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'In the long run we are all dead," the great 20th-century economist John Maynard Keynes once stipulated.
As usual, Keynes was right, and in this case it's probably for the better: Keynes didn't live to see the Republicans of 2010 portray him in recent days as some sort of Marxist revolutionary.
"The president will use the Labor Day holiday as the launching pad for yet another government stimulus effort, another play called from the same failed Keynesian playbook," said Rep. Eric Cantor (Va.), the No. 2 Republican in the House.
"The point is that the Obama Keynesian-on-steroids has not worked," Sen. John McCain (Ariz.) announced on Fox News.
Rep. Paul Ryan (Wis.) determined that "the Keynesian experiment, which was more spending, has failed to produce ... jobs."
These men get their economic firepower from conservative think tanks such as the Cato Institute (which writes of "Barack Obama's Keynesian Mistake") and from business leaders such as Intel's Paul Otellini ("their experiment in Keynesian economics (is) not working").
Together, they've managed to turn the Keynesian notion of economic "stimulus" into such a dirty word that President Obama and his aides are afraid to let it escape their lips.
What's with the hate for Keynes?
Perhaps these Republicans don't realize that some of their tax-cut proposals are as "Keynesian" as Obama's program. There are fierce disputes about how best to respond to the crisis — tax cuts? deficit spending? monetary intervention? — but the argument is largely premised on the Keynesian view that government should boost demand in a recession.
Or perhaps, more ominously, these Republicans know exactly what they are saying when they reject Keynesian intervention: that the government should do nothing to help the millions out of work or to rebuild confidence in the economy.
I called Harvard's Greg Mankiw, a former chairman of George W. Bush's Council of Economic Advisers, to ask about the GOP assault on Keynes. "I don't think it's useful to frame it as Keynesian and anti-Keynesian," he said of the attack on the long-dead Briton.
GOP Lacks Ideas
Bush, he said, used "Keynesian logic" in designing his tax cuts. "The idea that demand is an important driver of the economic cycle" — that's Keynesian — "is uncontroversial," he said.
Here's what Mankiw wrote about Keynes in November 2008 in the New York Times: "If you were going to turn to only one economist to understand the problems facing the economy, there is little doubt that the economist would be John Maynard Keynes. Although Keynes died more than a half-century ago, his diagnosis of recessions and depressions remains the foundation of modern macroeconomics."
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Posted By: kwg1(410) on 9/10/2010 | 8:22 PM ET
In Br...reading, is when all you read are books about Keynes, by Keynes, saluting Keynes. Try expanding your horizons with an anti progressive counter argument from Von Mises, Rothbard et. al. Your theories may be shown to be "pure immagination!"
Posted By: tolucajo(35) on 9/10/2010 | 7:40 PM ET
Wealth redistribution comes in many forms and high tax states is one of them. This is why people move to tax friendly states later in life. Look at California, we are taxed and even the middle class are at a total tax rate greater than 50%. Pick up a book and learn some common sense, since it's not so common. Obama et al should be called the dream team.
Posted By: tolucajo(35) on 9/10/2010 | 7:36 PM ET
Milbank is a MORON. Milbank pick up a book called the Wealth of Nations, by Adam Smith. Experts say he is the founder of economics. We are being taxed in many forms. Payroll Tax, State Income Tax, Federal Income Tax, Passive Income Tax, Capital Gains Tax, Sales Tax, County Tax, Property Tax, Tax, Tax, Tax. Now Obama wants to tax the rich?? Give me a break, most are paying more the 50% in taxes. The rich risk their capital to start new business. You're still a MORON
Posted By: Lepantzeus(565) on 9/10/2010 | 7:14 PM ET
Gentle Readers, Dear Mr. Milbank, The Republican Party objects to ' Keynes on steroids ', not Keynesian prescriptions per se. Nowhere in Keynes works does he prescribe the policies adopted by the Pelosi/Reid Congress & Pres. Obama since Jan. 2007: endless trillion-dollar plus deficits and tax increases in a recession are not Keynesian. Keynes prescribed tax cuts during a recession and a balanced budget during periods of full employment. Obamanomics is not Keynesian. - J Lepant Brighton CO
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