The Most Outrageous Statement of the Day, Week and Year

Most people do not know who Bob Shrum is. He is a long time Democrat political consultant. Perhaps his most notable "achievement" has been working on numerous presidential campaigns and losing in every one of them. He is like the kiss of death for a Democrat presidential campaign. Writing in the Week, however, Shrum has come forward with a new reason for fame -- or more precisely, infamy. Here is the essence of what he said:

"But there remains real danger for the president and his party in the conscious if unconscionable GOP effort to dead end the recovery by playing on popular misconceptions about spending and deficits — cutting the federal budget far and fast on the pretext of restoring confidence, but with the darker purpose of reversing growth and raising unemployment. "

You may want to reread that quote. Here you have a national Democrat leader saying that the Republican goal of cutting government spending is intentionally designed to slow growth and raise unemployment. In short, Shrum says that the Republicans are trying to sabotage the American economy for political gain.

Shrum's statement is so outrageous that it needs to be condemned immediately by Democrats from Obama on down.

I could ask Shrum how it is possible that the US economy grew at only a 1.8% rate in the first quarter of this year despite the most massive fiscal stimulus in the history of the world coupled with the most massive monetary stimulus in the history of the universe. Shrum would probably blame the budget cuts in the deal reached just a few weeks ago. The truth is that the US has now had three years of pure Keynesian stimulus both in the form of tax cuts and enormous spending increases. It has also had the auto bailouts, cash for clunkers, the new home tax credit, the energy tax credits, and many other programs. If Keynesian economic theory is actually valid, the US economy should be growing at boom levels right now instead of just barely sustaining any growth at all. Shrum's "analysis" (which is no more than despicable name calling) is based upon the validity of this now discredited theory.