It's union thuggery, but at a higher echelon.
Imagine you're representing the AFL-CIO, going on Fox News and trying to make a case that the $787-billion stimulus last year wasn't nearly enough and that more is needed, despite the prevailing argument being that Keynesian economics doesn't work based on this example.
Well, Ron Blackwell - the chief economist for the AFL-CIO faced that on the June 25 broadcast of Fox News' "Your World with Neil Cavuto." Cavuto, asking some honest questions, pressed Blackwell, who was attempting to make the case for more stimulus, as to why the idea of more government spending to help the ailing economy was a legitimate one.
"You're not creating the jobs, with all this money you're wanting us to spend - then why should we keep digging?" Cavuto asked. "What's wrong with saying let's put the shovel down - that's not working?"
Cavuto continued to press Blackwell on his premise that it would take more of the Keynesian medicine - an idea Blackwell wasn't willing to concede was an incorrect one.
"I'm answering you right now - these programs did create jobs but not net creation," Blackwell said. "We lost more jobs because of the recession than were created by these programs. Net, gross - is that a complex idea for you?"
"Ron, you're the chief economist there," Cavuto replied. "Where did you get your degree, a baking school? Where are you cooking up these numbers? The fact is we spent a trillion dollars..."
That comment drew an upset response from Blackwell.
"Oh, that's an insult," Blackwell said. "Forget about it. You're a joker - you're an asshole."
The two followed up with another series of exchanges, but Blackwell was unwilling to concede the failure of last year's stimulus to live up to its billing.
"[A]nd we've not seen results from that money," Cavuto said. "And now you're saying it could have been worse had we not."
"I just told you that we have seen results," Blackwell said.
"So your answer to just answering a simple question is to curse at me, or to frame it differently, or to obfuscate the facts, or to ignore the facts with a trillion dollars spent and we haven't seen any net new jobs and you're answer is, ‘Well, we have to spend more?'" Cavuto said.
"We lost more jobs because of the recession than we created by these programs," Blackwell said. "Gross and net - it's not a complex idea. You should have learned that in high school, Neil."
