Republicans Hate Keynes, But Invoke Him

by Stuart Shapiro

First it was their presidential nominee Mitt Romney who discussed the need to limit spending cuts.  Now Senator Jon Kyl (R-AZ) is invoking liberal icon John Maynard Keynes (h/t Steve Benen):

With CBO’s warning, Congress should be looking at every possible option to renew the Bush tax cuts and avoid the automatic, across-the-board cuts to defense and domestic spending.

“The whole point here is to try to get some economic growth, job creation, to get out of this recession,” Kyl told POLITICO. “Why would we risk going backward with policy that even CBO says would be the wrong prescription right now?”

By: Stuart Shapiro

Stuart is a professor and the Director of the Public Policy
program at the Bloustein School of Planning and Public Policy at Rutgers
University. He teaches economics and cost-benefit analysis and studies
regulation in the United States at both the federal and state levels.
Prior to coming to Rutgers, Stuart worked for five years at the Office
of Management and Budget in Washington under Presidents Clinton and
George W. Bush.