![Washington Post](../../std/masthead/WashPost.GIF) Washington DC, September 16,
2003 NY
Times Columnist Sees Gloom in America's
Future By Mark Egan NEW YORK (Reuters) -
President Bush is
an incessant liar bent on destroying
America's social safety net, central bank
guru Alan Greenspan should shut his
mouth on issues unrelated to monetary
policy and the U.S. media have done a
terrible job of keeping the public
informed. If those opinions seem stark, they are
meant to be. The New York Times
pays op-ed columnist Paul Krugman
to ruffle feathers. The Princeton
University economist has been writing for
the Times since 1999 -- work now
compiled in his latest book "The Great
Unraveling." In it, Krugman says Bush lied during
his 2000 presidential campaign, lied once
he took office, turned a record budget
surplus into the biggest deficit to line
the pockets of the rich and abused the
public's patriotism after the Sept. 11,
2001, attacks. "Bush is a leader of a movement that
wants to smash the system as we know it,
the social contract, the safety net that
was built up since Franklin
Roosevelt," Krugman said in an
interview late on Monday before a party to
launch his book. He believes no
U.S. president has lied as much as
Bush, who he says has fibbed on
everything from taxes to the case for
war against Iraq. "Certainly there is
nothing in modern American history that
resembles this." A White House spokeswoman said she
would have no immediate comment on
Krugman's charges. Krugman said he misses the honesty of
Ronald Reagan, the last Republican
president to slash taxes. Reagan had
"irresponsible fiscal policy," Krugman
said, but at least it was based on the
"crazy theory" that tax cuts for the rich
would trickle down to help the working
man. "The Bushies just say black is white
and up is down," Krugman said of the
current president. "The Orwellian
character of these people is very
disturbing." Greenspan gets poor reviews from
Krugman too. "Alan Greenspan exceeded his brief,"
Krugman said, calling the Federal Reserve
chairman's backing of Bush's tax cut plans
before Congress an abuse of his office.
"That's a violation of trust," he said,
adding, "Alan Greenspan should
apologize." Krugman also has little time for how
the media has done in covering Bush,
including reporting by the
Times. "There's a confusion between
objectivity and even-handedness, they are
not the same thing," Krugman said. "If
Bush said the earth was flat, the reports
in the mainstream media would say, 'Shape
of the Earth: Views Differ."' While some critics dismiss Krugman's
views as inflammatory, his book shows many
of his predictions have come true,
especially those about the nation's
budget. And that makes his ultimate
prognosis of the nation's fiscal outlook
chilling. "I think the United States is setting
itself up for a Latin American-style
financial crisis," he wrote in the
book. If Bush loses his job in the 2004
election, Krugman said, the day may yet be
saved. But if he wins reelection to the
White House, an economic meltdown will
become "inevitable." ![](../../std/dings/square.gif) © 2003
Reuters ![](../../std/dings/related_250.gif)
Eric
Margolis on George Bush's crusade
against "terrorism"
Eric
Margolis: Is Tony Blair crazy, or just
plain stupid?
Eric
Margolis: The hijacking of
America
Eric
Margolis: Bush's war is not about
democracy
The
Israeli lobby's influence: appointments
of advisors to White House and
Executive Branch
Pentagon
hawks make haste
Robert Fisk exposes
President Bush and his pro-Israel lobby
by name-
![Help to fund](../../std/dings/Help_to_Fund_white100.gif) -
-
|