Putin-Loving Bigots Must Stop Whining About Defense Spending and the Economy

And other deep thoughts, from the New York Times op-ed page

Paul Krugman

New York Times columnist Paul Krugman writes:

Voters… seem to be growing more one-dimensional. To take one widely discussed example, views of the economy… have become wildly partisan. Right now, self-identified Republicans mostly believe that unemployment, which is near a 50-year low, is actually near a 50-year high, and assess current economic conditions as being worse than they were in 1980, when both inflation and unemployment were much worse than they are now.

The U.S. Census Bureau’s Pulse Survey report, which is based on 72,839 responses to over a million questionnaires, just released estimates for Americans having trouble paying for basic household expenses in the previous seven days. The breakdown:

• A little difficult”: 65,966,799

• “Somewhat difficult”: 50,244,137

• “Very difficult”: 43,975,466

They must all be Republicans, buying QAnon tees instead of milk and bananas. Economic mystery solved! In seriousness: dismissing “economic anxiety” as right-wing fantasy is nothing new, but the infuriating new twist is calling economic complaints a treasonous offense to Fortress America. Like it or not, Krugman was once the columnist who most dependably argued that America could afford any amount of social spending. Now, as Covid-era assistance programs like SNAP benefits, child care tax credits, the CHAP housing assistance program wind down, his angle is we can afford more investment in “large-scale conventional warfare,” whose era “isn’t over after all.” From the author of The Conscience of a Liberal:

Do we have a hugely bloated military budget? No doubt the Pentagon, like any large organization, wastes a lot of money. But recent events have made the case for spending at least as much as we currently do, and perhaps more.