US and the World

Another Krugman Bullseye

Looting the Future

When I first saw this piece I skimmed it and moved on; it was too stark. But I couldn't get the idea of looting the future out of my mind and revisited it. We had regime change in D.C. in 2000 and regime change in Baghdad in 2003 and both were followed by looting.

The opening paragraphs are vintage Krugman dark humor:

One thing you have to say about George W. Bush: he's got a great sense of humor. At a recent fund-raiser, according to The Associated Press, he described eliminating weapons of mass destruction from Iraq and ensuring the solvency of Medicare as some of his administration's accomplishments.

Then came the punch line: "I came to this office to solve problems and not pass them on to future presidents and future generations." He must have had them rolling in the aisles.

After summarizing the events of the past months in terms of launching wars, saddling Medicare with new entitlements without new funding, increasing farm subsidies, and all the while enacting permanent tax cuts, midway in the essay comes this second punch.

What really makes me wonder whether this republic can be saved, however, is the downward spiral in governance, the hijacking of public policy by private interests.

The closing paragraphs are what kept nagging at me: are we all in denial?

The prevailing theory among grown-up Republicans — yes, they still exist — seems to be that Mr. Bush is simply doing whatever it takes to win the next election. After that, he'll put the political operatives in their place, bring in the policy experts and finally get down to the business of running the country.

But I think they're in denial. Everything we know suggests that Mr. Bush's people have given as little thought to running America after the election as they gave to running Iraq after the fall of Baghdad. And they will have no idea what to do when things fall apart. [Emphasis added.]