Romney The Keynesian

by Stuart Shapiro

Let this one slip by last week when I was too busy to post, but it’s worth revisiting.  Paul Krugman talked about one of those moments when Governor Romney said what he really thinks instead of thinking about what he should really say.

Speaking in Michigan, Mr. Romney was asked about deficit reduction, and he absentmindedly said something completely reasonable: “If you just cut, if all you’re thinking about doing is cutting spending, as you cut spending you’ll slow down the economy.” A-ha. So he believes that cutting government spending hurts growth, other things equal.

Romney predictably backtracked, but his statement is consistent with his record as Massachusetts Governor so there is every reason to think he means it.  Richard Nixon reportedly said that “we are all Keynesians now.”  I know from commenters on these threads that not all of us are Keynesians, but the Republican frontrunner almost certainly is.

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.