Is this an actual headline? Is this one of those tremendous fake headline memes that have sent liberal media fact-checkers into a tailspin? Then, you click on the link and see that Paul Krugman wrote the opinion piece for The New York Times, and everything begins to make sense. There’s a reason why he’s the Left’s favorite economist. He pens red meat columns for the progressive masses who thirst for credentialism in all aspects of life; Krugman is a Nobel laureate in economics. Sometimes, the Left devolves into caricatures of real life, and this column is a window into this event.
“Did Democrats Just Save Civilization?” he asked. He goes on to expound on how the recent spending bill passed by congressional Democrats, which raises taxes on middle-income Americans and does nothing to curb inflation, is a huge win for humanity. He recycles the trite talking points of traditional Keynesians, saying inflation doesn’t matter, too government spending is a mirage, and this new Democrat bill reduces the deficit. Folks, the government told me these were the numbers, so it must be true (via NYT):
They really did it. The Inflation Reduction Act, which is mainly a climate change bill with a side helping of health reform, passed the Senate on Sunday; by all accounts, it will easily pass the House, so it’s about to become law.
This is a very big deal. The act isn’t, by itself, enough to avert climate disaster. But it is a huge step in the right direction and sets the stage for more action in the years ahead. It will catalyze progress in green technology; its economic benefits will make passing additional legislation easier; it gives the United States the credibility it needs to lead a global effort to limit greenhouse gas emissions.
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...actual experts on energy and the environment are giddy over what has been accomplished, and serious economists aren’t worried about the effect on inflation.
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Right at the beginning, the Biden administration decided that its climate policy would be all carrots, no sticks — that it would provide incentives to do the right thing, not penalties for doing the wrong thing. This strategy, it was hoped, would prove politically feasible in a way that, say, a carbon tax wouldn’t. And this hope has been vindicated.
Furthermore, it’s a strategy that seems likely to pay political dividends in the future. One new study, by E. Mark Curtis and Ioana Marinescu, finds that “the growth of renewable energy leads to the creation of relatively high paying jobs, which are more often than not located in areas that stand to lose from a decline in fossil fuel extraction jobs.”
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The column's ethos harkens back to the days when every liberal outlet published the government figures about Obamacare. Barack Obama’s signature domestic achievement was going to reduce the deficit by $1.2 trillion over the next ten years, that you could keep your health care plan if you like it, and succeeds in the prime goal of reducing costs. Flashforward a decade, and the middle class can’t afford Obamacare, insurers can no longer remain in the exchanges, and it didn’t curb costs. Obamacare premiums are astronomical, so let that be a lesson when someone peddles the government figures as immovable facts. We all know the Chinese math that occurs with these studies. These government number crunchers can only calculate what they’re given, and the formulas offered for analysis always corroborate the White House talking points. I know, such a coincidence, right?
Democrats didn’t save civilization; the entertaining part is that Krugman admits that in the lede. It’s an excellent first step, however. But I was told that drastic measures had to be taken to save the Earth from a fossil fuel-induced Armageddon, which means passing Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez’s Green New Deal, which bans the internal combustion engine, is the only real way to save us.
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