Krauthammer insists Obama’s a genius for convincing Congressional Republicans to spend a massive amount of money to stimulate the economy via tax cuts:
If Obama had asked for a second stimulus directly, he would have been laughed out of town. Stimulus I was so reviled that the Democrats banished the word from their lexicon throughout the 2010 campaign. And yet, despite a very weak post-election hand, Obama got the Republicans to offer to increase spending and cut taxes by $990 billion over two years. Two-thirds of that is above and beyond extension of the Bush tax cuts but includes such urgent national necessities as windmill subsidies.
This is an interesting article, but it’s premised on the idea that Congressional Republicans actually want to balance the budget, and don’t just pretend they do in order to win votes. If the GOP is actually focused on balancing the budget, then yes, Obama’s a genius for tricking them into accidentally spending $700 billion on tax cuts. Or, more likely, the GOP is capable of doing third-grade arithmetic. What follows from that premise is an exercise in fourth-grade logic left up to the reader.