It has a nice, intuitive appeal: Spend less money and things will get better. As with lots of things that have nice, intuitive appeal, it's dead wrong. And yet, this is what Republicans claim they want to do -- because it will create jobs. (Never mind that when push comes to shove, Republicans admit they would rather cut taxes than cut the deficit). But this is not an ideological position -- it's an empirical one. Republicans are claiming that if we cut spending -- NOW -- and cut the deficit -- NOW -- this will create American jobs. That hasn't been true in the past. And we actually have a way to test support for that claim right now, too. How are the states doing? Well, now we know.
States that increased spending are doing better. States that cut spending are doing worse. Coincidence? Maybe, I suppose. But that doesn't matter, because Republicans have claimed that you CAN NOT do better if you increase spending. Not true. So maybe now the media can start treating that claim as if it's just as verifiably untrue as claims about Katrina or whatever else is visually but not statistically obvious.
And while we're talking about what really tanked our economy...Goldman Sachs is claiming the US economy is so bad, they're going to have to kill jobs here. And create 1,000 jobs overseas. Goldman Sachs is complaining about the US economy. Amazing.
Check back later for today's underbuzzed stories.
Follow Senior Producer Jonathan Larsen (@jtlarsen) on Twitter