GOP Economic Debate Proves GOP Debaters Know Nothing About Economics

Matt covered a little of this, but it was truly astonishing to see the Republican nominees so completely out of touch on the economy yesterday. Steven Pearlstein offers the definitive takedown in The Washington Post:

...for two hours yesterday, the nine white men who would be president were each peddling the Big Lie that the only way to ensure economic growth is by cutting all the taxes ever created -- and when you're finished with that, cutting them some more.

Two hours, nine candidates, each one vowing to slash federal spending, but only one (Mitt Romney) able to mention a program whose funding he would cut (some advanced technology program).

Two hours, nine candidates and not one with anything to offer to millions of Americans now facing foreclosure on their houses in what is shaping up as the worst housing crisis since the Great Depression.

Two hours, nine candidates, each acknowledging that something needs to be done to rein in entitlement spending, but only one (Fred Thompson) willing to offer a concrete suggestion for doing it (indexing Social Security benefits to increases in cost of living, not wages).

Two hours, nine candidates, and lots of debate about whether globalization has been good or bad, but only one (John McCain) with anything fresh to offer to workers who are the losers from free trade (wage insurance for displaced older workers).

Two hours, nine candidates, every one professing his support for the right of workers to form a union, but not one willing to acknowledge that that right no longer exists because of rampant employer intimidation.

Two hours, nine candidates, but only one (Mike Huckabee) willing to draw the connection between growing disenchantment with the economy, widening income inequality and the obscene pay packages of chief executives and hedge fund managers.

The truth is that this has become a major problem for the GOP. Just like nobody believes the President when it comes to Iraq, nobody believes the party when it comes to all their happy talk on the economy. Fred Thompson was the worst offender at the debate, calling the economy "the greatest story never told." Americans, who pay their own bills and look at their own finances, don't agree (h/t Steve Benen):

A growing number of people say the economy is the nation’s top problem, with the less educated among the most worried, an Associated Press-Ipsos poll showed Tuesday.

Yet even with a credit crunch and soft housing market, economic angst remains well behind war and domestic issues among the public’s chief concerns, according to survey results.

Given an open-ended opportunity to name the major problem facing the U.S., 15 percent volunteered the economy. That was six percentage points more than named it when the AP-Ipsos poll last asked the question in July.

“They talk about a big surge in Iraq; well, there hasn’t been a big surge over here,” said Sadruddin El-Amin, 55, a truck driver in Hanahan, S.C., who named the economy as the top problem. “The job market isn’t getting any better, not for the working class.”

Since the only economic solution any of these guys can think of is tax breaks, and we couldn't possibly have had more tax breaks than we have over the past 6 years, the well is dry on ideas. So they have to spin this idea that the economy is robust, which it is - for hedge fund managers and the ultra-rich. But more and more people are falling behind, and magic tax cuts aren't helping. So all they have left is to either lie about how good things are, or scare the public into thinking that spending is freakishly out of control (like claiming that the Medicare prescription drug benefit costs $60 TRILLION more than it actually does).

The problem is, there are no answers. Just empty platitudes. Such is the GOP circa 2007.