And now the “clean jobs” free lunch. The health reforms are costly, and will be imposing more costs on workers and firms, particularly small businesses. But as I’ve said before, the issue of health costs and being competitive in labor markets is a red herring. What matters is total compensation. If for some reason, health care burdens fall, raises will be bid up (or other forms of compensation) so that total compensation is little changed. You can make an elaborate argument as to why this might not happen, so I welcome your attempts.

But here is another question, how can we in one breath condemn the “race to the bottom” in American wages (untrue, of course) and then argue that eliminating health care expenses that employers are incurring on their employees’ behalf is virtuous, because lowering labor costs will make companies more competitive?

Hold your superstitious views, I am not here to tell you not to. But do not, I repeat, do not try to pass off your superstitions as being sound economics. It is nonsense and in the realm of metaphysics, not reality. That’s fine. We may want to make decisions that are costly, but don’t go jamming castor oil down my throat and try to convince the rest of the world it was OK because it really was a tasty fresh apple.

The current Administration is quick approaching the levels of economic stupidity that I thought the prior Administration set the bar unreachably high for. In politics, I should have remembered, nothing is imposssible.

Here is one summary of why the green jobs castor oil is not a tasty apple.

Update, apparantly demanding that people are not misled with BS economic rhetoric makes me part of the vast right wing conspiracy. I don’t want the President to fail. I want him and his Harvard buddies to leave me the heck alone.