Bill Foster: Thank You, Paul Krugman

I was interested to see this in my in-box this morning, from Congressman Bill Foster.  It’s nice that he, too, admires the work of Paul Krugman, as I obviously do.

Steve,

I wanted to take a moment and thank you for your ongoing support.

As a scientist, one of the toughest things about serving in the U.S. House is sitting quietly through the relentless barrage of illogical talking points from the Republican majority.

So it was gratifying when Paul Krugman devoted his column in last week’s New York Times to my efforts on the committee to cut through a small part of the nonsense that we face every day.

For the last five years on the House Financial Services Committee, we have been listening to Republicans sounding the alarm on runaway inflation. Republicans claimed that this was the inevitable result of the Stimulus, of quantitative easing by the Federal Reserve, and of all of the emergency interventions that rescued our economy. And time has proven them very, very wrong.

I don’t know how many times we have listened to Rep. Michelle Bachman or Chairman Jeb Hensarling prattle on about runaway inflation, debasing our currency, or the imminent demise of the dollar as the world’s reserve currency.

As every competent economist understood, inflation was the least of our worries during the financial collapse. Unemployed workers were not going to demand higher salaries. Factories sitting idle were not going to demand higher prices for their output. Consumers watching the value of their homes collapse were not going to bid up the prices of other goods for sale.

If fact, most economists were much more worried about price deflation.

So in a recent committee hearing, I asked the three Republican witnesses a simple question:“How could the Republicans have been so wrong for so long in their predictions about inflation?”

Krugman’s column, and his links to the article about my questioning, thoroughly eviscerate their responses. Click here to visit my Facebook page and read the column.

These days, it is often not easy maintaining a thoughtful and rational perspective as a member of the U.S. House. Often we toil away in committees, quietly trying to set the record straight, only to see our efforts eclipsed by the latest Republican performance for the TV cameras.

When someone like Paul Krugman recognizes our efforts to bring out the truth, it means a lot.

So, Thank You, Paul Krugman.

And again, thank you for all of your support that makes our efforts possible.

Bill Foster