Here's Paul Krugman's bio and resume for those interested.
https://en.wikipedia.org/...ul_KrugmanAlso, there's this opinion piece about Paul Ryan:
"Paul Ryan cultivated an image that was false in some major ways. He pretended to be a budget hawk but consistently supported tax cuts that increased the deficit. He pretended to care about poverty but opposed many policies that had a record of reducing poverty. (Paul Krugman has long written about this hypocrisy, and Matthew Yglesias has a new piece on it in Vox.)
But I don’t agree with the notion that Ryan is a complete hypocrite. He’s long displayed one admirable trait: A strain of honesty. He has acknowledged his desire to shrink popular programs like Medicare and Social Security.
Many other Republicans refuse to admit as much. They claim that the government can cut taxes deeply for the rich and that Medicare and Social Security can somehow magically remain exactly as they are. You saw Republicans in Congress and Trump administration officials make precisely this case last year, during the rush to pass a tax cut.
Ryan, by contrast, proposed radical cuts to Medicare, in his various budget blueprints over the years. He proposed the privatization of Social Security. And, in December, even before Congress passed the tax bill, Ryan said that changes to Medicare and Social Security would be his top priority in 2018. He wasn’t afraid of talking simultaneously about tax cuts and spending cuts — and allowing voters to draw a connection between the two.
These acknowledgments allowed a more honest debate about tax policy than many other Republicans wanted. But an honest debate is a better one. The reality is that today’s Republican Party supports both big tax cuts for the wealthy and the unavoidable counterpart — cuts to health care, retirement and other programs for the middle class and poor."
Read more at:
"Paul Ryan Is Not a Complete Hypocrite" by David Leonhardt
New York Times, April, 12, 2018
https://www.nytimes.com/2...crite.html