Mark Thoma is Shrill on Fiscal Policy: Is RUDY Stupid or Dishonest?

Mark treats us to a host of blogs that are mocking the free lunch supply-side lies that emanate from the GOP Presidential candidates. While Dean Baker attributes this nonsense to “crazy views”, Russ Douthat calls this anti-intellectualism, which I guess is a fancy word for being stupid. Mark has another explanation:

This is a character issue. I don’t believe Giuliani has deliberately ‘failed to “study the problem, master the evidence, and face criticism”‘ through a deliberate act of anti-intellectualism. The chances that the campaign is unaware of all the fact checks on this issue are zero. It seems to me that what is deliberate is the willingness to pander to the movement conservative base even if it requires ignoring the evidence and saying things he knows in his heart of hearts aren’t true. He’s not deliberately ignorant, he’s deliberately calculating

Simply put – RUDY is willing to lie to us. But didn’t Paul Krugman claim back in 2000 that George W. Bush was lying to us about fiscal policy? For that, Paul was labeled SHRILL. Today those who were called shrill back then wear this like a badge of honor. We should all thank Mark for his tireless efforts to expose these Republican lies.