CLUELESS ABOUT ECONOMICS? DON'T WORRY, SO IS THE GOP

I've been saying the modern GOP doesn't understand basic economics for some time now. But seeing it in survey form is nice too. This is from Thinkprogress ... 

A survey of forty economists from across the ideological and partisan spectrum has concluded that on some of its most cherished issues, the Republican Party has simply taken leave of economic reality. For instance, economists Betsey Stevenson and Justin Wolfers noted that one of the results from the survey — run by the University of Chicago’s Booth School of Business, which is hardly known for a left-wing slant — is an overwhelming agreement that the 2009 Recovery Act (i.e. the stimulus) brought down unemployment. 

Put another way, as I've pointed out over and over again, when it comes to unemployment, the Stimulus program worked (though, as I've noted many times, Team Obama screwed up big time when it came to fixing or bringing justice to the banks).  Without the Stimulus program things would be much worse in America.

But wait, the same economists have more to say about what we should be looking at in the future. Again, from Thinkprogress ...

And while there was a bit more disagreement as to whether the benefits of the stimulus bill outweighed its costs, the bulk of the economists surveyed came down in the “Agree” or “Strongly Agree” camps. Other points from the survey’s respondents worth noting:  

* The nation needs new revenues. Contrary to nearly every Republican, the economists overwhelmingly agreed that the federal budget deficit cannot and should not be closed without increased tax revenue.

* No gold standard. They roundly rejected the belief that a return to the gold standard would stabilize prices or lower unemployment. Enthusiasm for the gold standard made a significant comeback in Republican circles during the presidential primaries.

* The “Laffer Curve” won’t help. Virtually all of them rejected the notion that cutting income tax rates would actually increase total tax revenue in future years.

* Rethink the drug war. The respondents were also generally in favor of softer approaches to the nation’s drug problem. 

While there were a few survey results that could be interpreted as hard on progressive causes as well, none struck at their heart in the same way as the positions taken on core Republican beliefs.

All of this helps to explain why - as I've noted numerous times - when it comes to fixing the deficit the GOP is woefully unprepared because they can't do basic math. Worse, they are prone to presenting fictitious budgets with no numbers that strangely resemble President Bush's policies. 

There's more, but you get the point. According to economists, the modern GOP is seriously misinformed about how market economics actually work.

- Mark