This Age of Derp, Kansas Edition
Paul Krugman
Menzie Chinn notes the continuing failure of the Kansas experiment with supply-side tax cuts. And yes, it is an experiment — Gov. Brownback said it was, and by cutting taxes radically on the basis of ideology rather than any compelling event, Kansas in effect provided us with a natural experiment on exactly what such cuts accomplish. Menzie uses business indicators; I just look at employment growth since Brownback took office, compared with the nation as a whole (red line). No hint whatsoever of a supply-side boost, and of course a terrible fiscal crisis.
So how will this change GOP economic ideology? You know the answer: not at all. We live in an age of right-wing derp, of doctrines that just get repeated (and indeed strengthen their political hold) no matter how wrong they prove. Gold bugs and Austrians are more dominant in GOP circles than they were before seven years of wrongly predicting runaway inflation. Supply-siders are more dominant than ever despite the boom in California and the bust in Kansas.
Why this indifference to evidence? Partly it must be the closed right-wing media universe. Partly it’s political polarization, which means that in places like Kansas even the most spectacular policy failure doesn’t cost Republicans elections, whereas any hint of heresy will cost you the primary.
Anyway, it’s a remarkable picture.
http://krugman.blogs.nytimes.com/2015/05/31/this-age-of-derp-kansas-edition/?_r=0
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