As NewsBusters has previously reported, liberal Internet publisher Arianna Huffington is breathtakingly ignorant when it comes to basic economic theory.
On Sunday, she proved it again by making an absolute fool of herself on ABC's "This Week."
With the "Roundtable" segment beginning on the subject of the economy, Huffington noted how the failure of the banking bailout to stimulate growth was "proof that the government does not work."
In a stunning display of both idiocy and hypocrisy, she moments later demanded more financial regulations, including a reinstatement of the Depression Era Glass-Steagall Act, to - wait for it! - stimulate the economy.
Adding insult to injury, George Will was available to really make clear what an absolute imbecile Huffington is (video follows with partial transcript and commentary):
ARIANNA HUFFINGTON: At the bottom of the Tea Party movement of that anger is anger at the bailout. And you know, here people, Democrats, Republicans have been given proof that the government does not work because the government spent almost $800 billion and look where we are. Wall Street is doing well. Main Street is suffering.
CHRISTIANE AMANPOUR, HOST: Somebody I was talking to over the, during the week, people in business and venture capital who were saying, "Why doesn't the government do more to force banks to lend, to do more to make it easier for people to actually go out there and show some kind of consumer activity?"
GEORGE WILL: Well maybe if the government did less, period, people would be more inclined to lend money. The banks aren't hoarding the money because they are in a pout. They're not hoarding the money because they're mad at somebody. They're hoarding money because they can't find lenders who think they can borrow it and make money.
HUFFINGTON: No, that's not true. The banks are getting almost zero-percent interest rate...
WILL: Yes.
HUFFINGTON: ...loans from the Fed and they are spending it to make a lot of profit in derivatives tradings and all the things that got us into this trouble in the first place. And this administration and this Congress still has not passed an end to Too Big To Fail, still has not reinstated Glass-Steagall. So even, even though people may not be able to give you all these details, they know that the system has not been fixed, that financial reform is full of loopholes, and that the system is not fair, basically, for them as they're seeing their lives falling apart.
Amazing. So first she says the failure of the bailout to stoke lending is an example of how government doesn't work, and then she asks for more government intervention to get the economy going.
Boggles the mind, doesn't it?
Moments later, Will put the icing on the cake:
WILL: We started arguing about the tax cut. The president says we can't afford the tax cuts for the wealthy because that would add $700 billion to the deficit over ten years. Which is to say over ten years it would add less to the deficit than Obama added with the stimulus in one year.
Simple arithmetic most fourth graders would understand unless they were raised or educated by liberals like Huffington.
