What matters isn't the facts but what people say are the facts. Romney and company led a crusade against the fact checkers during the campaign. Conservatives continue the fight. The latest is talk about the rising price of food and gas. Now, sure, pointy headed liberals might point out that these things haven't actually risen, but who care's about facts?
"OK, this is awesome. Dylan Byers at Politico gets Erick son of Erick to respond to my observation that, although he rants about the rising prices of milk and bread — which somehow has something to do with pundits riding the Acela — the truth is that milk and bread prices have been flat for about five years, and in particular have gone nowhere despite all that money the Fed has printed. And Erickson’s response is, hey, it isn’t true, but people feel that it’s true:
Read more: http://www.politico.com/story/2013/06/abortion-bill-deficit-93574.html#ixzz2XZU6FXJJ
"OK, this is awesome. Dylan Byers at Politico gets Erick son of Erick to respond to my observation that, although he rants about the rising prices of milk and bread — which somehow has something to do with pundits riding the Acela — the truth is that milk and bread prices have been flat for about five years, and in particular have gone nowhere despite all that money the Fed has printed. And Erickson’s response is, hey, it isn’t true, but people feel that it’s true:
Not everything is academic or chartable and sometimes the accuracy of the chart isn’t as real to people as the perception they have that their grocery store bills are getting more expensive though their shopping habits haven’t changed.…Seriously, Paul’s point is correct, but it is an issue of perception of people versus the reality of his chart. He can certainly go tell people milk prices haven’t gone up, but good luck getting them to believe him.
"Notice, by the way, the implication that I don’t appreciate the problems real people (who don’t eat quiche or ride the Acela) are facing; actually, I do, but those problems are lack of jobs and stagnant wages, not rising prices. And if you want to solve problems, getting the nature of those problems right matters."
"But then, only elitists want to solve problems; true men of the people just vent, and what matters is perception, not truth."
Josh Barro also has a good piece on Erickson's 'derp.' I like that Krugman formulation: elitists just want to solve problems, but men of the people just vent. If this is true then conservatives are true men of the people. Take another example: the deficit.
The GOP claims to care about few things more than the deficit-unless we're talking about cutting the capital gains or top income tax rate. Yet they oppose Obamacare fanatically-though it's their bill originally.
Robert Reich has a good piece that shows that immigration doesn't harm the economy-despite populist scare mongering about Hispanics taking American jobs. To the contrary it's net a big plus for the economy"
"MYTH ONE: Immigration reform will strain already overburdened government safety net programs like Social Security and Medicare."
"Wrong."
"The nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office finds that immigration reform will actually reduce the budget deficit by hundreds of billions of dollars."
"MYTH TWO: New immigrants take away jobs from native-born Americans."
"Wrong again."
"The economy doesn't contain a fixed number of jobs to be divided up among people who need them. As an economy grows, it creates more jobs. And what we've seen over the last 200 years is that new immigrants to America fuel that growth, and thereby create more jobs for everyone."
"We've also learned that new immigrants are by definition ambitious. They wouldn't have borne all the risks and hardships of immigrating to the United States if they weren't. And that ambition and hard work help the economy grow even faster."
"We don't need new immigrants."
"Wrong again."
"The American population is aging rapidly. Forty years ago there were five workers for every retiree. Now there are three. If present trends continue, there will be only two workers for every retiree by the year 2030."
"No economy can survive on a ratio of 2 workers per retiree."
Actually, our much higher immigration rates are on big advantage we have over immigrant phobic Europe and Japan. Yet conservatives don't let these facts concern them-after all who cares that immigrants don't take American jobs? A lot of people think they do.
Finally abortion. Turns out the anti abortion bill that the House GOP passed actually raises the deficit. Yet they still consider themselves deficit hawks.
"The bill from Rep. Trent Franks (R-Ariz.), received a lot of media attention and angered some House Republicans, who had no idea why the party was voting on abortion restrictions when it is trying to make inroads with female voters. Six Democrats joined 222 House Republicans to pass the bill."
"The Congressional Budget Office, which judges the budgetary impact of all legislation, says “Depending on the number of additional births under H.R. 1797, such Medicaid costs could range from about $75 million over the next 10 years to more than $400 million over that period.”
"CBO officially estimates that the bill increases federal deficits by $75 million between 2014 and 2018, and $225 million between 2014 and 2023."
Read more: http://www.politico.com/story/2013/06/abortion-bill-deficit-93574.html#ixzz2XZU6FXJJ
It's just like how conservative draft dodgers like Rush Limbaugh and George W.Bush think they're great foreign policy hawks.
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