Paul Krugman on Substack: Attack of the Sadistic Zombies

[ancianita]

https://paulkrugman.substack.com/p/attack-of-the-sadistic-zombies




"... Isn’t this what Republicans always do? But this reconciliation bill — that is, legislation structured in such a way that it can’t be filibustered and may well pass with no Democratic votes — is different in both degree and kind from what we’ve seen before: Its cruelty is exceptional even by recent right-wing standards. Furthermore, the way that cruelty will be implemented is notable for its reliance on claims we know aren’t true and policies we know won’t work — what some of us call zombie ideas.

And it’s hard to avoid the sense that the counterproductive viciousness is actually the point. Think of what we’re seeing as the attack of the sadistic zombies...

Only 3 percent of Medicaid recipients were non-disabled working-age adults persistently not working — the kind of people right-wingers imagine infest the program. And it’s a good bet that a fair number of these people had extenuating circumstances of some kind.

So what do work requirements actually accomplish? They don’t get lazy people to work. What they do, instead, is take away benefits from people who are legally entitled to aid, because they can’t overcome the paperwork and administrative barriers. Think about it: Low-income adults, even when working, are often employed as day laborers or in other informal ways that don’t generate the right forms. They may lack the formal education to deal with complex reporting requirements. So the people who need help most are unjustly cut off.

Why, then, are Republicans doing this? Part of the answer is to save money: By making the poor even poorer they reduce the extent to which tax cuts for the rich explode the budget deficit...."




More in his interview with Anand Giridharadas... of interest might be PK's view on oligarchs... 27:15

https://substack.com/home/post/p-163942158?source=queue&autoPlay=true

[Bernardo de La Paz]

1. The wealth and income inequality is historically unsustainable

RepubliCONNERs keep hoping maga won't wake up. So far they have been right.

[ancianita]

2. Absolutely. Wealth and income inequality are the root of both our politics and failing economy.

We can use economic terms all day, but at the end of any given day, it is the Mammon network in this government that literally intends to cause the deaths of millions. It is the wealth these 13.7 million have created that these fiends intend to steal. It's against the self-evident truths of the Declaration of Independence "that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness ..." The Founders wrote "LIFE FIRST, THEN liberty and THEN the pursuit of happiness. Without LIFE as endowed by their Creator, Millions who die wrongful deaths -- and Mammon, the devil of wealth and power, and his greedy tool henchmen -- all work to eliminate Americans' right to LIFE.