If ever there were an indication of the influence exerted by Paul Krugman and his intellectual kin, take a look at this:

One day after Republicans rolled out a detailed proposal aimed at eliminating the federal deficit through steep cuts and repealing many of the president’s accomplishments, Mr. Obama told them pointedly in a rare visit that their highest fiscal priority was not his.

“Our biggest problems in the next 10 years are not deficits,” the president said, according to accounts from the meeting, bluntly rejecting an idea that has become Republican fiscal dogma…

Senator Patty Murray, the Washington Democrat and Senate Budget Committee chairwoman who outlined her budget on Wednesday, summed up her party’s objections to Republican austerity measures, which Democrats have said rob the country of needed investment.

“Deficit reduction at the expense of economic growth is doomed to failure,” she said.

Emphases mine. But mostly, Krugman’s.

Another gem from that piece:

“The president seemed to say, ‘If we’re going to do the areas we agree on, you have to also do some of mine,’ ” said Representative James Lankford of Oklahoma, bristling at Mr. Obama’s suggestion. “If we can find the areas we agree on, why can’t we just do those?”

Indeed, Sir Lankford. Why can’t we just enact all the policies that the party who just lost its second straight presidential election wants to implement? It’s truly a modern-day mystery.

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