DB's Pixnet

International Herald Tribune, Tuesday, April 10, 2012
Page 9, Views
The gullible center
by Paul Krugman

...The reaction from many commentators was a howl of outrage. The president was being rude; he was being partisan; he was being a meanie. Yet what he said about the Ryan proposal was completely accurate.

Actually, there are many problems with that proposal. But you can get the gist if you understand two numbers: $4.6 trillion and 14 million.

Of these, $4.6 trillion is the revenue cost over the next decade of the tax cuts embodied in the plan, as estimated by the nonpartisan Tax Policy Center. These cuts--which are, by the way, cuts over and above those involved in making the Bush tax cuts permanent--would disproportionately benefit the wealthy, with the average member of the top 1 percent receiving a tax break of $238,000 a year.

...But the "centrists" who weigh in on policy debates are playing a different game. Their self-image, and to a large extent their professional selling point, depends on posing as high-minded types standing between the partisan extremes bringing together reasonable people from both parties--even if these reasonable people don't actually exist. And this leaves them unable either to admit how moderate Mr. Obama is or to acknowledge the more or less universal extremism of his opponents on the right...

David CK Chang, SSN057-86-4042,
April 11, 2012, Wednesday,
National Central Library,
Taipei City