Krugman on the State of the GOP

Paul Krugman runs down the state of his party encountered by Republican Scott Walker as he enters the 2016 Presidential field in The New York Times.

So what does it say about the current state of the G.O.P. that discussion of economic policy is now monopolized by people who have been wrong about everything, have learned nothing from the experience, and can’t even get their numbers straight?

The answer, I’d suggest, runs deeper than economic doctrine. Across the board, the modern American right seems to have abandoned the idea that there is an objective reality out there, even if it’s not what your prejudices say should be happening. What are you going to believe, right-wing doctrine or your own lying eyes? These days, the doctrine wins.

Look at another issue, health reform. Before the Affordable Care Act went into effect, conservatives predicted disaster: health costs would soar, the deficit would explode, more people would lose insurance than gain it. They were wrong on all counts. But, in their rhetoric, even in the alleged facts (none of them true) people like Mr. Moore put in their articles, they simply ignore this reality. Reading them, you’d think that the dismal failure they wrongly predicted had actually happened.

    
   Then there’s foreign policy. This week Jeb Bush tried to demonstrate his chops in            that area, unveiling his team of expert advisers — who are, sure enough, the very             people who insisted that the Iraqis would welcome us as liberators.