Dean Baker's Blog, page 156

Washington Post's Mind Readers Tell Us the Real Goal of Republican Appeal of Obamacare

In an article on the main features of the Republican replacement for Obamacare, the Post told readers:

"At the same time, the shift to take income into account could create a potentially difficult ripple effect for Republicans, who regard a reduction in the federal government’s role in health care as a central reason to abandon the sprawling 2010 health care law (emphasis added)."

This comment is in reference to the decision to phase out the heath care tax credit for couples with incomes over...

That $1.9 Trillion Cost of Regulation

Robert Samuelson devoted his this week to the issue of government regulation. He refers to an estimate from the industry funded Competitive Enterprise Institute that "the costs of complying with federal rules and regulations totaled nearly $1.9 trillion in 2015, equal to about half the federal budget ($3.7 trillion in 2015)." It is important to understand the nature of this estimate.

Suppose that I have been in the habit of dumping my sewage on my neighbor's lawn. Now imagine the gover...

Ross Douthat's Deal for Blacks

In recognition of the wrongs done by slavery, but not subsequent legal and actual discrimination, NYT columnist Ross Douthat proposes making a one time payment of $10,000 to every person who trace their ancestry to someone who was enslaved. This payment would be in exchange for ending affirmative action in education, employment, or any other area. The idea seems to be that after the descendants of slaves get their check, we're all good.

For anyone interested on how this measures up in the sch...

Ross Douthat's Deal for African Americans

In recognition of the wrongs done by slavery, but not subsequent legal and actual discrimination, NYT columnist Ross Douthat proposes making a one time payment of $10,000 to every person who trace their ancestry to someone who was enslaved. This payment would be in exchange for ending affirmative action in education, employment, or any other area. The idea seems to be that after the descendants of slaves get their check, we're all good.

For anyone interested on how this measures up in the sch...

NYT's Pathetic Gotcha on Donald Trump's Energy Efficiency Tax Credits

Donald Trump's business empire appears to be an infinite cesspool of corruption, with his unethical practices continuing into his presidency. Given such a target rich environment for real news stories, it is difficult to see why the NYT would devote space and resources to pursuing a major non-story. The paper apparently thinks that it is some sort of scandal that Trump accepted energy efficiency tax credits for some of his buildings, since he opposes the tax credits and is committed to elimin...

Washington Post Lies to Readers Again: Job Loss in Manufacturing Due to Trade, not Automation

The Washington Post must think that U.S. trade policy is really awful. Why else would they continually lie to their readers and claim that the cause of the sharp job loss in manufacturing in recent years was automation?

For fans of data rather than myths, the basic story is that manufacturing has been declining as a share of total employment since 1970. However there was relatively little change in the number of jobs until the trade deficit exploded in the last decade. Here's the graph.

Manuf...

Tony Blair, Who Brought Us the War in Iraq, Lectures on the Evils of Populism

Tony Blair, the former Prime Minister of the United Kingdom, who is best known for lying his country into participating in the Iraq War, lectured NYT readers on the evils of populism. Once again he gets many key points wrong.

He criticizes the left for abandoning centrist politicians:

"One element has aligned with the right in revolt against globalization, but with business taking the place of migrants as the chief evil. They agree with the right-wing populists about elites, though for the le...

"Bloated Bureaucracy?" Washington Post Still Hasn't Learned Politicians Don't Also Believe What They Say

Most of us know that that politicians don't say what they really believe about the world. Unfortunately, the folks who write for the Washington Post haven't learned this basic fact. This explains why in an article on Donald Trump's plan to cut large parts of the domestic budget:

"To the president and his supporters who see a bloated bureaucracy with lots of duplication and rules that choke jobs, the budget cuts are a necessary first step to make government run more efficiently."

Of course,...

Severance Pay: An Alternative to Donald Trump Carrier Shows

By Dean Baker and Sarah Rawlins

Many of us had very mixed feelings about the Donald Trump Carrier show, where he got the Carrier Air Conditioner company to keep 800 jobs at one of its plants in Indiana instead of shipping them to Mexico. The state of Indiana, under then Governor Mike Pence, promised millions of dollars in tax concessions as an inducement. There were also reports of threats or promises directed towards Carrier's parent company, United Technologies, which is a major military co...

David Ignatius Lies About Trade

It's amazing how it is so acceptable in elite circles to tell outright lies to advance the trade agenda pursued by recent administrations. Everyone remembers when a 2007 Washington Post editorial touting NAFTA claimed that Mexico's economy had quadrupled between 1987 to 2007. According to the I.M.F., the actual figure was 83 percent. The erroneous number can still be found online, since the Post lacks the integrity to correct it.

In this vein we find David Ignatius continuing the Post's denia...