Bruce Bartlett Says . . .

by Dick Mac

Bruce Bartlett is an economist. He worked in the Reagan and Bush I administrations. He wrote "Reaganomics: Supply-Side Economics in Action," which was released in 1981, while he was a member of the Reagan Administration. According to his entry at wikipedia.org:

Bruce Reeves Bartlett is an American historian whose area of expertise is supply-side economics. He served as a domestic policy adviser to President Ronald Reagan and as a Treasury official under President George H. W. Bush. See, Bruce Bartlett

He has some very concrete positions on taxation, and writes an economics blog for the New York Times.

He is not a knucklehead. I may not agree with him, but he is a very reasonable man. He's an economist. Most economists have not been duped by the Paul Ryans and other tea party darlings. Economists deal in reality, "conservatives" deal in . . . what would you call this?

Insanity?

Are the Republicans insane?

No, that's too harsh a word. It sounds as though I am trying to demean and debase all Republicans. I think we should listen to what Reagan-era Republicans have to say about today's conservatives, today's Republicans.

Let's ask an economist. In fact, let's ask a Reagan-era, Reagan administration economist, what he thinks of the GOP today. Below is a 7-minute slip from The Daily Show. Bartlett appeared on the show to promote his new book.

Ignore everything that Jon Stewart says, if you don't like him. In fact, only turn up the volume when Bartlett is speaking. Listen to what he says at the 4:23 mark:

The Daily Show with Jon Stewart
Get More: Daily Show Full Episodes,Political Humor & Satire Blog,The Daily Show on Facebook

He says:

Frankly, one of our political parties is insane, and we all know which one it is.

So, I will not say that the Republicans are insane.  Even Reagan-era Republicans, people who worked to implement "Reaganomics," think today's conservatives are insane!

Looking back on the past four years, the evidence is there: from Sarah Palin, to Paul Ryan, to Michelle Bachmann, to Eric Cantor, to Scott Brown, to Geraldo Rivera, to Grover Norquist, they have all pushed the envelope so far that they no longer see anything considered reasonable.

Today's conservatives are insane (to use their own description), and voting for them - no matter what you think of their opponents - is insane.