Con Men Aren't Stupid

By Paul Krugman, The New York Times

04 August 14

rad DeLong finds Larry Kotlikoff fulminating about how mean I am — so mean that he apparently could’t bring himself to read what I wrote. No, I didn’t say that Paul Ryan is stupid. I did imply — and have said explicitly on many other occasions — that he is a con man. Why did I do that?

Not as a way to avoid having a substantive discussion. I’ve documented Ryan’s many cons very extensively, showing in particular that his budgets were sold on false pretenses — all the alleged fiscal responsibility lay not in the much-hyped changes to Medicare, but in magic asterisks claiming huge but unspecified savings from discretionary spending and huge but unspecified revenue gains from closing loopholes he refused to name.

Still, why not pretend that we’re having a nice, honest discussion? Because I’m trying to inform readers about what’s going on — and the attempt to sell right-wing goals under false pretenses is an important part of the story. If you fell for the carefully crafted image of Ryan as an honest wonk, you were being taken in — and it’s my job to ensure that you’re properly informed.

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