Romney Is a 'Closet Keynesian'

Mitt Romney pretends to subscribe to the right's economic orthodoxy, but his real beliefs are apparently very different, writes Paul Krugman in the New York Times. He let them slip the other day, saying that "if all you’re thinking about doing is cutting spending, as you cut spending you’ll slow down the economy." It's evidence that Romney is "a closet Keynesian," which would be no surprise: Romney "is not a stupid man" and can't have missed the havoc that austerity has caused in Ireland and Greece.

Indeed, a top Romney economic adviser, Gregory Mankiw, subscribes to Keynes' economic ideas—even though the economist is hated by today's Republican establishment. It's another example of how Romney is running a campaign of "pathological dishonesty," simply telling the GOP "what it wants to hear." Unfortunately, this doesn't mean the left should support him: Were he elected, Romney would keep listening to those he's appeasing now. "The truth is that Mr. Romney is so deeply committed to insincerity that neither side can trust him." (More Mitt Romney stories.)