Nothing new for the NYSlime
Posted on 12/26/2004 6:19:34 PM PST by Cableguy
NIce! So they don't just work in their jammies, they don't take vacation either.
Friedman is full of crap. If you read his old opinion pieces, you'll see that he was in favor of invading Iraq. He agreed with everything Bush had done up to that point. It was only after the political campaign began to gear up that he began saying that Bush had goofed up in virtually every respect. His opinions are a display of pure partisanship, but what do you expect? He's a liberal, and he works for the NYT. The real question is why anyone bothers to read his predictable column. I stopped right about the time he made his U-Turn in an effort to catch up to the Democratic herd.
He certainly has no insight into anything. He has a gift for "realizing" the obvious, as well as those things which are simply not true. He doesn't seem to have any grasp of not-so-obvious realities.
The New York Who?
"Note that Friedman and others at the Times will fight the Bush administration's efforts to balance the budget tooth and nail, even though reducing the deficit would tend to support the dollar's value."
That's conventional wisdom, but I don't think you'll find a reputable economist who will make such a blanket statement. If you increase the budget deficit, that should increase interest rates, which should attract more capital investment from abroad, which should reduce the current account deficit. Of course, if increasing the budget deficit has the effect of increasing economic growth, that could have an offsetting effect, but then it's not the deficit per se that is doing it, but rather the increased growth.
I think Friedman and the liberals would support reducing the deficit, but only by increasing taxes.
Oh OUCH! I hope someone sends a link to Powerline to Friedman.
Good article ping
Once again the old Liberal Refrain, Republicans are gutting social programs. If it were only true.
The fact of the matter is that no social programs have been cut since the Republicans came into power in Congress in 1994 and by Law most can't be cut. All you can do is slow the rate of spending.
TO the Liberals a slowing of spending is cut in spending. As for Education at all levels we are spending over $1 Trillion bucks a year and what do the Liberals want, well more spending. Well more money will never solve the root problem which is PC, poor teachers and the biggest problem being no reform and the Bloody NEA.
"If you read his old opinion pieces, you'll see that he was in favor of invading Iraq. He agreed with everything Bush had done up to that point."
Well, not exactly. I followed Friedman very closely around that time before getting bored. But the truth is just as annoying: he took the wussy's way out by refusing to say one way or the other whether he supported the war. Just before the invasion, he called it "the long bomb", claiming that Bush was taking an enormous gamble. Since Friedman lacked a spine he never said whether he endorsed that gamble. Instead, he waited to see how conventional wisdom would play out among the chattering classes; when they decided Iraq was a bad idea, so did Friedman.
TF fancies himself a relentless moderate. If by "moderate" he means "pu**y," I agree.
You have to really split hairs in order to draw that conclusion. He was in favor of it. You might be able to parse his words and come up with some other conclusion, but that would be dishonest. Of course, don't put that past him.
The NY times needs to be tossed into the dustbin of history.
The NY times needs to be tossed into the dustbin of history.
It's a crying shame that we don't have a fair and balanced MSM in this country.
The NYT at it again ping
Nothing new for the NYSlime
"You have to really split hairs in order to draw that conclusion."
Maybe you're right; that's just the impression I got at the time. But it speaks volumes that, as far as I know, he never made an unambiguous endorsement of the war. He's a Clintonian straddler who has no clear vision and no clear moral compass.
Bump
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