Krugman writes: "There are multiple errors and misrepresentations in Niall Ferguson's cover story in Newsweek - I guess they don't do fact-checking."
Portrait, New York Times columnist Paul Krugman, 06/15/09. (photo: Fred R. Conrad/NYT)
Newsweek Obama Attack Draws Intense Fire
21 August 12
here are multiple errors and misrepresentations in Niall Ferguson's cover story in Newsweek - I guess they don't do fact-checking - but this is the one that jumped out at me. Ferguson says:
The president pledged that health-care reform would not add a cent to the deficit. But the CBO and the Joint Committee on Taxation now estimate that the insurance-coverage provisions of the ACA will have a net cost of close to $1.2 trillion over the 2012-22 period.
Readers are no doubt meant to interpret this as saying that CBO found that the Act will increase the deficit. But anyone who actually read, or even skimmed, the CBO report (pdf) knows that it found that the ACA would reduce, not increase, the deficit - because the insurance subsidies were fully paid for.
Now, people on the right like to argue that the CBO was wrong. But that's not the argument Ferguson is making - he is deliberately misleading readers, conveying the impression that the CBO had actually rejected Obama's claim that health reform is deficit-neutral, when in fact the opposite is true.
More than that: by its very nature, health reform that expands coverage requires that lower-income families receive subsidies to make coverage affordable. So of course reform comes with a positive number for subsidies - finding that this number is indeed positive says nothing at all about the impact on the deficit unless you ask whether and how the subsidies are paid for. Ferguson has to know this (unless he's completely ignorant about the whole subject, which I guess has to be considered as a possibility). But he goes for the cheap shot anyway.
We're not talking about ideology or even economic analysis here - just a plain misrepresentation of the facts, with an august publication letting itself be used to misinform readers. The Times would require an abject correction if something like that slipped through. Will Newsweek?
See Also: Niall Ferguson Publishes Embarrassing Defense Of Newsweek Article
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Great comment on the deficit, Winslow. Many people - even informed people - confuse the deficit and the National Debt. Many do it intentionally to confuse, just as they talk about savings without specifying a time frame. No wonder the public has no idea about what's happening. We certainly don't need to worry about the Debt until we get the deficit - the "virulent disease" - under control, and as long as we run a deficit we're continually adding to the Debt.
You might remember that Dick Cheney said more than once, "Deficits don't matter", and his party, including Paul Ryan, went along with the story. But the Bush administration was slick about it. They acted as if they had no idea how much they were going to spend on Iraq and Afghanistan. When pressed, Rumsfeld came up with a $79 Billion figure for the first year, and they carried it as a supplemental expenditure WHICH DIDN'T SHOW AGAINST THE BUDGET! Congress allowed them to use this dodge each year, therefore the budget deficit looked a lot better than it really was. But all you had to do was look at the addition to the Debt at the end of the year to determine the actual deficit.
GOP smoke and mirrors, my friend, just as they're trying to confuse us on the costs of the Affordable Care Act.
Postscript: Time's piece by Rich Lowry just killed their chances for a subscription renewal.
Fareed Zakaria is light years ahead of Ferguson. I love his Sunday program.
Intelligent polite people discuss important topics
In other words Newsweek has just repositioned itself as a 21st Century version of der Voelkischer Beobachter -- Hitler's primary hatemongering journal -- for which it will no doubt soon receive a Josef Goebbels award: perhaps even an all-time first place.
Sarcastic as my comment is, there is no humor in it. What we are seeing in Newsweek and in Ruling Class Media throughout the nation is a groundswell of support for Romney/Ryan. Bad as Obama is -- remember I am the one who dubbed him "Barack the Betrayer" -- Romney/Ryan will be infinitely worse, literally a death sentence to seniors, disabled and lower-income people in general – fascism exactly as the One Percent has wanted since the 1930s.
For years I have read articles by Ferguson. I liked them, but the last years, he has become increasingly negative, turning me off.
And THIS takes the cake. He may fancy himself an economic smart guy!!!! I would say BULL COCKY. Since he obviously would want Romney to become president??
I have read and heard evaluation by people who knows what they are talking about, and they say, that Romney will add EXTRA tax cut for the wealthiest few, ON TOP OF THE EXISTING BUSH TAX CUTS.
He will NOT CUT medicare, social security OR cut military spending??
WHAT will he cut you ask?? ALL the programs helping the poor, education
food stamps, and healthcare for children, Pel grants for students, and more.
PEOPLE WHO VOTE FOR ROMNEY AND RYAN ARE TOTALLY CRAZY AND COMPLETELY HEARTLESS
The fact that the monopolistic health care industry subtly encouraged it, and didn't fight it, is understandable. It was like asking the fox whether he would like to have more young chickens stored in the newly renovated and expanded chicken coop. That's the same chicken coop that this same fox managed to land the job of chief security guard of all matters dealing with chickens (to be read as 'all matters dealing with the general health of the nation in general).
Only a Single-Payer System, like the systems in those backward countries such as Canada, England, and France, to name a few, are worthy of a country founded on the principles of 'Freedom & Justice for All.'
When someone holds your life in their hands, literally, you will pay anything. That's called blackmail; it is not justice and it does not promote freedom!
I've been a subscriber to Newsweek since I was a kid - which means I've supported the magazine for nearly forty years, and this was the last straw. To present this story as if it is news, instead of the vote-Republican piece that it is, infuriated me. To see Ryan depicted as a good choice literally made me sick to my stomach. I'm done with this magazine.
You may want to find out who OWNS NEWSWEEK and who sits on the Board. Always "follow the money"! I did this and quit my AARP membership when AARP gave away its secret reason for existence during the Medicare Part D propaganda (it's a huckster insurance company). And it's why I long ago dropped TIME, NEWSWEEK and U.S. NEWS, which never were progressive & have become rightwing garbage. It's why, for 25 years, I've never turned on the smarmy, giggling "pretty people" who read American TV news and now get most news on the Internet. Let analysts read the propaganda of the right. I'm glad they have the stomach for it, but in my old age, avoiding the lies of the 1% can prevent a lot of ulcers.
Just call them and LET THEM KNOW HOW FED UP YOU ARE. There is a phone number one one of the first pages in all the VERY small writing. I know for I was also a subscriber. The operative word is WAS
Fortunately for me, I live in Brazil as a legal resident. I am covered by Brazil's total health care plan. It's one that was never even considered when Romneycare was used as the basis for the ASA. Ironically, Romney now wants to cancel his own plan.
NEVER VOTE REPUBLICAN, IT TAKES TOO MUCH EFFORT TO TRANSLATE BACKWARDS INTO STRAIGHT FORWARD COMMUNICATION!
Religious fanaticism of ALL stripes will kill us in so many ways too numerous to mention here. From climate change to health care to clean energy those who have the billions to make simply lasso the part of the stupid population which is millions to help them get it. They will stand on their own feet because their hatred of this black president is so profound and OUR base especially many in the academic left will NOT give up their inability to see that criticizing Obama while that has some veracity will ensure something SO horrific as Romney/Ryan slide into power much like Bush did.
Nader still will not take ownership that he truly put Bush into office in 2000. Whatever one thought of Gore he would have been significantly better than Bush. Bush presidency cost lives hundreds of thousands of them. Now are we poised to do it again? I shudder at that prospect.
Given all that, there is no way that I'm not voting for President Obama as it may make it easier for the RW to win. WE CANNOT ALLOW THAT AGAIN.
Please, please get this Nader thing out of your head.
You said, "Nader still will not take ownership that he truly put Bush into office in 2000."
Why should he take ownership of something that he is not responsible for?
Why are you STILL harping on this?
If Nader didn't run, do you really believe that the GOP would not have stolen the election?
If Nader had not run do you think that Gore would have won his own state?
If Nader had not run, do you seriously think that Harris would not have purged the Florida polls of 40,000 voters?
If Nader had not run, do you think that old Jewish ladies from Palm Beach would not have voted for that antisemitic, Buchanan?
Need I go on?
You made a lot of sense, in your comment, up until you added that part about Nader.
It puts everything you said prior to that into question.
I would, most respectfully, suggest that you leave the 'Nader thing' out of your lexicon of commentary phrasing.
Question for Romney, Ryan and all these supporters of the Romney /Ryan Medicare strategy:
1) Since their plan exempts everyone 55 and older (they supposedly stay on current Medicare)and says those under 55 will have an opportunity to choose between today's Medicare plan or a Ryan alternative perhaps voucher type system, WILL THOSE 54 AND UNDER, AS OF THE DAY ROMNEY/RYAN ARE ELECTED, STILL BE REQUIRED TO PAY INTO THE CURRENT MEDICARE SYSTEM AT THE SAME RATES AS THEY DO TODAY? If not, how will today's seniors be ensured of the benefits they have today because of what they paid in to help all those before them expecting those behind them to do the same? If those 54 and under will still be required to pay in, then how will they do that and prepare themselves for their own "private" responsibility, retirement healthcare? The ROMNEY/RYAN APPROACH TO MEDICARE JUST DOES NOT ADD UP
You and I are about the same age, and hate does weird things to ones body chemistry that, at this age, is not helpful.
I agree with your sentiment, but remember, just like they say in the cabin of the jet plane, when the oxygen mask comes down, put it on yourself FIRST, and your loved one second.
You're no good to us if your incapacitated.
When I reread the article this morning, to be sure I wasn't over-reacting, I noticed that the author sounded almost like a kid with a crush. Seriously. Maybe the author's hormones have gotten the best of him this time!
We need fresh fruits and vegetables and not very much meat. Unfortunately it is more expensive and poor people may not have access or money to buy that .
The junk food is widely available and cheaper, which is ONE of the reasons we have so many overweight people.
My hat is off to you. As Mr. Spock said: Live long and prosper!!!
And unless you spent a week in Mexico w/a ruptured appendix, the pas-tense of your sentence implies it wasn't recent. Try getting that today, especially on part time wages without benefits.
Think so, you sound like Sarah Palin who recently stated "she knows of no Republicans" who speak of Democrats with such vitriol. I put as much worth into what she says as I do in Saran Wrap, but I think she said this while watching a Russian Revolution from her window.
"wow I'm a conservative republican and I really don't believe in anything you claim republicans stand for in fact I know many republicans and I have to ask.... where are you all coming up with this nonsense?"
Are you a true 'conservative republican?'
So I guess you believe that the President of the USA was not born in the USA, and is, in fact, a practicing Muslim.
I guess you believe that global warming is not caused by mankind, but is in fact a myth.
You most probably believe that the banks will self regulate, and never lose sight of their fiduciary responsible, ergo just thrust them. And you trust the fox to guard the hen house, and take good care of those young chicks.
You might even believe that the whole Earth is only 6,000 years old, but you still want to get as much of that 100 million year old oil out of the ground as fast as possible.
A real conservative republican would believe that the Captain goes down with the ship, or is the last to abandon the ship. Do you believe that? But, if the 'ship' is a multi-billion dollar commercial bank, and said bank goes down, the 'captain' of that said bank get's a bonus, and all the deck hands who scuttled the 'ship' get bonuses also. Do you believe that too?
You also believe in the current GOP platform that says no abortion for any reason, no way.
And you ask where we get this 'stuff.' From you, a conservative republican!
Ferguson has unfortunately gone from being a fairly respected (although controversial) historian to being a shill for the right wing.
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