Maybe There's a Different Reason

A few days ago, Paul Krugman wrote,

Since some time in the fall of 2009, Obama’s rhetorical stance has been basically that he’s like the GOP, but less so; can you even remember him offering a full-throated defense of Keynesian policies?

I admit, I've never met the President and have certainly not had the chance to discuss economic policy with him or his advisers. Perhaps President Obama gave that full-throated defense in private and I'm dead wrong. But... one thing I have noticed about President Obama is that you can generally take his statements at face value. Perhaps the reason that the President appeared to take the position that "the [stimulus] half-measures it was actually able to get were exactly right, not a penny too small" and doesn't speak forcefully in the defense of Keynesian policies is that he was convinced that the stimulus package was adequate and wasn't convinced at the time by Keynesian policies.

To the extent that he might now be more convinced by Keynesian economics, we're back to political constraints - whether or not it should be, between the efforts of the Tea Party, Republican Party and the bulk of the mainstream media, we're not in a political climate in which we can have a sensible discussion about budget deficits and stimulus spending.