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Frequent CNN and MSNBC Republican guest Bruce Bartlett decided to go down quite the rabbit hole Tuesday afternoon, opining on Twitter that Nazi leader Adolf Hitler was a better person than President Donald Trump . . Bartlett made the comparison even deeper when he tweeted that Trump rallies were akin to Nazi rallies: That’s right, folks. If you’ve attended a Trump rally, you’re just like a Nazi!

Bruce Bartlett is CNN’s kind of Republican. You know, the guy who devoutly wished for the “complete and total destruction” of the Republican Party. But you’ve got to admit this about Bartlett: guy’s got a sense of humor. Appearing on Brian Stelter’s CNN show this morning, Bartlett said: “Fox is really just an arm of the Republican party and should not be given the respect that a genuine news organization like CNN or the New York Times or the Washington Post are deserving.” View the video here.

In his new book, "The Conscience of a Liberal," New York Times columnist Paul Krugman makes a strong case for his belief that the political success of the Republican Party and the conservative movement over the past 40 years has resulted largely from their co-optation of Southern racists that were the base of the Democratic Party until its embrace of civil rights in the 1960s. A key piece of evidence for Mr. Krugman is that Ronald Reagan gave his first speech after accepting the Republican presidential nomination in 1980 near Philadelphia, Miss., where three civil rights workers were murdered in...

We have a very serious political problem in this country. Our system of government works best when it is balanced between roughly equal political parties, one on the center-right and the other on the center-left. Unfortunately, what we have is a centrist Democratic Party and a far-right Republican Party. Therefore, the system is out of balance, creating gridlock even as the public cries out for action on serious problems such as our deteriorating public infrastructure, epitomized by that in Flint, Michigan. I believe that Republicans made a deal with the devil in 2009 when they embraced the Tea Party, a...

Annd it came to pass that the earth turned and another campaign season spun into view and the liberal commentariat rose from its siesta to begin its usual moping about the perverse political powers wielded by the Fox News Channel. This time, the sentinel waking the commentariat to the alleged Fox menace is not a liberal but a self-described conservative, Bruce Bartlett. Bartlett, a prolific writer on politics and economics who has worked for congressional Republicans (Ron Paul and Jack Kemp), Republican presidents, (Ronald Reagan and George H.W. Bush) and conservative and libertarian policy shops, broke with his party a...

Bruce Bartlett, who served as domestic policy adviser to President Ronald Reagan and a Treasury official for President George H.W. Bush, told MSNBC’s Chris Hayes, host of “All in with Chris Hayes,” on Friday that the Republican Party has been “hijacked by crazy people, stupid people.” … Bartlett, who is currently a columnist and blogger for the Fiscal Times, said he wondered why former Treasury secretaries who worked for Republican administrations did not speak out publicly during the budget impasse to tell the GOP that not raising the debt ceiling would be a “bad idea.” … Bartlett said it was...

Ten years ago this month, Congress enacted the third major tax cut of the George W. Bush administration. Its centerpiece was a huge cut in the tax rate on dividends. Historically, they had been taxed as ordinary income, but the Bush plan, enacted by a Republican Congress, cut that rate to 15 percent. The tax rate on ordinary income went as high as 35 percent. This initiative originated with the economist R. Glenn Hubbard, who had been chairman of the Council of Economic Advisers when the proposal was sent to Congress. Mr. Hubbard was a strong believer that the double...

Studies Challenge Wisdom Of GOP Candidates' Plans CHARLES BABINGTON Key proposals from the Republican presidential candidates might make for good campaign fodder. But independent analyses raise serious questions about those plans and their ability to cure the nation's ills in two vital areas, the economy and housing. Consider proposed cuts in taxes and regulation, which nearly every GOP candidate is pushing in the name of creating jobs. The initiatives seem to ignore surveys in which employers cite far bigger impediments to increased hiring, chiefly slack consumer demand. "Republicans favor tax cuts for the wealthy and corporations, but these had no...

Herman Cain’s catchy 9-9-9 tax overhaul system is gathering major supporters as the former pizza magnate consolidates his position at the top of the Republican field in the race for the White House. House budget committee chairman Rep. Paul Ryan and Ronald Reagan’s economic guru Art Laffer both expressed their support for the plan which would replace the current tax code. The anti-tax Club for Growth also came out in favor of Cain’s plan which would cut income and corporate taxes to 9 percent and institute a new national sales tax at the same level. Payroll, capital gains and estate...

Pelosi Announces Hearing on Risks of Default to the U.S. Economy and Jobs July 06, 2011 Washington, D.C. – Democratic Leader Nancy Pelosi announced today that the House Democratic Steering and Policy Committee will hold a hearing this Thursday at 12:00 p.m. on the impact of a default on the United States economy, job creation, and seniors and the middle class. This hearing, the only one in the House of Representatives on this critical issue, will emphasize the pain the American people would face if the United States were to default on its debt. Witnesses for the hearing include: Bruce...

Republicans are heavily invested in permanently extending the tax cuts enacted during the George W. Bush administration, all of which expire at the end of this year exactly as the legislation was written in the first place. To hear Republicans, one would think that the Bush tax cuts were the most powerful stimulus to growth ever enacted and only a madman would even think of allowing any of them to expire. The truth is that there is virtually no evidence in support of the Bush tax cuts as an economic elixir. To the extent that they had any positive effect...

The New York Times recently published two back-to-back articles (here and here) mocking members of the Tea Party Movement for supporting repeal of the 17th Amendment to the Constitution—the one that changed the election of US Senators from state legislatures to the popular vote system we have today. Having endorsed this idea myself on occasion, I am compelled to say that just because some crazy people endorse an idea doesn’t necessarily make the idea crazy. Following are links to some serious commentaries supporting a return to the original system of electing senators established by the Constitution.   George Mason Law...

Last week, Bruce Bartlett, the fair-weather supply-sider who recently converted to Keynesianism, embarrassed himself by launching an intellectually dishonest smear of the Tea Party movement. This shouldn't come as a surprise. Mr. Bartlett has been trying to smear the movement since we began voicing our opposition to Obama's $787-billion "stimulus" legislation, which Bartlett himself so enthusiastically defended. A year and a half into that economically disastrous program, Mr. Bartlett is looking to change the subject, hoping, perhaps, that his own ill-advised support for that fiasco will be forgotten. From its inception in February 2009, the Tea Party movement has...

On March 16 the Tea Party crowd showed up for yet another demonstration on Capitol Hill in Washington. Curious about the factual knowledge these people have regarding the issues they are protesting, my friend David Frum enlisted some interns to interview as many Tea Partyers as possible on a couple of basic questions. They got 57 responses--a pretty good-sized sample from a crowd that numbered between 300 and 500 people. (Survey results are here.) The first question that was asked concerned the size of government. Tea Partyers were asked how much the federal government gets in taxes as a percentage...

On Sept. 23, Rep. Dina Titus, D-Nev., introduced H.R. 3631, which would freeze all Part B premiums for one year--including those for couples with incomes over $170,000. It would pay for the $2.8 billion cost by raiding the Federal Supplementary Medical Insurance Trust Fund and the Medicare Improvement Fund. This legislation came up the following day and passed the House by a vote of 406 to 18. Of course, nothing is really paid for here. Federal borrowing will be $2.8 billion higher than it would otherwise be--and all to primarily benefit 2.1 million seniors who could very easily afford to...

I got an e-mail from a prominent Republican asking why I am so anti-Republican these days. Since many of my friends ask the same thing I thought I would share my reply: I think the party got seriously on the wrong track during the George W. Bush years, as I explained in my Impostor book. In my opinion, it no longer bears any resemblance to the party of Ronald Reagan. I still consider myself to be a Reaganite. But I don’t see any others anywhere in the GOP these days, which is why I consider myself to be an independent....

In ''General Theory'' the economist outlines his belief of the government's role in a recession. Conservatives continue to decry the $787 billion stimulus package enacted in February. At best, they think it accomplished nothing because the additional federal borrowing took as much out of the economy as the stimulus put in. At worst, the deficits and enlargement of government will lead to slower growth and inflation not too far down the road. Those on the right have been making this same argument ever since British economist John Maynard Keynes popularized the idea of using budget deficits to stimulate growth in...

Leading conservative economist Bruce Bartlett writes that the Obama-hating town-hall mobs have it wrong—the person they should be angry with left the White House seven months ago. ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Where is the evidence that everything would be better if Republicans were in charge? Does anyone believe the economy would be growing faster or that unemployment would be lower today if John McCain had won the election? I know of no economist who holds that view. The economy is like an ocean liner that turns only very slowly. The gross domestic product and the level of employment would be pretty much the...

What the hell has happened to Bruce Bartlett? This guy at one point was a dedicated Reaganite. Nowadays, his columns vary from endorsing a VAT to pay for big government, lecturing Republicans that they need to 'get real and accept the welfare state', attacking the tea party protesters as 'partisans', trashing Republicans for not offering an alternative to the stimulus (in reality they did). Bartlett has essentially told Republicans to 'give up' on pushing for lower taxes because that's not realistic. He's also attempted to make the case that Washington can raise taxes on people now because 'people enjoy the...

What is an "Obamacon?" The phrase surfaced in January to describe British conservatives entranced by Barack Obama. On March 13 the American Spectator broadened the term to cover all "conservative supporters" of the Democratic presidential candidate. Their ranks, though growing, feature few famous people. But looming on the horizon are two big potential Obamacons: Colin Powell and Chuck Hagel. Neither Powell, first-term secretary of state for George W. Bush, nor Hagel, retiring after two terms as a U.S. senator from Nebraska, has endorsed Obama. Hagel probably never will. Powell probably will enter Obama's camp at a time of his own...