CREDIBLE ECONOMISTS CAN STILL APPLY…. About three weeks ago, House Minority Leader John Boehner (R-Ohio) sought out economists to oppose the idea of a government rescue package in response to the economic crisis. He knew he didn’t like the idea of injecting money into a struggling economy, he just needed some credentialed conservatives to tell him how right he is. As Matt Yglesias put it, Boehner “picked his policy position first, and then started looking for experts to back him second.”
And how’s the initiative going so far? Brad DeLong took a closer look at some economists who chose not to endorse the House Republican caucus’ opposition to a stimulus plan.
In fact, no current or former member of the President’s Council of Economic Advisers — Democrat or Republican, living or dead, sane or insane — has signed up for the Republican House caucus’s list of economists opposed to the stimulus package. None. Zero. Nada. Sifr. Efes. Wala sero. Kosong sifar. ‘Ole. Knin. Pujyam. Mann. Dim. Nocht. Null. Meden. Hitotsu. Sifuri. Ling. Sunya. Mwac. Ataqan. Saquui. Hun. Illaq. Wanzi. Wanzi. Pagh. Na. Uqua.
Nobody.
That should tell you something about today’s Republican Party.
It does, indeed.
