Response to: The Zombie That Ate Rand Paul’s Brain
Krugman decided to follow up yesterday’s propaganda (which I easily refuted in minutes using data from his preferred sources) with an ad hominem knife-twist into Rand Paul that is equally ridiculous.
Krugman:
Aha. It seems that I was giving Rand Paul more credit than he deserved. Think Progress has the video, and it’s clear that Paul was completely shocked at the notion that government employment had fallen under Obama, rather than soaring.
How did that happen? Almost surely it’s a case of a zombie lie that has gone unchallenged in the hermetic world of movement conservatism, so that people like Paul know, just know, something that ain’t so. I wrote about this way back: the usual suspects seized on the Census bulge in employment as evidence of a big-government surge; and because nobody in that business ever admits having been wrong, this became a “fact” that people like Rand Paul believe. He wouldn’t have made this mistake if he ever read or listened to an analysis from nonpartisan sources, but he evidently doesn’t.
The key part here is “Paul was completely shocked at the notion that government employment had fallen under Obama.”
“Under Obama.”
Again, for those new to politics, I’d like to explain the way government is set up. There are state government (run by what’s called “governors”), and the federal government (with a chief executive known as “the president”). The government “under Obama” - the part he controls - has grown since he took office. I showed you the data (from the Federal Reserve…not the Koch Brothers). Here’s another angle, this time excluding the Post Office employees (as they operate somewhat independently):
(spikes belong to the census)
That data is from the “non-partisan” Federal Reserve; so, Krugman can’t really accuse me of bias here. But how is it he can claim “government employment [has] fallen under Obama?” When, under Obama, it has demonstrably grown? Even when you factor in the Post Office layoffs?
How did that happen? Almost surely it’s a case of a zombie lie that has gone unchallenged in the hermetic world of movement conservatism, so that people like Paul know, just know, something that ain’t so.
Let’s change “movement conservatism” to “MSNBC” and have “Paul” refer to the first name of our esteemed, intellectually honest, Nobel laureate.
