By JAMES TARANTO
We have a confession to make: We envy Thomas Friedman. No, not for his Pulitzer Prizes or his humongous carbon footprint, though we wouldn't mind having those. Rather, it's because--well, let's quote from a Sacramento Bee editorial that will help illustrate the point:
The cartoonist Lee Judge has it right. You don't stop your car on the tracks, in the path of a speeding locomotive, because you've decided that now is a good time to give it an overhaul.
Yet that's exactly what Republicans have done with their version of "fiscal discipline" (i.e., making government smaller), with one exception: The car they are driving isn't their own. It belongs to all of us.
The correct analogy is that GOP leaders have carjacked our vehicle, with all of us in the back seat, and then threatened to leave it on the tracks unless we agree to drain the oil from the engine and let the air out of the tires.
The headline is "A Debt Deal Only Extortion Lovers Could Embrace." What are "extortion lovers," and what does stopping a car on train tracks have to do with extortion? The whole thing is just mind-bogglingly incoherent.
This is why we envy Friedman. We've occasionally tried to write as badly as he does, and we just can't do it. Yet he makes it seem effortless. Granted, we'd rather be good at writing well--and we are--but why can't we be good at writing badly too?
Anyway, the Bee editorial gives us hope. At least Friedman is not the only person on earth who can write as badly as Friedman.
Now He Tells Us
Former Enron adviser Paul Krugman weighed in late yesterday morning against the debt compromise:
Former Enron adviser Paul Krugman weighed in late yesterday morning against the debt compromise:
What about the catastrophe that would result? Several thoughts.
First, what I keep hearing from people who should know is that Treasury won't actually run out of cash tomorrow, that it still has a few more days.
Second, the people who claim that terrible things would immediately happen in the markets also claimed that there would be a big relief rally once a deal was struck. Not so much: the Dow is down 121 right now.
Third, the idea that a temporary disruption would permanently damage faith in US institutions now seems moot; if you haven't already lost faith in US institutions, you're not paying attention.
Isn't his position the same as Michele Bachmann's?
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