White House makes it all political ( Paul Krugman )

Tucson, Arizona Wednesday, 6 August 2003



White House makes it all political
By Paul Krugman

The agency's analysts find that they are no longer helping to formulate policy. Instead their job is to rationalize decisions that have already been made.

And more and more, they find that they are expected to play up evidence, however weak, that seems to support the administration's case, while suppressing evidence that doesn't.

Am I describing the CIA? The EPA? The National Institutes of Health? Actually, I'm talking about the Treasury Department, but the ambiguity is no coincidence.

Across the board, the Bush administration has politicized policy analysis.

Whether the subject is stem cells or global warming, budget deficits or weapons of mass destruction, government agencies are under intense pressure to say what the White House wants to hear.
(snip/...)

http://www.dailystar.com/star/today/30806KRUGMAN-COLUMN-NYT.html

Having said that, one should by cautioned that it would be easy to get a false positive in this diagnosis. This sort of thing is also symptomatic of mere self-delusion, a much milder disease.

In turn, haveing said that, do I believe the Bush junta is fascist? Yes. In addition to suppressing facts, the juntas also suppresses civil liberties and engeges in unnecessary foreign wars to promote the welfare of that segment of society it believes matters most. Therefore, I am inclined to believe that this is something more serious than self-delusion. It is the willful creation of propaganda.