In his news conference today, President Obama asserted that “although there are some politicians who are arguing that we don’t need a stimulus, there are very few economists who are making that argument.”  He repeated this basic assertion several times, implying that hardly anyone who knows anything about economics opposes the Pelosi-Reid spoils stimulus bill.

Two hundred of those few economists have signed a full-page ad (pdf) stating just such opposition.

CATO is running this in major newspapers over the next few days (but the papers will ignore it all the same).  Among these happy few signers are 3 Nobel laureates in economics who have been instrumental in defining the economics of governmental intervention in the business cycle:  James Buchanan, Edward Prescott and Vernon Smith.

With all due respect Mr. President, that is not true.

Notwithstanding reports that all economists are now Keynesians and that we all support a big increase in the burden of government, we do not believe that more government spending is a way to improve economic performance. More government spending by Hoover and Roosevelt did not pull the United States economy out of the Great Depression in the 1930s. More government spending did not solve Japan’s “lost decade” in the 1990s. As such, it is a triumph of hope over experience to believe that more government spending will help the U.S. today. To improve the economy, policy makers should focus on reforms that remove impediments to work, saving, investment and production. Lower tax rates and a reduction in the burden of government are the best ways of using fiscal policy to boost growth.

There is also a signer named Kevin Murphy (who is not me).

Stephen Reinhardt, Thelton Henderson and Lawrence Karlton have two things in common:  they were all appointed by Jimmy Carter, and they all think releasing 58,000 felons from California prisons is a good idea.

Stupid or Evil?  You decide.

Apparently, they are so concerned that there aren’t enough prison hospital facilities that they are willing to release a THIRD of California prison inmates unless the state ponies up $8 billion of demanded improvements — such as bingo and yoga rooms — because God knows, denying a prisoner access to bingo is a clear violation of his Constitutional rights.

Even Jerry Brown thinks this is hogwash.  It really has to hurt when Governor Moonbeam thinks your Constitutional theories are over-the-top. Hopefully, this will be appealed to the 9th Circuit, and if needed to the Supremes. Too bad there’s no chance they will be impeached.