Krugman pwns Jindal

Andrew:

This was really too easy. For the record, even the most conservative of fiscal conservatives can see the benefit of government acting to respond to a natural disaster or, as Krugman points out, monitoring volcano eruptions:

Both sides, I thought, agreed that the government should provide public goods — goods that are nonrival (they benefit everyone) and nonexcludable (there’s no way to restrict the benefits to people who pay.)

I make this banal distinction in The Conservative Soul:

There are public goods that any government must provide. Clean air and safe streets; secure borders; national defense; roads, air traffic control, nature preserves and the like. And one of its core tasks will be to govern effectively during emergencies or natural disasters. In situations like a flood, a hurricane or earthquake, only government can provide certain goods. It should do so efficiently and swiftly and spend a great deal of energy on ensuring that it is always prepared for calamity.

But this too now must be ridiculed. By the man movement conservatives think of as their intellectual. Jesus.

...is surely dead in the flesh, but if he still exists in divine form I think it's pretty clear he's not on the Republicans' side on this one. (and hopefully would never take any sides, but I digress)

Funniest part of Krugman's post:

Basically, the political philosophy of the GOP right now seems to consist of snickering at stuff that they think sounds funny. The party of ideas has become the party of Beavis and Butthead.

Yep...that's sadly close to the truth.