I’ve been reading a lot about this subject lately, so much so that I know if I get started on it here it will be another 500 word explanation. I’ll just put some links with brief explanations, which is something I’ve been planning on for a week or so. But yesterday I saw a news article that no one seems to be picking up on, and I find it very odd that it isn’t big news. The headlines had appeared briefly on Yahoo News, then vanished. The following version is from a FOXNews article:

New York Sen. Hillary Clinton said the Bush administration is trying to impose a “radical right-wing agenda” on the United States and is attempting to dismantle social programs such as Medicare and Social Security.

A bold thing for the Senator to say, but it’s finally somewhat safe to do. Why? Because it’s one of the main premises in Paul Krugman’s book “The Great Unraveling: Losing Our Way in the New Century”. The book is number four on the September 28, 2003 NY Times Hardcover Nonfiction Best-Seller List. (Why this list is available five days before 9/28 is still a mystery.)

I discovered Krugman last week during an OCDish bout of political reading.

It started with Alan Sloan’s Newsweek article The Brainteaser of Deficit Math. He says that when “you’re finished adjusting for reality, the projected budget deficit is about $7.4 trillion, not the advertised $1.4 trillion.”

After reading about Deficit Math, I stumbled upon Maureen Farrell’s article “When Will Americans Realize They’ve Been Had?” It led directly to Paul Krugman, who mentioned the aforementioned Brainteaser article in one of the first of his articles that I read.

I like it when all the sources start pointing at each other. But I wondered who is this Krugman, someone who is getting a lot of press right now?

Paul Krugman is a Princeton University professor who pens a column for the New York Times, and is the author of a new book, “The Great Unraveling: Losing Our Way in the New Century”. That explained why there was so much press on him.

Much of what he has to say is in a lengthy September 14th NY Times article “The Tax-Cut Con“. It may still be available at the NY Times. If not, it has been republished many times on the web. There he makes his case that there is an antitax crusade being waged by the “Starve-the-Beasters”. Supply siders (remember Reaganomics) are their nice side that Starvers support to a degree because it furthers their goals. But the Starvers’ goal is to remove enough funding from everything else that programs like social security and Medicare have to be cancelled to continue funding schools and roads.

Here are a few more Krugman links:

Buzzflash interview published 9/11/03 – He views the Bush Cartel as “revolutionary power…a movement whose leaders do not accept the legitimacy of our current political system.” This is another key point, one he got from an old book by Henry Kissinger.
This CalPundit interview explains the Kissinger concept. In part, it says:

“In the first few pages, Kissinger describes the problems confronting a heretofore stable diplomatic system when it is faced with a “revolutionary power” ? a power that does not accept that system’s legitimacy….” His description of the baffled response of established powers in the face of a revolutionary challenge is that “they find it nearly impossible to take at face value the assertions of the revolutionary power that it means to smash the existing framework”

It’s a lot clearer if you read the stuff around the part that I lifted.
Other sources include his web page, the unofficial Paul Krugman web page, and the article The ugly exploitation of Sept. 11.

If you only read one, read either the CalPundit or Buzzflash interview because they are fairly brief. If you have time, read The Tax Cut Con (pdf). I liked them enough that I ordered the book.

Oh well, it was 660 words even while I kept it brief.