The GOP Is Forcing Us to Elect Romney

If you care about the economy, you'd better vote for Mitt Romney. Not because of his supposed private sector experience—his policies are indistinguishable from career politician Paul Ryan's—but "because if Romney is elected, Republicans won't choose to crash the economy," writes Ezra Klein of the Washington Post. If Obama wins, the gridlock in Washington might persist, and we'll sail right over the so-called "fiscal cliff." Worse, John Boehner is threatening a new debt-ceiling showdown.

But if Romney wins, Boehner will back off, and Republicans, now likely in control of both houses, will be able to govern solo. They'll extend the tax cuts while increasing military spending, assuming that "supply-side magic" will turn tax cuts into larger revenues. From a Keynesian perspective, it'll be much better than anything Obama could get out of Boehner. "In a sense, Republicans are holding a gun to the economy’s head and saying, 'vote for us or the recovery gets it.'" Read the full column here. (More fiscal cliff stories.)