. I think that would bring in a huge sum of revenue and would help discourage short term speculation. Back twenty years ago it costs $30 or more to trade a hundred shares of stock depending on the stock price. Today you can trade stocks $3, I think that encourages short term speculators, makes gas prices and other commodity prices volatile and companies focus on the next quarter rather than the long term.

[pnwmom]

27. Sounds reasonable . . . . n/t

[1StrongBlackMan]

13. He didn't ...

give the gop nearly everything they wanted on taxes ... not by a long shot.

And he is not up against the wall on the debt ceiling.

[freshwest]

17. Correct. And I'm tired of the implication that he is 'weak.' Are folks 'missing Bush?'

The JohnWaynish form of governance is BS.

[1StrongBlackMan]

19. Yup ...

What has me cracking up is the narrative that President Obama is the worst negotiator ... ever. Then, it comes out that the gop is besides themselves because Lew was too tough a negotiator that got far more than the gop intended to offer ... But President Obama is too weak a negotiator.

This, to me, just shows that the hair on fire element of DU have no clue ... if they think that any President has EVER been the lead negotiator on anything related to congress. Fact is ... the President meets with the opposition for about an hour, maybe two, then leaves the room. It is the staffers that negotiate the deal.

[Waiting For Everyman]

6. K&R

[DCBob]

15. So how do you deal with maniacs who are willing to "blow up the world"?

just call their bluff? what if they are not bluffing?

[1StrongBlackMan]

21. This crop of teapartiers ...

are far closer to jahadist than statesmen. The appear willing, if not eager, to strap on the bomb and push the button.

[Paladin]

16. Don't Worry, Peggy: You'll Have Some Company Soon.

In her latest NYT opinion piece, Maureen Dowd refers to President Obama as "Barry," so it's obvious that MoDo is going for full, Noonan-level caricature status. You two play nice.....

[HuckleB]

18. +1

[SheilaT]

20. The Republicans' idea of negotiation

is that they get everything they want.

[calimary]

23. Yeah, and that imperious attitude worked out beautifully for them in the Indiana Senate race

in November, too, didn't it!

That richard mourdock creep stated that straight out, fairly early in his days as a candidate anyone was paying attention to. Remember that? After he primaried Richard Lugar he stated that his idea of bipartisanship was the Democrats coming over to his side and seeing everything HIS way. Uh YEAH, pal. Up Yours, pal!

The thing was, though - that asshole-esque statement had an INDIRECT impact. Unfortunately for all reasonable people in this country, the nutcases and other assorted extremists on the far-wrong, there were enough people in Indiana who got all fired up and exuberant about that statement. They LOVED it! Gonna show them Democrat librul commie fascists but gooood!!! HOWEVER - it was also quite a symptom. A "leading economic indicator" if you will. A whole spread of calamity cards in your Tarot reading. A very large signpost decked out with neon and flashing lights and blazing sparklers and fountains and pinwheels on full-active mode!

It showed, basically, that richard mourdock is a selfish, imperious putz. I wonder how his marriage survives, unless this was all an act for the public and in private he's really a loving softie. That remark shows us all what he thinks of other people with different views. They're not to be worked with, listened to, or compromised with in any way. No room whatsoever for them OR their views, unless they drop everything they believe in and become clones of HIS side and HIS way of thinking. SHEESH - and THAT side complains about tyranny???

Maybe the yowlers and the bullies on the far-wrong resonate with that statement in their usual short-sighted, penny-wise/pound-foolish mentality. But they don't stop to think (Hell, do they EVER???? Just ANYWAY??????) that such a mentality feeds, informs, and buttresses a real asshole attitude on a lot of other issues. It's what gives him the "moral" backing to say what he said about a woman impregnated via rape. TOTALLY tone-deaf to any other view on the thought of a woman impregnated by rape. Gee, it's a terrible thing, but TOUGH SHIT ANYWAY, girlfriend. We don't have to do jack shit about how you feel about it, and relieving you of that pain and emotional turmoil just isn't worth putting on the table. You don't even need to be in the room, honey. WE distort, WE decide.

And if he feels that way toward Democrats, if he CLEARLY feels that way toward rape victims of child-bearing age, it's reasonable to be concerned as to who else also is expected to take delivery of that cavalier, dictatorial arrogance? Who else is on the receiving end of his "my way or the highway" attitude? (Which, by the way, went OUT with bush/cheney.)

That statement was indicative of his whole generalized world view. On EVERY issue. Good to know. The yahoos and ding-dongs and declining numbers of dittoheads may have eaten it up with a soup spoon, but when it filtered down to other issues - like, for example, that asinine comment about a woman impregnated by rape - just brought a critical mass of the public to the point of This-Is-TOO-Much. It finally was able to shine a light on what that attitude means when it's applied to a variety of different issues facing a U.S. Senator.

THANK GOD that enlightened the public, and illuminated the measure of that particular man, such that they decided he should be stopped. It went a LONG way toward giving us another Dem in the Senate, where no one realistically had expected that to happen.