On CBS' "Face the Nation," Hayekian wunderkind Paul Ryan said that President Obama's federal spending "is the same economic methodology that was used to say that if we passed the stimulus bill, it would keep unemployment from hitting 8 percent. High deficits [and] uncontrolled debt mean job creation goes away today."
No doubt the "8 percent" forecast was, shall we say, ill advised. Accordingly, forecaster Christina Romer is teaching again, not governing.
But we should also remember that at the time of stimulus negotiations most economists insisted that to get the job done a proper bill would come in at around $1.2 trillion, not $800 billion, and most of it in direct spending. This, House and Senate Republicans would not allow.
Moreover, in a debate with any competent Keynesian, Rep. Ryan would find himself lathered in righteous ridicule if he tried defending his utterly unempirical comment that "High deficits [and] uncontrolled debt mean job creation goes away today."
There is simply no economic basis for that assertion. None. It springs from either profound ignorance or intentional deceit.
I wish I could say that since it comes from a House Republican we therefore have a clue which, but unfortunately the GOP's expressed opinions seem about an even mixture of both.