The perilously liberal New York Times columnist Paul Krugman is not pleased with the President's handling of the fiscal cliff negotiations.
So angered is the Nobel laureate that he wrote at his blog Wednesday, "[If Obama doesn't] finally stand up for his side...nobody will ever trust him again, and he will go down in history as the wimp who threw it all away."
"Before the deal, it was widely expected that Obama could get $800 billion in revenue," he wrote concerning the negotiations. "[T]he disappointment, to simplify, is that he got $600 billion instead of $800 billion."
As you might imagine, that's just not enough for the tax-hungry Krugman.
"Nominal GDP over the next decade should be around $200 trillion," he predicted. "An $800 billion revenue take would be 0.4 percent of GDP; the $600 billion Obama got is 0.3 percent. Not big stuff."
As such, in Krugman's view, Obama caved giving "every indication of being more or less desperate to cut a deal before the year ended."
"Now, given his evident antsiness to cut a deal in this case, how credible is his promise to hang tough over the debt ceiling, which is a much brighter red line?" Krugman asked. "He may say that he absolutely, positively won’t negotiate over the ceiling — but nothing in his past behavior makes that believable."
This leads Krugman to believe Obama will "cave on the ceiling; and so, of course, do the Republicans, which means that the crisis is going to happen."
"The only thing that might save this situation is the fact that Obama has to be aware just how much is now riding on his willingness to finally stand up for his side," Krugman continued. "[I]f he doesn’t, nobody will ever trust him again, and he will go down in history as the wimp who threw it all away."
This raises an obvious question: If Obama is such a wimp, why did people such as Krugman support him in the past two elections?
(HT Mediaite)
