Team Paul here. Substance. Klein is merely an aggregator, a collector of things and people he thinks enlightened and wise. He's not an independent thinker himself, with much to contribute beyond digging up colorful characters to enter his menagerie ("The Ezra Klein Liberal Club Show").
Klein advised the Obama administration, and has his fingers in with the Biden people too. He is trying to protect his reputation, and veers conservative economically (afterall, most of the media players in this game understand the current status quo has been very good to them: there is money to be made as an elite, making your own name in the j-game.)
Krugman is of an age, and without a downline for which he has to artificially protect their inheritances, when he can speak, and think, freely. He has taken his lumps for his work, but it's honest. And it is his.
My money would be with him. I think he loves his country too, growing up a Boomer during the friction of the civil-rights VietNam days where I think he really understood economic and racial issues were intertwined more than many liberals would like to admit. His academic training in numbers and dollars -- and work in Latin America, likely taught him that.
I don't see where Klein has the same substance to him. He's more a puppy people-pleaser, breaking the rules and doing what it takes, in his modest estimation (he's young w/little life experience) to make the machine (formerly the Machine) work, politically. He's had a run -- enriched himself and his family and been handsomely rewarded for that work -- but the times change quickly, when they finally do, in political circles too...
Read Paul. Then read Ezra. Then throw in your lot with a side. I'm a Libra, love balance, but I've got enough miles on me I know how this one turns out when the D's compromise their base...
Imagine it's 9-11, the fires are licking at the base of your high rise, there's smoke to your back blocking the last possible escape, and you look to both sides at a Paul and Eza type, wondering if all you can do is go by faith, take hands and jump...
Yeah, well crashing the debt ceiliing is the fucking opposite of that. Ain't nobody jumping here.
I hope there's still enough balls, natural or not, in the D Blue Party to threaten the Republican children in Congress with real consequences if they refuse to do their work: "Hang On Lady, We Going For a Ride" indeed! Hang the fuck on, friends... America is gonna work our priorities out together, or we gonna crash that debt ceiling together!
My guess is that if push comes to shove, even a partisan Supreme Court won’t be willing either to burn down the world economy or to order President Biden to break the law by disregarding existing spending legislation. Yes, that’s a risky bet — and unorthodox actions might still leave markets nervous. But there are no riskless options at this point.
Realistically, given the administration’s obduracy so far, I don’t expect it to take any of these actions until or unless the debt limit has actually been breached and the crisis is fully upon us. But I hope someone inside the Treasury is quietly preparing to do whatever it takes. If not, God help us all.
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